Jade Well Dragon
Born in Shaoxing, China, Yujing Wang mixes Chinese culture with elements of the self in her collection. Starting as a painter, Wang has always been drawn to fashion and completed her undergraduate degree in fashion design before moving to San Francisco in 2022 to pursue her master’s.
At the age of 14, Wang moved to Shanghai, the metropolis best known for its finance and fast-paced urban environment. Shanghai was also a large source of inspiration for the designer, using old Shanghai style cheongsams as a base for her collection.
“I personally love Chinese culture, and I love to watch how they use those Intangible Cultural Heritage techniques on TikTok or video sites,” shared Wang. “During my undergraduate years, I had a special class to learn about traditional Chinese clothing and the history of clothing in China.”
When asked about how Chinese culture informed her design, Wang said, “There was also a class where we were asked to use Chinese traditional culture to design clothing. Maybe that’s when I started to be attracted to traditional Chinese fashion and started to want to explore and utilize it.”
While Wang employs techniques from both her time as an undergraduate and at Academy of Art University, she also implements the meaning of the self into her modernized qipaos, like the use of dragons to represent her zodiac sign and color palette inspired by her name’s meaning (Yu Jing means “Jade Well” in Chinese).
In addition to implementing familiarity into her designs, Wang also experiments in her collection, using shadowplay and converting 3D shapes into 2D forms.
“There were some experiments with creative ideas, such as converting 3D to 2D and presenting them in the garments,” shared Wang. “At the beginning, the shape of the dragon may be superficial, a very figurative dragon coiled in the costume, after continuous attempts to do the costume silhouette, from the silhouette or the use of the shape of the darts to continue to explore how to integrate the elements of the dragon into the design. There is also the idea of shadowplay, where the idea of a 2D plane is applied to a 3D costume to make it three-dimensional.”
The designer also uses traditional fabrics from China, such as silk dyed with Shoulang Yam called gambier Guangdong gauze and the delicately ornate Song brocade, and draping to create the juxtaposition of elegant Chinese culture with novelty design.
Wang wants her collection to evoke a feeling of intrigue in Chinese culture, stating, “Many people will think that China’s history is too long, so they think that traditional Chinese things are very old, but I want them to find out that traditional Chinese culture is very interesting and that traditional clothes can be very trendy. Let people want or are willing to learn more.”
The foray of cyan and jade, paired with both the old and new techniques, displays a new flavor of Wang’s culture.
Words by Bea Pritchard, MA Fashion Journalism.
Runway photography by Ed Jay.
Conceptual Makeup Lead: Chelsea Mari Heintzman. Hair & Makeup Team Produced by Brandi Moore Agency. Lead Hair: Brittany Jordan. Lead Makeup: Lilia Christo-Ferrigno . Makeup Product: Morphe.
