From recycled textiles to a goddess look / WEIYU HUNG revolutionizes the way fashion is constructed
Updated: Oct 17, 2020
About 92 million tons of waste are produced from the fashion industry every year. The extreme amounts of textile waste are slowly being brought to everyones attention thanks to designers such as WEIYU HUNG, who believes that extremely beautiful things can and should come from recycled materials.
WEIYU HUNG is a Taiwanese designer who brings sustainability to a whole new level in the world of modern day fashion by presenting in Milan Fashion Week, London Fashion Week, Butch Sustainable Fashion Week, Mercedes Benz China Fashion Week, CentreStage HongKong Fashion Week, and many other shows and presentations since 2014. Designing for strong women, his art truly represents what every woman strives to be. WEIYU’s upcycled focused collections brings pieces such as secondhand bridal wear, kimonos, and barkcloth together to create a masterpiece of bold and feminine designs.
After graduating with a BA in Fashion Design from Fu Jen Catholic University, WEIYU rapidly took over the sustainable fashion industry explaining that “the core mission of design is not only creating beautiful products but using our hands to improve the quality and solving the current problems” (HUNG, Goddess). Being a finalist for the Redress Design Award in 2018 and a semi-finalist in 2017, WEIYU HUNG is passionate about eliminating as much waste as possible.
WEIYU uses tapa (barkcloth) as a main source of material and has a special attachment to the creation process originating from when he would observe his mother make it as a child. As it takes time and care to create it, the tapa remains a traditional Austronesian handicraft as well as a brilliant solution for eliminating harmful chemicals and processes of creating alternative textiles.
In WEIYU’s latest collection, 2021 SS “Goddess”, he truly inspires the unison of beautiful designs for feminine women, strength of the body, and incredible details with the eco-friendly materials he uses. WEIYU was inspired by the “peace, happiness, purity, and contemporary feeling for humans, society, and the environment” that can be enraptured from religions among different communities around the world (HUNG, Goddess). This collection focuses on gold and white, symbolizing the peace that comes with the feminine power.
Written by Caitlyn Raymond