The project is inspired by a famous Chinese traditional Kun Opera play called Peony Pavilion, which tells a story about a young girl died because of her lovesickness, and revived for love. The story reveals the spirit of pursuing free will and individual emancipation. Such a strong power is just like the new life breaking out of the shell. Having the story spirit as the beginning, “breaking the shell” concept leads my design forwards in two ways. First of all, the silhouette design consists of several eggshell shapes. The pattern of the eggshell shape origins from the Chinese traditional opera costume called ”Pei”. By adding darts, it turns into the eggshell shape. At the same time, the costume “Pei” is simplified into its structure outline, being designed to be hanging above the eggshell shapes. It symbolizes another layer of “shell”.On the other hand, my color story is also inspired by the concept of the shell, which comes from the eggshell membrane. It is the thin layer of film, which sticks at the inner part of the eggshell. It has delicate pink color and metallic shine. To apply the membrane color on the fabric, I tried using painting technique tempera, which mixes egg white or egg yolk with pigment. The egg white and yolk are used to help the pigment dry and generate a layer of film to protect the evaporation, which also makes the surface of the painting has a light gloss effect. However, this method didn’t work well on the fabric. Then, I tried the white glue to mix with the pigment and eggshell powder to apply on the fabric. Finally, the white glue works not only to create the gloss surface, but also to harden the fabric to stay at the hollow round shape.
