Project 004 — Design Concept — 2024
A six-look fictional capsule collection concept exploring deconstructivist minimal aesthetics. No physical garments—a pure design thinking and visual communication exercise.
Concept Collection — No Season
"The garment as its own absence"
A concept exploration. Six looks. No physical samples.
Research-based design thinking exercise by a CS graduate
learning to think in fashion.
VOID is a six-piece conceptual study in the aesthetics of reduction. Inspired by Margiela's early Artisanal work and the Japanese concept of ma—negative space as active presence—the collection explores what happens when a garment is stripped to its structural minimum.
The palette is deliberately constrained: charcoal, off-white, and concrete grey. No colour to distract from form. No decoration to mask construction. Every decision was a subtraction.
As a CS student, I found this analogous to writing clean code: the best function does exactly one thing, with no redundant operations. A garment, I am learning, can follow the same discipline.
Research References
Collection Palette
Charcoal · Carbon · Slate · Ash · Linen · Ecru
Look 01
The Inside Out Coat
Structured wool overcoat worn with seams and canvas interlining exposed. The construction becomes the surface.
Concept: Wool flannel · Canvas · Exposed seaming
Look 02
The Collapsed Shirt
Oversized dress shirt in off-white cotton, collar removed, placket open. The shirt as architecture without walls.
Concept: 100% cotton poplin · No interfacing
Look 03
The Trapezoid
A single panel of wool crepe cut in a perfect trapezoid. Two side seams. One hem. No dart. No zipper. Form through geometry alone.
Concept: Wool crepe · Minimal construction
Look 04
The Binding
A long vest with visible basting stitches—the tailor's temporary marks made permanent. The in-progress garment as the finished garment.
Concept: Unfinished grey flannel · Contrast basting
Look 05
The Divided Trouser
Two individual trouser legs, each worn as a separate element—one worn, one carried. The pair as two distinct objects.
Concept: Charcoal wool · Deconstructed tailoring
Look 06
The White Study
The only light piece in the collection. An ecru linen smock of maximum simplicity—as a question: what is the minimum a garment needs to be a garment?
Concept: Ecru linen · Single seam construction
Four weeks studying the Margiela Artisanal collections, Japanese avant-garde fashion of the 1980s, and the design theory of deconstruction. Read Judith Clark's writing on fashion archives.
Wrote a concept statement. Defined constraints: six looks, three colours maximum, each piece must have a conceptual rationale. Sketched silhouettes in Figma using basic geometric shapes.
Built this page entirely in HTML and CSS. The silhouettes are CSS geometry—not images. The goal was to communicate the concept without photography, since there are no physical garments.