‘I am the channel for something that transcends me; I do not dictate this impulse.’ Allowing herself to be inhabited by elements and encounters, becoming the messenger of chance: this is how Parisian fashion designer Yiqing Yin describes her experience of the creative process. She is currently preparing her first monographic exhibition, ‘Air and Dreams’, at the City of Lace and Fashion in Calais, which will give visitors the opportunity to look back over her runway collections.

The first designer of Chinese origin to be granted much-coveted haute couture status in 2015, Yiqing says she is grateful to the world of high fashion for its benevolence and curiosity: ‘My zany creativity encountered the most beautiful ancestral craftsmanship. I was extremely fortunate that these talented tradespeople trusted me enough to let me experiment.’ Taking a visual artist’s approach to fashion design, and centering intuition and chance, Yiqing places material at the heart of her work. The fact that ‘Air and Dreams’ is being hosted by the City of Lace and Fashion – a museum dedicated to the history of lacemaking – is no coincidence. ‘The connection to lace was obvious: I worked with it in a deconstructed manner; I took great pleasure in destroying it and transforming it until it became unrecognizable,’ she says with an air of mischief.

Having moved many times during her childhood, Yiqing sees clothing – her only possession when she arrived in France at the age of four – as both refuge and reassurance. Garments serve as markers of home; they can also act as a form of armor. ‘The person who wears the garment completes it,’ she says. ‘As a creator, I give [my designs] an initial impulse, but they remain in a state of flow.’

For Yiqing, air is not only metaphorical; it’s an element in the creative process. Always fascinated by the invisible and the elusive – whether clouds, smoke, wind, or ink swirls in water – the artist recalls being inspired by Étienne-Jules Marey, one of the pioneers of photography, who notably sought to capture smoke in his images, an effect she compares to pleating. ‘I like to work in a fluid manner, with elusive materials like air, which are very difficult to cut and sew – it’s a game of chance.’

The designer is currently working on a dress in collaboration with textile artist Solenne Jolivet, who creates pieces using thread. ‘I’ve always had a sculptural approach, and I’ve maintained this dimension in my collaborations with craftspeople and artists. I love the energy of hybridization.’ In 2018, while serving as artistic director of French brand Poiret, Yiqing invited artist Bernard Frize to collaborate. The painter adapted his signature linear style to produce prints that were incorporated into garments for the fashion house’s spring-summer 2019 collection.

Guided by feeling and collaborative spirit, Yiqing’s path through the world fashion has been rich with artistic wanderings. ‘It’s wonderful to dream up ideas inspired by beauty rather than utility. If we don’t do that in art, then where else can we?’