Muyo Park

Muyo Park, as a fashion researcher but still a practitioner, is engaged in pioneering an alternative approach to fashion, which he has labelled ‘Gestural Design’. This alternative methodology integrates the gesture of wearing as an essential component of fashion practice. His perspective recognises the critical importance of the wearer’s standpoint and worn experience within fashion schema, on par with the prevailing fashion design perspective attributed to designers themselves.

In his practice and research, his intent is to ascend the wearer’s position within the fashion hierarchy, creating a more pronounced role for them. Such a role will enable the wearer to actively participate in fashion dialogue with designers, thereby transforming the conventional fashion design process from talented designers’ inspiration and dictating the narrative of garments and fashion as an equal to the designer.

'Non-linear Wearing Narrative' encompasses a suite of investigations that decode the wearer's story via a kaleidoscopic lens. By examining the 'gesture of wearing' from myriad viewpoints, alongside collaborators such as photographers, cinematographers and performers, this practice elucidates the singular nature of clothing, the relationship between attire and the body, and the active role of the wearer.

What necessitates such an emphasis on wearing?

The focal point of the project is of paramount importance as it permits a shift away from the traditional notion of wearing as an unconscious, everyday occurrence. In contrast, it recasts wearing as a performative act within the field of fashion. The overarching objective is to cultivate a balanced, dynamic interplay between the designer and the wearer. Since the advent of couture, the fashion narrative heavily favours the designer, mirroring their philosophy, the zeitgeist, and broader societal phenomena through their fashion design. Within this framework, the wearer and their clothes often become passive, static bodies and objects for the designer's expression. This methodology, conversely, acknowledges the wearer as a significant contributor to the semantic essence of clothes, and the clothes as an entity that interacts independently with the wearer.

Project collaborators, encompassing performers and so forth, delve into new insights and understandings regarding the gesture of wearing. They scrutinise bodies and the garments they adorn, exploring the harmony and novel viewpoints that could materialise, unrestricted by the designer's control. The venues where these collectives assemble become stages that convey the wear-as-practice embedded within the 'performative wearing - the gesture of wearing'.

This approach fundamentally remodels the conventional understanding of fashion design authorship, proposing a means to interpret clothing from the wearer's perspective without the designer's creative influence and supervision. Consequently, this methodology forges a path towards a genuinely alternative approach to the exploration and practice of fashion.

Special thanks to,

ceimou

Svaneborg Kardyb