Recent Parson’s graduate Jingle Yu’s unique collection was inspired by a personal experience. Originally from a rural area of China, he remembers the sadness he felt when he went to his aunt’s funeral. “My aunt was a trans woman but our family buried her in traditional Chinese men’s burial garments. This is not what she would have wanted.”
However his thesis collection is not only about dead people: “It’s also about everyone who is in between of dead and alive. I self identify myself as partially dead because when I go back to my hometown in China I have to kill a huge part of myself in order to cope with the homophobia there.”
His collection is multi-sensory with different pieces that work with sound, smell and taste.
Looks 1-3
Look ONE is about sound. The fabric is upscaled tarpaulin fabric from a factory in Guangzhou. I designed a light-sensitive vocal earring that can record your voice, I think everybody’s voice matters even after we die. The LED lights talk about the importance of organ donation
Look TWO is about smell and taste, the citrus underwear is a second-hand plastic bag and it can cover up any bad smell and leave a trace of citrus, and the foot-scrubbing shoes can make your feet tender and soft all the time.
Look THREE is inspired by a queer character in a Beijing opera movie and the texture is inspired by a massage chair to create a sense of comfort and protection.
Looks 4-6
Look FOUR is a co-burial body bag for two people to die together. The fabric is natural silk so it can easily decompose in the ground. You can choose the person of your choice weather is your friend or family.
Look FIVE is about temperature. the milk- bathing shoe makes your feet feel fresh and cool.
Look SIX is a fashion body bag for a single person, the heart- shaped bubble wrap is upscaled from China.
It is not traditional fashion design and Jingle’s not sure that he’s interested in pursuing a traditional path. He does some performance art and has another intriguing project going on with Bubble Tea. But whatever he ultimately decides to do we’re happy that he created this collection that questions what he calls the “formulaic and heteronormative” funeral ritual.
We deserve better than a cold casket and a bunch of fake-crying friends so I think we should have the right to die fabulously. After all We did not get the chance to decide how we were born but we can have the power to decide how we want to say goodbye to this world.
