SALTED FISH: TO BE OR NOT TO BE

FASHION | TEXTILE | CULTURE | SUSTAINABILITY | 2020

Between the Salted Fish and the Drowning Dream in city like Hong Kong - A Sociological Journey: Deeply inspired by one of Hong Kong’s signature product -- Salted Fish, where it is indicated as a representation of "no dreams" in famous Hong Kong movies. "If you have no dream, what is the difference between you and salted fish?"

This collection explores the depiction of a salted fish, from living pressure to social issues, then explore the harsh situation even living fishes need to face, by using Hong Kong’s fish market as study case. In the end, all the pressure we faced as a city people, need to have a place to relieve, for the society could not be a hopeless dead end, we need a more uplifting attitude, by using a sustainable approach.

Ultimately, the collection offers a meditation on survival and transformation. It asks how, within the pressures of an unforgiving city, one might reimagine resilience—not as lifeless endurance, but as a spark of possibility for a more sustainable, uplifting future.

The visual language of the collection is crafted through experimental techniques: resins are used to represent the mix of salted fish and living fish, some resins are infused with special pigments, ink, and glitter to evoke the shimmer of scales and the fluidity of fish movement as inspired by my photography of the fish in local HK markets. Sustainability is put into concern in this project: by making salted fabric, using scratched fabric sourced from studio to develop new textile, considerable pattern cutting, with experimental surface treatments, innovative cuts, and layered constructions.