Tommy Zhong’s Spring/Summer ‘18 collection is built on the complementary facets of difference. Collaborating with artist Nadine Shaban, a sensuous discourse piqued in a collection with texture at its core. Inspired by Shaban’s use of materials, drawn from industrial sources used to bind the psyche, the collection allows textile surface manipulation to fashion emotions into physical forms.
Conflicted between the lure of classic and contemporary artists, this season’s muse has free reign to explore the limits of her self-sufficiency. Eveningwear, separates and casuals, in classic and relaxed lines, padded and pinched, represent a tactile journey of introspection.
A landscape of sculptural silhouettes created from blocks of colour in a refined palette of pink, black and white, are interrupted by the occasional burst of orange. A concrete exterior exposes chasms of fragility, echoed in juxtapositions of fabrics and raw finishes.
Prints are applied across a variety of wovens, reinterpreted and distorted in mixes of techniques. Images and surfaces are scanned and blurred, and translated into textiles. Screen-printed by hand, or woven, physical threads are painstakingly teased out to reveal a surface tension of controlled irregularity. Body draped in cloth, tangled with skin exposed, the psyche is held together, ready from the inside out.
