School
of Fashion
Michelle Tan Si Qi
Michelle enjoys creating tactile surfaces through knitting, and exploring human-spatial relations in her work.
Work
THE COLOUR BRAWL
THE COLOUR BRAWL is a knitwear collection reflecting on the elements of curated environments and urban spaces, as well as the interaction of people and objects within it.
We have been led to believe that building a space involves depth and longevity while fashion privileges surface and newness. The importance of novelty in fashion inadvertently contributes to the fast fashion phenomenon and throwaway culture. This collection aims to humanise the creation process of garments, with a focus on craft and time-intensive knitting techniques.
Each piece is carefully designed to evoke a sense of spatial depth and dynamism, with organic shapes and beads to add depth and textures to the garments. The interaction of colours also aims to bridge a balance between hard and soft textures through a colour story that clashes and diffuses within the collection. This colour story is further exaggerated through hand-drawn digital prints on jersey fabric that blends with the knits.
These knits are handcrafted with a manual knitting machine in full-fashioned construction, where each pattern piece is calculated and knitted out directly, minimising wastage of fabric from cutting and sewing. Most of the knits are created from 100% Shetland and British wool, giving the garments a luxurious weight that would not have been achieved with synthetic fibres. This is also a more sustainable and eco-friendly material as it is naturally microbial and requires less washes than other fibres.
