ADOURE, 2024

Enduring Grace Behind Tradition

This dress explores the elegance that lives quietly behind tradition, an elegance that is not simply given, but built, layered, and endured. Crafted with natural material for the headdress and corset, the piece reflects on how beauty, across cultures, has long been something women carry rather than simply wear.

The deep purple corset, framed in ivory, and the crowned headdress with its cascading tassels of beads and Sesbania stalks echo both grandeur and burden, elegance that is beautiful to behold, yet heavy to bear.

womenswear made from natural sesbania stalks

The design draws from Lisu women, who hand-weave and embroider their own garments, adorning them with silver ornaments, beads, and elaborate headdresses. Each woman's dress reflects not only skill and beauty, but hours of labor and personal devotion, a quiet competition where elegance is earned through effort rather than ease.

sesbania stalks

— material experimentation

THE FINAL SKETCH

From concept to form

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adoure, 2024

Adorned = decorated, embellished

Endure = to bear, to withstand, to hold on through hardship