YAXIN ZONE TAKES CENTER STAGE

Yaxin Zone showed on the first night of VFW. The inaugural evening of Vancouver Fashion Week is consistently an exhilarating affair. This  occasion offers us a tantalizing glimpse into the world of local, national, and international designers who command the spotlight. Throughout the six-day extravaganza, a diverse array of designers graced the stage, showcasing their creations. One such standout was Yaxin Zone, a brainchild of  Taiwanese designer, Yahsin Chung. Chung's collection, inspired by her own artwork, exuded innovation and captivated this critic with it's creativity.

YASHIN CHUNG BACKGROUND NOTES

Yahsin Chung's passion for fashion was born from her fascination with clothing, a passion fully ignited during her participation in a short-term program at Parsons School of Design. This love for fashion continued to thrive even as she established herself as an interior designer, interweaving fashion seamlessly into the tapestry of her artistic expressions. Following a solo exhibition that melded catwalk presentations with innovative spatial designs, Chung felt compelled to embrace her passion and give birth to her own brand. Transitioning from interior design to fashion, she expanded her creative horizons from spatial concepts to the living canvas of the human body.

Excerpt courtesy of The Vancouver Fashion Week website.

YAXIN ZONE

A REVIEW

I met Yahsin Chung on Sunday night, six days after her collection had graced the VFW runway. I had time to reflect on the collection and was intrigued by the designer's vision. The designer showed me a small collection of paintings that inspired her collection entitled "Solo Dance." The paintings depict ballet dancers, close-ups of dancers' bodies, ballet shoes, and tutus, all illustrated in a graceful style with a color palette of mottled pinks and black, and to the side of the paintings hung two racks of garments that perfectly reflected the artwork. Even on the rack, they infused the essence of movement.

" I was inspired by the beauty of the ballet and the ballet dancer, I wanted to not only show the delicate beauty of the ballet but also the discipline and hard work of the dancer. I am interested in the contrast of power and the vulnerability, the hard and the soft."

The Runway

Models carried the designer's paintings down the runway, showing the relationship between the art and the clothes. The designer expressed the duality of the collection with light and ethereal fabrics juxtaposed with leather trims and ropes hung from the hip or coiled in the model's hand. Gauzy ruffles, tulle, and lightweight cotton in fleshy-toned neutrals are paired with mottled tie-dyed pieces. Black seems to ground the collection and keeps it from dancing away.

PHOTOS BY  ARUN NEVADER

The collection has a mood of romance. On closer inspection, pieces have aspects from the designers artworks delicately painted on the clothes. The discipline and physicality of a dancer are shown through pieces of workout clothes. Yashin Chung told me, "The ballet has a beautiful side expressed on the stage, but also has a darker side of sacrifice, rigid discipline, and countless hours spent in the dance studio. I wanted to mix those elements."

The overall effect is contemporary, complete with trucker caps and body suits. Standout looks include a long peachy dress with a chevron pattern and a fuzzy fringed texture, completed by a heavy rope suspended from the hip. A hooded creamy jumpsuit is original and hip. The closing look sums up the collection: a ruffled top and matching skirt are coupled with a long robe, combining both performance and workout.

IN CONCLUSION

Yaxin Zone and it's designer Yahsin Chung are very much on trend with ballet as an inspiration. Ballet has been an influence on fashion since the 1930's when designers first introduced leotards and tights in their collections. Since that time ballet has  sparked the creativity of many designers. The current incantation of ballet on fashion is called ballet core and has been seen on many runways around the globe the last couple of seasons. The off duty ballerina look complete with leg warmers is hot. Yaxin Zone shows it's own take on the ballet core trend and wins with this critic.

CIAO FOR NOW J.ANDREW