“’Future Relics’ comes from this idea of something very ancient combined with something that is very modern and futuristic,” Grace Ling said backstage before her show. She returned to the runway, bringing both her one-of-a-kind garments made using 3D printing and her ready-to-wear for spring.
She reported that she finds inspiration in “found objects,” an idea she used on handbag details — daggers as handles — and charms, 3D printed in silver. “Technology and traditional methods of craft,” she said, are the duality she seeks in her work.
The craft came in black satin suiting with tapered waist jackets and second skin skirts or languid skin-baring jersey dresses. A 2023 Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund alum, Ling’s technology-meets-the sensual style has people taking notice and she had a few heavy hitters walk the runway — Ashley Graham, Quannah Chasinghorse and Precious Lee — and backstage too, snagging Patti Wilson as stylist.
“The garments are really savage. I think maybe it’s an embodiment of myself. I’m calm and I’m shy, but my garments are not,” she said of the range of velvet burnout fabric on dresses and jackets, each on mesh, creating skin baring moments of transparency.
“I like concealing and revealing the body, but in a very elegant way,” she said, with a closing look of silver branches shooting over the body, barely covering the model. It brought a dose of the high fashion dystopian drama she was seeking.
