Qipao – Fashion Show in Edinburgh

Diffus rethinks the traditionel Shanghainese dress – the Qipao for the Edinburgh Art Festival. This was conducted through a collaboration between fashion students, material scientists from Donghua University, Shanghai International Institute of Fashion & Technology and Diffus Design.
We created two different collections – both had transformation as the driving force. In this case transformation was connected to the Chinese philosophy of five elements.

The result of the workshop was two collections of 6 interactive dresses. One collection focused on shape changing materials where the aim was to create interactive and dynamic surfaces and the other collection focused on colour changing materials. In this case we developed sequins that could change colour from transparent to clear blue.