‘tæfita is a debuting fashion brand by Hong Kong born designer Keyian Wong.
Kei Graduated London College of Fashion in 2022 and debuted her first collection the same year in September at London Fashion Week in collaboration with Fashion Scout.
Wong has been observing the Romanticism, Surrealism, Punk and Gothic movements in order to captivate spirit of rebelliousness from each subculture. Her latest runaway collection was presented by androgynies models who wore heavy colourful, over exaggerated genderless silhouettes.
Inspired by one of the most significant figures of 80’s and the rise of the diversity topic, ‘tæfita aims to unite the feminine and masculine energy in order to eliminate every kind of stereotype, even on a garment.
As unisex fashion is now settled more than ever on the market, we decided to explore further the obstacles, ideas and perspective of the sector. Kei Wong successfully dived us in her gender non-conformity outlook and future plans by answering our questions.
Congratulations on your debut at London Fashion Week! What does the name “tæfita” stand for. and how is it connected to your work?
‘tæfita- The brand name came from the pronunciation symbol of the word taffeta, meaning a type of woven fabric made from silk, acetate and polyester. Usually used in high end, elegant evening and bridal wears.
My collection does useda lot of taffeta, you can see the bronze and silver fabrics on trousers and shirt that looks shiny and lightweight and even the sea blue long waist coat, the fabric used in there can beautifully reflect two tones of colour.
I am doing an evening wear collection, most of the colour that I have chosen for the garments are deeper tone for example dusty blue, bottle green and garnet to wine red so taffeta fabrics in my collection have a very sharp highlights usage for the overall looks between those deeper colour fabrics but not over loudly, keeping all the colours still elegantly represent to our eyes.
As we can see your line is a collaboration of romanticism, Surrealism, punk and
gothic motives. What does these historical movements mean to you and the
collection?
The collection is about femininity and masculinity could be conceptualised by evening wear/ wedding costumes, having reference on evening wear and bridal wears. The inspiration is from New Romantics 80s, the subcultures were best known to have captured the spirit of the rebel. How New Romantic’s aesthetics echoes the theme of gender non-conformity 80s is a period of showing diversity, that included Romanticism, Surrealism, Punk and Gothic, and this collection is inspired by all these elements.
The most significant elements on 80s, Blitz Club, Boy George and the film- Worried about the boy have remained us a lot of these elements, multi culture/ acceptance of cultures, and it is a new generation and glamorous impact of fashion.
The heavy colourful clothing and makeup with abstract over exaggerated silhouettes. These are all about the period of 80s.And these days more people are talking about the diversity, I would like to use this collection to express how I feel of diversity on human being or a garment.
What is the message to public of your recent collection?
Diversity, real diversity is we originally have, we live in the same planet, we have different race, nationality and ethnicity, gender, etc. Eliminate every kind of stereotype, even on a garment, how we look at the garment, different angles rather than a Front or the basic shapes.
What fabrics and dyes did you use and where did you source them from?
I am using fabrics that produce in all around the world from Italy, UK to India to Far East China and Japan, also some materials are from Spain too, they are all couture high end fabrics, for example taffeta, duchess satin, organza, laces etc. Biggest parts of them are made with 100% silk which high end evening wears and bridal wears should be. It actually a different way to shows what is diversity should be all the fabrics come together with a perfect combination.
What is the colour palette of the collection indicating? / How is the line
communicating through its colours?
The collection colour pallet is in a rainbow colour which basically showing diversity again, which people normally would think of rainbow flags. I wish to use most of the colours that our eyes could able to see in the world including black and white this is calls colour too, not only about lgbtq+ or gender but also something outside, something of real diversity is we originally have, we live in the same planet, we have different race, nationality and ethnicity, different skin tones; we can choose to wear colourful garments that perfect fits with our skin tone but not because the colours of the garments limited you to wear them.
I wish to create a rainbow colour pallet in an elegant, romantically and femininity way to show colours, due to the function of the garments of the collection, it is evening wears, allows you to travel any elegant and important night events. Also, the colours pallets are reference on the New Romantic’s aesthetics for sure.
As someone with experience in both womenswear and menswear, what exactly inspired you to create gender neutral garments?
I am very happy that you have asked this question. Everyone has their preference to explain or look at what is gender neutral garments. For me, I would like and I think I have responsibility to explain in a technique way. Womenswear and menswear can be identified from waistline and chest line, for example one of the long coat with satin ruffles in my collect, if womenswear I would need to add a chest line in order to form the shapes and space for chest, but now the upper waist line cuts opening helps to shapes chest and waist for both genders.
What inspired me is I mostly see gender neutral garments in a very extreme way, for example a menswear garments on a female or a womenswear on a male, which most people could easily see
in an extreme contrast.
I prefer not to deliberately making the garments are gender neutral, eliminate every kind of stereotype, and I think this is the most beautiful way to let things behave naturally and gently, the garments merge naturally with the human body, even the temperament of a person and this is important for me to feel on the high end evening wears.
Do you see the society ready to completely adapt to androgynous fashion or it
is still witnessed as a taboo?
I think nowadays we can see a lot of fashion brand, celebrities or social media are having more androgynous fashion contents and it has already a stable market.
What are the main challenges of the gender nonconformity fashion in 2022?
Functionality and the sizing that I think a brand need to concern with.
Do you think that androgynous style is more of a fashion state than a fashion
style?
I think androgynous garments shouldn’t be treat like a style or trend, I think wearing these garments should be helping for identify yourselves and proudly represent yourselves, and
something that makes you feel comfortable of being yourselves.
As someone who is bringing change to the narrative of the industry, do you believe that gender neutral fashion is the key to sustainability in the future?
I think it could be, it could reduce the mass amount of production.
How would you like to elevate your creative work in the next 5 years?
What are you looking forward adapting in your future projects
I am always interested to collaborate with different people with different talent in an artistic way, no limits from arts, design or architecture, and we can see how the chemistries that could explore
through collaboration.
Genderless fashion might be the solution to stereotype breaking. As this sector is blooming, it is also quite compelling to observe the shifts within the gender assigned garments spectrum. We
are really looking forward ‘tæfita’s future evolution and we hope to witness Keyian Wong’s forming as innovative key player in the industry.
You can contact the brand on Instagram: @taefita.london_official or keiwtaefita@gmail.com
Photographed by Macky Mann | @macky.mann
Article by : Angela Gaote | Fashion Writer | @angela.gaote
SODIUM Collective | @sodiumcollective #LFW #SodiumMagazine #SodiumCollective
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