XUAN-LIN CHEN

“逆喜” takes “Resilience” as its core, exploring how people confront loss, heal from trauma, and rebuild their connections with themselves and the world in an era of rapid change.

Through collective experiences such as the pandemic, war, information overload, and social alienation, emotions have gradually become an issue that can no longer be ignored. We are accustomed to presenting ourselves as strong, yet rarely speak about wounds that have not fully healed. “逆喜” suggests that true resilience does not mean remaining unscathed. Rather, it means being willing to believe again, love again, and accept our imperfect selves after experiencing brokenness.

The visual inspiration for this collection comes from the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, drawing upon its symbolic language of love, obsession, time, and rebirth. Blood is treated as a metaphor for the continuation of life rather than a symbol of violence. Red transitions from vivid scarlet to deep crimson, representing emotions moving from intensity toward reflection before transforming into new vitality. Leather and cotton are deconstructed, reconstructed, and reassembled through visible stitching, preserving traces of repair so that cracks become evidence of growth rather than flaws to be concealed.

The silhouettes envelop the body with armor-like structures, representing the psychological defenses people build when confronting the world. Yet beneath these structures, softness and vulnerability remain, reflecting how each person continues living with their scars after experiencing trauma. The parts that were once broken ultimately become more than wounds—they become the strength that supports the future.

Through clothing, “逆喜” responds to the emotional challenges shared by contemporary society, allowing design to become a language of healing, acceptance, and rebirth. True resilience is not about returning to who we were before we were hurt, but choosing to move forward while carrying our scars.