The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2023 - Issue 33

Yani Bridge bitefashion Haemin YANI BRIDGE Yani Bridge’s ‘Catching the Wind’ collection took inspiration from extreme sports like kite-surfing, sky and wingsuit diving. She used authentic re-pur- posed kites, parachutes and wetsuits to transform them into dazzling, state- ment fashion pieces celebrating the resilience and power of technical mate- rials that withstood massive stress and strain. Her lively, colourful graphics complemented bold shapes in apparel that were thoughtfully cut, stitched and constructed in minute detail. It retained the integrity of the original kites to give a colourful, uplifting and sustainable collection. Whilst the silhouettes were oversized, they relayed a sense of freedom, while the tighter, constricted elements paid homage to a body under strenuous challenge in the pursuit of extreme sports. One of the standout pieces was a multicolour top and trousers with a long floor-length coat injecting colour pops of yellow, red, blue, orange and black. HAEMIN In what she calls ‘controlled randomness’, Haemin adopted an intuitive and organic approach seasoned with dashes of humour in her collection entitled ‘The Path Less Travelled’. The designer also embraces the ‘weird’ and finds in- spiration in random, unexpected events and a human-centred universe. Her impactful work on the environment is a driving force demonstrated in her beautiful, complex, handcrafted textiles. The collection’s richly unique, 3D tactile surfaces evoked her desired ‘weirdness’ by combining the new with the old. The designer described her collection as about us and our society today and focused on sustainability and the random joys we experience. Her textile techniques included ‘fabric slashing’ to show an element of surprise between the two main fabrics and cutting the surface to show what’s inside the piec- es. “I hope my pieces spark curiosity, which could lead to the viewer asking questions,” Haemin said. “I don’t want the collection to give people any pre- conceived ideas or answers.”