Lu Jin
Lu Jin is a fashion designer who has had her fashionable costumes published in periodicals such as Tate etc., Rodomontade Magazine, Blaze Art Magazine, and KINO Magazine. Recent exhibitions include the Johnny Snow Charity Fashion Show in Durham, UK, SUSFUTURE International Sustainable Design Exhibition in China, and Open Gallery Textile Exhibition in Halifax, UK.
LockLoom is an experimental dress created by Lu Jin consisting of numerous cable ties attached together followed by sporadic additions of pearl-like beads. The conceptual conveyance of LockLoom is based on redefining sustainability and repositioning the purpose of functional intent of an object. This industrial garment redefines the art of fashion outside of fiber materials and without weaving or sewing, but rather through locking the cables together in order to form a cohesive form. Lockloom almost seems like the dress is blending aquatic sensibilities with a sense of futurism with appearance which reflects coral and nano-technology aesthetics. The interweaving of the cable ties, especially from a distance, gives the dress an aquatic and technological-appearing surface, especially with the additional of pearl-like beads sporadically attached. Fastened with pearls gives the piece increased luminosity and the cavities within the cables gives the dress an illusion of transparency.
The see-through design of the dress and turning function into form turns conventional notions of design principles on their head. Such breaking of the rules entails giving a new identity to the purpose of cable ties outside of industrial functionality into one of advanced aesthetics and conceptual conveyance of industrial rebellion. LockLoom’s dialogue with the human body takes a solid item against the soft flesh of the figure, creating a dichotomy between natural beauty converged with the synthetic, being plastic. One-way locking mechanisms of the cable ties defines their disposable nature in intended function, Lu Jin gives the garment a purpose beyond discarded waste. These specific cable ties used in LockLoom were discarded, so Lu Jin is also redefining the conventional attitude towards recycling, especially in terms of fashion. The overall fragile structure of the dress compliments with the fragility of the human body as well.
With a rebellious attitude and a turn away from conventional design principles, the avant-garde fashionable dress of LockLoom redefines industrialized applications in fashion and costume design. You could imagine this garment being used in an indie science fiction film with dream-like sequences, such as the moving-image work of Molly Dario. Such alternative realities are shaped in not only the altered function of how the costume is constructed, but also in aesthetics which seem otherworldly, aquatic, or even post-apocalyptic. You could imagine nomad survivors in a distant bleak future fastening used garbage as clothing. In such a regard, LockLoom is a reflection of the future in both appearance and functionality.
