Show and tell

Charmaine Lam Ching-hei

Describe your collection.

"One of a Kind" is an autumn/winter collection for men and women, inspired by the formation, regulation and attire of a cult. A cult is a group of people following an identical ideology and ritual practices centred on sacred rules and customs. Cult members are required to follow the rules set by the cult leader with absolute obedience and infatuation. These rules extend to the member's daily activities, behavior, attire and even their ideology – all in an attempt to weaken their independent individual. For instance, they're required to dress identically, down to the exact color and silhouette. They are one of a kind – yet incomprehensible.

This collection focuses on the integrity of the cult by uniform color, fabrication and silhouette, coordinated with the use of hand-embroidered, knitted and woven items. It values meticulous and delicate craftsmanship. The mental struggle and contradictions are implied in the knitted items and the hand-made textured textiles, which were made by tearing the fabric into strips and sewing them onto the base fabric, one by one. Meanwhile, the regulation and infatuation of the cult is implied by hand-embroidered textiles, inspired by the rules of the actual cult and the resistance in Shakespeare's love sonnets. There are some interesting rules hand-embroidered on the fabric, which were set by real-life cult leaders such as no party, no movie, no ball game and no Santa Claus.

Some of Shakespeare's love sonnets were selected to represent the relationship between the cult leader and the followers. These embroidered textiles were hand-stitched, which took a great deal of time and effort. But patient work makes a fine product and I believe hand-embroidery can never be replaced by computerised embroidery machines, as it's more vivid.