In Conversation with Designer Lisa Jiang

Lisa Jiang is a visionary artist and fashion designer specializing in wearable kinetics — where movement, sculpture, and couture collide. Drawing inspiration from fluid dynamics and kinetic sculptures, her work explores the delicate tension between organic fluidity and mathematical precision. A graduate of Central Saint Martins in Fashion Design Womenswear, she is currently based in London, and has honed her craft at some of the most avant-garde houses, including Iris Van Herpen, Maison Margiela, Gareth Pugh, and Mary Katrantzou.

Her kinetic red dress, sculpted from hand-dyed and hand-pleated silk organza, is a living, breathing entity of motion and transformation. Inspired by The Arrival by Shaun Tan, it embodies the disorientation and wonder of stepping into the unknown — an immigrant’s odyssey into an unfamiliar world, where reality shifts and reinvents itself.

The blue dress, an ethereal composition of silk organza and delicate feathers, is steeped in celestial romance. Inspired by the legend of Niulang and Zhinu, star-crossed lovers separated by the vast expanse of the Milky Way, the piece captures their one fleeting reunion. Once a year, on the seventh night of the seventh moon, a bridge of magpies’ forms in the heavens, granting them a single night to meet—an ephemeral, aching beauty woven into fabric and flight.

Jiang’s creations are not mere garments; they are poetry in motion, myths made tangible, a dance between structure and soul. Her work stands at the vanguard of fashion’s evolution—where technology, tradition, and storytelling converge to create garments that are not just worn, but experienced.

Your work explores the intersection of movement, memory, and fluidity. How do you envision the future of fashion embracing kinetic design—not just as art, but as wearable, everyday innovation?

I would love to see kinetic fashion in adaptive wear, to create clothing that responds dynamically to the needs of the wearer. I’m also interested in developments in modular clothing that can be reconfigured for various occasions – for example a jacket that transforms into trousers, or a dress that can be shortened or lengthened according to the occasion – as well as smart textiles that integrate technology to respond to environmental changes. I think kinetic fashion will always be a bit niche, because the target market is so specific. But I think it represents an important part of the ongoing dialogue among designers, researchers, and engineers – by collaborating across disciplines, we can explore how new technologies can help us to create unique and personalised fashion experiences.

In an era where digital fashion and AI-generated design are gaining traction, how do you balance technology with the human, emotional essence of craftsmanship in your creations?

I’ve always been particularly interested in the fusion of traditional craftsmanship and new technologies in fashion. I’m interested in fashion because it is inherently tied to the body and the human experience – especially couture, where countless hours of handwork are dedicated to each piece. There is something so emotional about imagining those invisible hands that worked for so long on a piece, which is kind of reflected in the physical movement of the dress, as if those hands are continuing to adjust and work on the dress. The recent innovations in fashion technology have helped me to explore more deeply these concepts of movement and fluidity.

Your collaborations span across avant-garde fashion, architecture, and kinetic art. What has been the most unexpected inspiration or lesson you’ve encountered through these interdisciplinary projects?

It surprised me how much of a shared language there is between the different disciplines – the work has involved so many creatives from different fields – fashion designers, engineers, scientists, artists and architects, photographers, videographers and stylists. I particularly enjoyed working with architects like my partner Timothy Boll, and the engineers that I met at Living Architecture systems group – they’re used to designing at a much larger scale but at the end of the day it’s still all designed around the human body and how a person would interact with the space. It was interesting to learn more about how to integrate kinetic and interactive elements into larger-scale installations.