Yunzhou Tan

Yunzhou Tan is an explorer of nature, textile and the human body.

She explores how to infuse traditional craft and culture into contemporary civilization, and how to innovate based on present and past with the nature.

She came across sustainable design in 2015 and has tried to explore design methods in relating fields ever since, experimenting from garments to materials, from repurposing the waste to improving the utilization of materials and fabrics in cutting and patterning. In 2019, natural dyes made her feel connected with natural materials.

Throughout the two years of studying and exploring (2019-2021), Yunzhou realized that design is a process of thinking, imagining and creating human lifestyle in the future, and seeking how to take this creativity into reality.

Re-explore

Yunzhou explores the healthy and positive way of living and dressing in her project Yun Yi.

Researching and expressing her idea of a healthier design for the human body makes it a 'people-oriented' design, which revolves around people themselves and the environment they live in.

‘Yun Yi’ literally translates into 'cloud clothes' in Chinese. It resonates with her understanding of a comfortable and healthy way of dressing, dressing for the benefit of the human body, which refers to not only the contentment of body senses but also the freedom of body function.

Colour experiments/ silk organza

Mixed dye — Wasted black tea, ligum sappan

Pattern experiments&development

Printed tools — Handmade by cotton yarns

Printed on mixed dye fabrics

Printed on the half made garment

Discovered how to use nature (materials) to express nature itself (the microbes growing on the surface of the dye bath, photography under my view).

Through experiments of pattern making to exploring the language that I want to express.

Medium:

silk, natural dyestuffs

Research — Why I do "Yun Yi"? How "Yun Yi" comes from?

Discovered the medicinal value of natural dyes and questioned whether 'Zhong Yi' - traditional Chinese medicine could be used in textiles, and benefit the human health.