Natural Heir to the Elegance of Traditional Taiwanese Designer-Sophie Hong
- Apr 5, 2015
- 3 min read
“I am the first Taiwanese fashion designer to build a name in the international market. That’s because I have courage to be a pioneer and I have my own style.” – Sophie Hong
Hong Lifen, also known to the Western world as Sophie Hong, a Taiwanese local fashion designer. Sophie Hong was independent designer and developed a passion for clothes very early in life. After she received her degree in Fashion and Design from the Shih Chien College in Taipei, She went to Japan, New York, and Paris to learn fashion design. She started her fashion journey in 1977 and expended her various interested as a painter, a sculptress, a shoemaker and a jewelry designer.
In this colorful setting, Sophie Hong has become one of the Taiwan’s top designers today. She has shown her collections at many fashion shows around the world, notably in Milan, New York, Tokyo, at prêt-à-porter shows in Paris and elsewhere.
How about inspiration? Does she follow the trend?
“My clothes are worn by people. I want my clothes to speak and to do so with and to everybody.” She said. Ms. Hong has produced lots of clothing like unique and attractive in everyone’s eye. “I never follow the trend, I am doing what people need to live, clothes should worn by people, not people wear clothes.” She responded it confidently. Obviously, there is no repetition in her work. Rather, she offers society and art that is sure of its place into her collection. The lines of her collection may have a ceremonial quality, but it is vibrant, vivid, and not static; a musicality of form that leads admires to have her clothes on everyday basics.
During her designing process, her inspiration always eventually comes out from her mind. She never hesitated to try anything to achieve her dream. “I design clothes the way I paint on a canvas or make a sculpture I like to create, and I draw inspiration from everything around me.” Ms. Hong also likes to explore the old fashion clothing and renew ideas modified to give different expressions of clothing.
Ms.Hong has known to continued develop the traditional Mud Silk techniques in particular her fashion business. The material she developed ”Hong Silk” was the ancient tradition fabric used in Chinese traditional clothing. It’s exquisitely designed and produced and it also has been a very important inspiration and story in her clothes collection.
In her fashion philosophy, fashion is always be like a performance, a whole culture goes into it. “I always had a wish to create within me. Clothing is simply another form of art and, eventually I became concerned with daily artistic opportunity inherent in clothes.” Unlike Western style clothing, her collection style doesn’t perfectly fit the body tightly. They are sometimes loose, comfortable, and elegant just as like the free style in Chinese ink paintings and calligraphy. There is legacy of Chinese culture in her creation.
Her success led her into the world of costume design for stage plays such as Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “Lady Windermere’s Fan”. She has also designed uniforms for several restaurants and for the Taipei Choir. She even started as advisor to Fashion Connection Singapore in 1994 to 1995, as well as Taipei Young Fashion Designers.
Reviewing her collection is as like listening a good symphonies; the more you listen it, the more complexity and elegance you feel it. Her design, in fact, is more as like art than a piece of clothing. There is deeply meaningful story and culture inside of her collection. She is just as like a composer in fashion design world, working with textile design, paint, stitching, and cutting to creative a kind of best music.
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