Creative Generation 1: “Dancer in the Dark” by Chang Shanghai

11 August – 1 September 2017
Java Creative Cafe Toul Kork

For this series DANCER IN THE DARK Shanghai has created a conceptual fashion collection inspired by the 2016 Met Gala “Manus × Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.” As a starting point for his designs he considered structures and shapes formed by machinery, which tends towards straight lines instead of curves. The final pieces however are all formed painstakingly by hand. In the world of fashion this represents a long-established tension between industrial and mass-produced clothing, made accessible and popular by being affordable, and “haute couture,” carefully refined through hand-made materials, which are unique pieces and considered expensive and a luxury.

This dichotomy allowed Shanghai to explore creatively unconventional materials, both handmade and machine-made. The result is a fashion collection that draws us into the future of what could be.

Shanghai Chang (b. 1996, Phnom Penh, Cambodia) is a fashion design student from Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.

Despite professionally trained in cloth making & craftsmanship his work is described as experimental and conceptual. He explores the past and future of clothing by blending traditional clothing making techniques with unconventional materials & silhouettes.