YA-TING LIU

Between the Shifts” is a fashion collection inspired by my relationship with my father and my family. The collection explores the distance and emotional changes that develop between family members over time, as well as the bonds that are difficult to express but remain ever-present. Electrical wires, which my father frequently encounters through his work, serve as the primary design vocabulary. Their intertwined, extended, and tangled forms are transformed into structures and details within the garments, symbolizing the invisible yet enduring connections between family members.

The collection incorporates wool, cotton, polyester, and other materials. Contrasting soft and rigid fabrics, as well as different textures, express the coexistence of tenderness and resilience within relationships. The color palette consists mainly of brown, beige, dark gray, and red, echoing electrical wires, working environments, and memories of home. Variations in depth and tone represent the gradual shift from intimacy to distance.

The silhouettes are centered around deconstruction, asymmetry, and three-dimensional tailoring, incorporating layered construction, patchwork, and enveloping forms to express the tension and attachment within relationships. Details such as pleats, shirring, linear seams, and knots reinterpret the extension, entanglement, and intersection of electrical wires, giving the garments both visual tension and narrative depth.

Through fashion design, I hope to materialize the delicate and complex emotions within the relationship between my father and my family. Each piece becomes a vessel for emotion, inviting viewers to reflect on the seemingly displaced yet inseparable connections within family relationships, and on how time may alter our positions in relation to one another without changing the deepest bonds between us.