From Maths to Cuts: Why are transferable skills important in fashion
The hidden fact - by Chengyuan Wang
Chengyuan Wang’s path to fashion is far from ordinary. Before sketching a garment, Wang used to write and solve complex equations. Also known as Simonetta Wang, this skilled designer’s unusual academic journey started with a degree in Mathematics and Statistics and a Master’s Degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, followed by three years of experience in the Chinese fashion industry. But a Master’s Degree in Womenswear Fashion Design at Istituto Marangoni London was Wang’s natural gateway to fashion design.
Presenting the portfolio collection The Hidden Fact with the i^4 capsule collection, Chengyuan Wang combined different skills while studying how to address consumer preferences for complex orders by applying mathematical formulas to garment surfaces to create intricate textures.
Want to know more about the up-and-coming designer who came to fashion from a completely different background in mathematics? We caught up with Istituto Marangoni alumnus Chengyuan Wang to pick up this talent’s brain on everything from numbers and documentaries about the experience of growing up in wealthy families to South African sculpture artists, AI drawings and Salvador Dalí’s surrealism. We have found that while all of Wang’s references intertwine fashion and maths, their primary focus is on the importance of being understood.
What is the meaning behind your portfolio logo?
I intended to capture a photograph from the microscope’s eyepiece on the upper end. Then I used Photoshop to add one eye at the viewing end of the microscope. This represents our desire to be carefully seen and understood instead of others looking at us from a distance and only picking up the halo of our family.
The hidden fact - by Chengyuan Wang
Your portfolio opens with the question “Is what you see most?” written on an artwork. What does this mean in your mind?
This is a sculpture by South African sculpture artist Daniel Popper. The universe-like images inside the chest are actually just pictures I generated automatically with Photoshop, just with different gold and pink colours. The universe contains countless things, just like a person with countless features. Pink and gold reflect abstract elements the respondents discovered after getting to know me. When these two pictures are combined, they show the desire to be seen for who they are instead of which big family they belong to. The background is an abandoned factory to highlight the part that looks like the universe; I created the background with Photoshop using a colour similar to the sculpture’s.
The hidden fact - by Chengyuan Wang
You wrote down some disruptive questions: “Does being born into a rich family limit personal achievements? Is what you see the real me? Is what we see through our eyes the truth?” What did these dilemmas represent for your research?
At the time, I watched a documentary called Born Rich. It interviewed some children who were born into very wealthy families. The director is James Wittenborn Johnson, an American heir, filmmaker, and socialite – a great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I, co-founder of Johnson & Johnson. I felt that both the director and the children interviewed strongly desired to have their hard work recognised, but their families seemed to overshadow their achievements with their glamorous aura. Maybe all they want is to be introduced with their name and the job they do instead of being identified as someone’s child. That’s why I named my portfolio The Hidden Fact, and I created different folds to hide parts of the fabric that should be visible on the garment’s surface.
The hidden fact - by Chengyuan Wang
The narrative board page features another graphic. How can this be interpreted?
It is just an AI-generated drawing used to deceive the viewer. I hope someone understands it is not a genuine piece from Salvador Dalí’s body of work. To achieve this, I had to study Salvador Dali in depth. And I believe you must be familiar enough with the artist’s work to realise that this is definitely not part of his œuvre. It is like doing extensive research on a powerful family and discovering that one of its members achieved success independently, regardless of this family.
The hidden fact - by Chengyuan Wang
How can I know what others think of me? – In this part of your portfolio research, you launched a questionnaire asking friends to describe you through colours. How is this part of the making of your collection?
I simply asked them to use a graphic and a colour to describe the first time they met me and how they currently see me.