Meet Ruixin Wang, Fashion Accessory Award Winner at GFW22. Ruixin studied at Ravensbourne University London.

How do you feel about winning a GFW22 award?

I felt honour and surprised that I won the Fashion Accessory Award. It made me believe in myself more.

What was the inspiration starting point for your award-winning FMP?

The scarcity of materials and energy in our current society and nature's fight back against mankind, made me think about how we can change this situation by changing the food choices we eat.

What skills did you learn and develop during the production of your FMP?

3D manipulation and Latex sewing techniques.

What were some challenges that you faced in producing your FMP and how did you overcome these?

The most challenging thing about this collection was designing it with the functionality of my accessories in real life in mind, which means that they must be able to be used to eat food.

Are there any messages or major themes in your FMP that you want people to take away? If so, how did you choose to communicate with them?

This project is a hypothesis on the future of human lifestyles and the evolution of the body caused by social issues such as inequality in the social hierarchy, famine, and environmental pollution. The aim is to explore the way humans will eat and the food they will eat in the future. Questioned how would humans survive by eating our kind in the future? Where we will be in the upcoming future, to be the one who holds the knife or the one on the table? And how we would live with that situation, is what I'm currently believed in and truly concerned about. I'm trying to discuss this social issue through my collection. It's a question mark that leaves for people to think about, what we did to the earth and nature may reflect on us years later. And it seems to begun to happen.

What is an aspect of the fashion industry that you want to help improve or have a positive impact on?

The market is full of similar design ideas and designers can lose their signature style and their core creativity as designers in the market. The designs I produce may not be commercially viable, but they do offer another possibility for future accessories.

What form does your FMP take? Is it a collection of clothing, book, presentation, etc? If relevant, how did you source the materials for the project?

鈥楴ew Cannibals鈥� is an accessory collection which plays with aprons as a representation of hierarchical stakeholders in consumerism. The entire collection is made of latex, which is the same as human skin to the touch. Utilising the metaphor of the butcher鈥檚 apron and gloves as a 鈥榙istributer鈥� of items 鈥榗onsumed鈥�, each of the main designs transform from apron to another product type (i.e. gloves, table, table cloth, etc鈥�) with additional touches such as finger cutlery / gloves.

What are your plans for the near future (further study/ internship/ work?) now that you've finished your BA?

I will further develop this concept in my master's study while starting to intern for brands to gain more experience and industry knowledge.