Bingqing Yi: challenge the 'balance' of footwear

Fashion&Accessories / 13 Nov 2019

Bingqing Yi graduated from Royal College of Art in 2019 after obtaining her BA degree from London College of Fashion. She positions herself as a conceptual footwear designer and an object designer.

Film by Luqitiao Wang

The collection Footwear Playground is about re-negotiating the relationship between foot and footwear, taking inspiration from children’s playgrounds and Todd Robbinson’s artworks. The purpose for the collection is creating an experience. Yi took her design inspirations from children’s playground as the main design elements - the colour, and the ways of how children play with those requirements in their playground. She was also inspired by balance and imbalance.

Through the process of making, Yi told us the most difficult part was around the resin. It was so hard to get bubbles out, and every single piece she made still has certain amount of bubbles. She had the chance to making this in resin workshop at RCA. However, it was hard for her to get bubbles out because she used 2kg of material for each single piece in the resin making. Each piece needs 3 days of ‘sanding time’, otherwise, it can not become that clear. What is more, the CNC process for drilling holes was hard, as the part needs to be drilled has a tricky curve, which machines can not do it perfectly. Therefore, it needs to be done by hand.

Making process

In Yi’s point of view, there is no limitation of fashion, art, footwear or object forms. In this landscape, she uses footwear as a medium and finds the conception of form. She wants people to interact with her designs and experience. The emotion and reaction between people and the designs are the result for her to challenge the design of footwear, and magnify the experience in order to wake up people’s perception. It is part of sensory design, and also transforms the space.