London College of Fashion has students coming from across the world. Many of them have lived in different parts of the world and experienced different cultures. Luna Zhu, a graduate of our first cohort of MA Fashion Textiles Technology is one of them, who has lived in China, Canada and now in the UK. She used these experiences as inspiration and combined them with the structure she found in nature and architecture to create her collection Nomadic Dance. She has used the textiles in the collection to express the creative growth of an individual, unrestricted by boundaries.
Luna looked at the current generation of nomads who are constantly on the move for opportunities and exploration, and also referred to historical nomads, especially from the regions of Mongolia and Tibet, to form the base of the theme for her collection. “I love how they are free and not limited to a certain place. The freedom of their identity is something that I want to express through my work,” she explained her fascination with nomadic cultures. Her collection, Nomadic Dance, explores the intersection of architectural fractal dimensions, nature, floral arrangement, module design and textile art, with a particular focus on modular designs using soft fabrics.
Transformation and change are central to Luna’s collection. It is closely related to her background where she started out with a Bachelor's degree in visual arts and fine arts, pursued fashion design for a year, also dabbled in photography for some time before choosing textiles as her medium. Building on her own varied experiences, her collection represents freedom and adaptability.
“You are always moving, always changing, always transforming. That is what I want to express through my work. I want to show freedom, fluidity, growth and capturing the space.”
The modular and fractal structures in nature have also been a great source of inspiration for this collection. She has reimagined space and dimensions to find a balance between the rigid structures found in architecture and the fluidity found in nature. The combination of these elements allowed her to build a balance between complexity and cohesion.
“I wanted to combine the identity of fluidity with something that’s geometrical and architectural. I wanted to combine those complexities together to form something that is complimentary to my personality of wanting to always transform and always move.”
Luna’s collection comprises a series of body accessories which can take any shape you want. They are transformative textiles with connection points that allow you to change their shape and purpose, giving you the freedom to imagine their form and utility.
“I really enjoy the idea of one thing having infinite possibilities. I hate it when people settle for one thing or one rule that’s permanent like this is black or this is white and that’s it. I hope my designs have different possibilities for different people, and that it forms infinite ideas.”
Discover Luna’s work on UAL Showcase.