​040818

PROJET    INTRO​

Project 040818 is the 1st RTW capsule collection of C.O.L to test the possibilities of industrial production (Feasibility) , the potential marketability (Survival Rate), It is also the resistance and challenge declaration toward contemporary fashion industry rules and the Capitalist system behind.

We create the basic conceptual frame in this project which will act base on points as listed below:

1. Continuous Collection. (Diary System)        TIME

Start from this Project, collections will no longer have a meaningful title, motif or theme. Instead of a single-theme collection, the output change to a chaotic mixture of the elements extracted from my life, the feedback of both my physical and mental experiments among period of creating this collection. Therefore I prefer to mark those collections in numbers for date and tend to call it “ Diary System” as it works as diary function but in a visual and craft-remix expression. This system actually provides a continuous tunnel toward next collection and works as bridges to link all projects (Collections). Making the design process transform to a nature and sustainable way as Life it is.

2.PLAMO toy Simulation. (Modular frame & Process of “playing”)       SPACE

This part is a step-up exploration start from Project PROCESS. The main purpose of this methodology is to eliminate the influence of social aesthetic consideration both in design process and consumption process. Instead of design the form and shape of a product we create the process that how wearer will interact with this product, the process of “Playing” with garment and we also set opening Modular system joint at appropriate place for the function works as USB interface which allows C.O.L future products attach or other brands accessories interact with C.O.L products ( Acronym, Stone Island, C.P Company, etc. ). All this design methodology are simulations of PLAMO toy, A free range of ‘Play’, We design the process of playing then the shape or style come out from here. This method will replace the traditional fashion design method: To create aesthetic shape.

These 2 points recreate the Time line and Space structure of Fashion system and actually is a ‘Back to Innocence’ movement that find back the truth as it should naturally be: spacetime is one thing without being divided as time and space, therefore the 2 points I’ve mentioned above is actually one system which create a new but old (original) melody, a continuous cosmos.

The reason I have to explained here as 2 points firstly to divide TIME and SPACE is because the modern world we live in is based on a Capitalist system which create Science, Humanism, Contemporary Art and Rationalism, all of these shape the majority of modern society, all of these are fragmentization on purpose to achieve profit maximization. Therefore the knowledge structure of us is fragmentized as well, even the language itself is with fragmentized limitations. Forgive my daredevilry that try to explain the Continuity via fragmentized language, But language will work as metaphor.

Back to Fashion, an excellent example of fragmentized modern industry, The fragmentized system works based on points as below ( The points against 2 points above)

1. Theme park Collection. (Disney System)               TIME

The problem start from education level, Fashion school students will be asked to choose 1 or

2 topic as theme to make a whole collection, tutors will mark each student after the end of each term according to the ‘creativity’, ‘completeness’, ’technology’ etc. among students work, and there will be a clear rule for a design ‘process’ that all students need to follow which include something like ‘ 30 pages of research image, 20 pages of concept development, 10 page of design silhouette, Choose 8 looks from 100 design sketches then make 4 of them’ then once those students graduate and become an independent designer they still will use the same way to make their collections, use 3-4 months to ‘being interested in a topic’ then make 20 looks base on colors or shapes from research images they got. Every step here I mentioned is fragmentization, it is actually a capitalist production and reproduction system but pretend to be ‘fashion’, ‘design’ or ‘art’, process here become victim of consumerism, the replacement is symbol, Fashion transform to a type of symbol consumption. The situation will be more or less like shopping in Disney world, Designer produce and repeat symbols with marginal differentiations, consumer shop products with aesthetic pride.

2.  Aesthetics Repeat and Fashion Circle. (Marginal Differentiation)          SPACE

In order to keep achieving profit maximization, this system will ask for unceasing renewal of products in acceleration, however the creation itself require a continuous process, this become the contradiction. The operator of this system finally (or naturally) find the solution, to replace process by symbol and make symbol pretend as process (Symbol can be seem as fragmentizations of Process). Concretely , the whole fashion system speed up (2 seasons per year become 4 seasons per year and even more), the designers will be force to make ‘new looks’ four times a year ( or even more) so they start to design Marginal Differentiation which means the same design with a marginal changes ( Example: the same style jacket with slightly pocket change or fabric replacement , or the same style repeat after 5 years ) but how to ‘fool’ those fashion customers to pay for marginal differentiation designs, the ‘Fashion Circle’ and ‘Modern Aesthetics’ is born for this purpose, We seriously doubt the value of social aesthetic system and all fashion products that cater to this tendency. Therefore we try to avoid aesthetic consideration in design process and try to transfer the focus to back to process.