When one is getting ready to wash, it is the Process to Purity. As we undress layer by layer, the garments that once constituted our body no longer indicate our shoulder or waistline. All we are left with are the simple silhouettes of undergarments, pure to the shapes of our bodies. The water is then able to welcome the washing of ourselves, submerging into purity.
흰 Process to Purity is an exploration of the relationship between the garment, wearer and water, reinterpreting the act of washing with undergarments by Korean women in the past. The historical evidence created a conversation between the tension in preventing the garment getting wet and the gravity pulling down the textiles once it has been in contact with water. With the placement of the two emerging dynamics, tension and gravity, the garments reflect the performative connection to water, prevention and undressing.
Purity is simultaneously explored with the creation of the collection. By eliminating the garment’s indicative features, it is the pure body that decides the end of the shoulder line and the fitting around the waistline. Purity in this form is what is true to the body and is only often realised during the process to wash.
My creative processes are always unconsciously connected to my culture, maybe due to my eagerness and willingness to protect and project my Korean heritage within the Western world I am placed in. This connection to culture reminds me of my origin, in both my racial identity and the reason I create fashion garments; the hope to create a safe place within the liminal space of Asian Australians’ sense of belonging to tactile materials and visual designs I produce.