Journey to the West

‪ Yunke Dai is a Chinese fashion design student. When she was a teenager, she embarked on a life-changing journey to a British boarding school. Navigating a foreign educational landscape, Yunke’s aspiration to explore cultures has followed her entire journey as a designer. Her graduate collection is named after one of the greatest classic Chinese novels. The novel is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who travelled to the "Western Regions" (Central Asia and India) to obtain Buddhist sūtras (sacred texts) and returned after many trials and much suffering. The research of this collection follows an inspirational road trip with Yunke’s mother, who is an artist. After exploring the west of China, Inner Mongolia & the south of Gansu province during the last summer, being inspired by the architecture, the nomadic culture, clothing and their beliefs, Yunke has obtained a unique experience of her own. The source of research includes photographs taken during the road trip, museum archives and antiques. The range of visuals have inspired the patterns cutting, surface treatments and construction.