Exploring the Fragile Boundary Between the Grotesque and the Sublime in Avant-Garde Fashion
Project Name: Savage Beauty
Studio: Mun Jeong Kang Studio
Lead Designer: Mun Jeong Kang
Project Type: Self-Initiated Project
Credits:
Photography: Rawstudio
Model: Jiyun Hong
Award: Bronze – Other Fashion Designs / Avant-Garde
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Introduction
In avant-garde fashion, innovation often emerges at the edge of contradiction — where beauty is no longer calm or predictable.
Savage Beauty, a self-initiated project by Mun Jeong Kang Studio, boldly investigates the fragile boundary between the grotesque and the sublime.
Awarded Bronze in the Other Fashion Designs / Avant-Garde category, this project stands as a compelling example of how material, form, and concept can merge into a powerful emotional narrative.
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Concept: Beauty at the Edge of Tension
Savage Beauty redefines beauty not as harmony, but as tension.
It proposes that vulnerability itself can become a form of strength.
The silhouettes are intentionally uneasy — exaggerated, fragile, and yet resilient. Here, beauty is not born from balance, but from confrontation: between protection and exposure, structure and collapse.
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Material as Meaning: UV-Blocking PET Film
A central element of the project is the use of UV-blocking PET film, a material typically associated with industrial protection.
Through hand-crinkling, the material is transformed into an hourglass silhouette — a form that simultaneously evokes protection and fragility.
In Savage Beauty:
• Protection becomes vulnerability
• Rigidity gives way to delicacy
• Functional material evolves into emotional language
The garment no longer shields the body; it reveals its fragility.
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Deconstructing Shelter: The Reimagined Umbrella
A deconstructed umbrella, rewoven with 3D-printed filaments, hovers like an eerie exoskeleton around the body.
Traditionally a symbol of shelter and safety, the umbrella in this project:
• Loses its conventional function
• Becomes sculptural rather than protective
• Blurs the boundary between garment, object, and architecture
Shelter is no longer guaranteed — it is questioned.
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Beads, Time, and Erosion
Beads cascade across the garment like sand falling in the rain, evoking the passage of time, erosion, and renewal.
This flowing detail transforms the piece into a meditation on:
• Decay
• Resilience
• The rebirth of fragile beauty
Each movement suggests that beauty is temporary — yet continuously reformed.
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Avant-Garde Fashion as Narrative Design
Savage Beauty approaches fashion not as decoration, but as narrative design.
Form, material, and structure operate together to express a single emotional concept.
This clarity of vision — paired with experimental execution — is precisely what defines award-winning avant-garde design on the international stage.
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Why Savage Beauty Matters
This project demonstrates that:
• Self-initiated work can gain global recognition
• Creative risk is essential to meaningful design
• Beauty does not need to be gentle — it can be raw, unsettling, and honest
Savage Beauty serves as inspiration for emerging designers, proving that a clear concept, when executed with integrity, can resonate far beyond its origin.
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About the Designer
Mun Jeong Kang is an avant-garde fashion designer whose work explores material transformation, emotional tension, and conceptual storytelling.
Her projects often dissolve the boundaries between protection and vulnerability, functionality and artistic expression.
🔗 Designer’s Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/10_27oct
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Conclusion
In Savage Beauty, protection becomes poetry, form becomes emotion, and fashion becomes philosophical inquiry.
The project reminds us that true beauty often emerges from instability, contradiction, and exposed truth.
link
https://www.idesignawards.com/winners/zoom.php?eid=9-64669-25&count=8&mode=
