Dinner Chapter I (September, 2016)

Dinner Chapter 1 was a sensory potluck dinner, in which six guests gathered to share their childhood comfort food. The dishes brought by the guests were served sequentially as they, one by one, shared stories behind their dish and others wrote down their sensory experience of the food. These were pre-instructed to be words related to the five senses - taste, smell, sight, touch, and sound - or a memory. Later, the words are translated into food paintings on blank plates using the leftover food from the six dishes. These food paintings served to inform me about each of the guests, while it introduced guests and viewers (observer seats were available, discreetly located along the walls) to key ideas of the project: storytelling, memory as added product value, community, collaboration, holistic thinking, and ritual. 

The final collection (presented May 2017) consists of one look designed for each of the six guests, based on both the personal and shared experience of the dinner, and also my personal dialogues with them throughout the course of the year. Dinner Chapter 1 was  a place and time where the guests were asked to focus on their five senses, extract their thoughts on the food they eat, and finally, materialize them into tactile forms. Within this practice of translating senses to creation, they immerse themselves in the dining experience; they recognise a shape, a memory attached to a flavour or scent, or their own interpretation of other's shared memories. By sharing these food paintings with others, the ritual of eating transforms from the ordinary to an opportunity of creative discourse and exchange. The resulting effect of this participatory event is an exploration of how one experiences, and how one can design the experience of daily rituals. This was the core idea applied to my thesis, Clothedstories. From the various research and design processes which followed the dinner, to the fabric choices, production methods, and presentation styles, the idea of weaving fashion and daily life together unveiled to me new possibilities for the discipline. 

What also became prevalent was how the practice of designing clothes could - with different ways of inviting wearers of clothes as participants of the process - empower the wearer as a storyteller. My hope is that I can continue from Dinner Chapter I and Clothedstories to pursue such values that the practice of fashion can offer this world.