Eden Tan: CSM Interview

CSM has been the breeding ground for many of fashion’s bright and bravest designers over the past couple decades. Every year the industry stops and stares in admiration and amazement to watch the latest offerings from the most recent graduates collection.

So many fresh and exciting ideas packed into one show, it’s hard to stand out on a catwalk covered in creativity. However, for this year's L’Oreal Pro Young Talent Award attracting attention was never going to come into any doubt but Eden definitely was not prepared. 

Were you planning for the reaction you’ve had so far?

I wasn't really prepared for it. I mean, for now. Just making sure you don't let it go to your head and you reply to every message because, they're all really nice … it’s an honour for people to actually reach out with any sort of message. You don't let it get old, basically.

Where does your interest in fashion originate from? 

It's funny because for me and a lot of my peers it's not the most romantic entrance to fashion. It's like through things like the basement and supreme.

But for me, I'm not making fashion because I necessarily love fashion. In a way, this project I've just done is kind of a rebellion against fashion. It's kind of to say, a lot of fashion isn't really thinking too fundamentally. It's kind of going from season to season tinkering around the edges, and it's never really pushing the envelope. For me, fashion is kind of..,well I don't love fashion and fashion culture. It's more that I just have an interest in fabrics and materials, soft materials.

I've indulged myself in the process of making clothes. I now understand it quite well that I can now riff off of some of the nuances of how things are made or how things are printed and doing whole projects around that … I've just spent the last four years dealing with fabric. And that's where I'm at at the moment.

The collection was a beautiful balance of precision sewing and impactful performance. Taking style essentials and transforming them into technical wonders, homogenizing ready-to-wear, sustainability and au couture into one. Eden stated, “So, like this whole project is about how you know conventional garments are made and going against that, but equally that could be done in a different like product design field. You start learning about how injection moulding is done, and then you start building from that core understanding of how things are made.”

‘On Borrowed Fabric’ was a great collection, do you think we’re on borrowed time?

That was kind of one of the references for the name, fashion is running on borrowed time and I’m trying to challenge conventions in order to open the conversation that needs to be had about fashion’s waste problem. Without sounding too wanky, I feel like I’m borrowing it from humanity, having my fun with it and then leaving it intact so I can hand it back. You know, I didn’t grow it. I didn’t plant it. I didn’t weave it. I just bought it … It’s not the end of the road for this fabric, it’s in my hands for a bit, and then eventually when it’s not relevant. Then it’s going to go to a charity shop and someone’s going to pick it up and be like, ‘Oh, time to make a pair of jeans out of that denim,’ and, you know, it can continue the borrowed time thing.

Do you know Schrodinger’s Cat? 

It's a thought experiment. The scientist puts a cat in a box. Then until you open the box, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time, OK? And so with this project, you could call it ‘Schrodinger's Fashion Collection’. Until it's remade into a new role into a new, um, collection or new garments. It both exists as my collection and as a role of fabric.

You mentioned in an interview with WWD that to create your garments you had to come up with an arsenal of techniques - did this take much research into sewing history in order to know what new grounds to cover?

A lot of my research is primary. Like I did start the project by, you know, there's so many examples throughout history of square cutting, no offcuts, like for instance a kilt or a sari, or a kimono.

You know I lifted some of that quite directly into the collection, like there's a kilt in the collection. It just extends back a bit more. But other than that, I shouldn't have said an arsenal of techniques because it wasn't really an arsenal. It’s pretty simple stuff used in the right way. Maybe it was difficult to end up where I got but, what's quite nice about the collection for me is that in a minute, I could show you how it all dresses up. 

But a lot of my work or why I love this work so much is because it really brings the audience on board with the construction of the garment. It really removes that blurred area between the customer and manufacturer. People get to know how these garments are made, and it starts to empower people. I made it but say it was mass produced then It's starting to empower people to understand how things are made and have an appreciation for the people that make it. It's kind of trying to demystify how things are made, and obviously it's not going to have that profound of an impact.

But in theory, it starts people thinking about, ‘Oh how was this jumper I bought at Primark made? Oh, it was made by a human, and who's paid this and that.’ Hopefully you know it has that sort of impact.

What’s your favourite part about developing new techniques? The research, the tinkering, the showcase?

My work is very logical. If there's a problem, I quite like solving it, even though the problem doesn't need to be solved. There are times where I will try to come up with a whole system to mass produce something, even when I only need to make one. I just like the exercise for my brain.

This project was a lot of problem solving, like the original idea for the project was so different. All the looks were going to be connected, and it was gonna be one roll of fabric and then working out how the fabric would come off of the roll.

That's I feel so connected to the work because it feels like there's engineering which went into different parts of it, And when you all have it planned out for a classic straight runway the show runner says, ‘OK, the runway is going to be a zig-zag.’

Every problem is an opportunity. It worked out so nicely, you walk around with the roll and then it feels like there was a force field on that runway which stopped the rolls going past a certain point. And that's why they unrolled, they go around and then suddenly they have to unroll. Working out things like that is very fun. It is difficult. Not, um not necessarily like hard work, but it is difficult.

When you are at a loss and you don't know how you're gonna make bows without cutting into the fabric. It does take a bit of perseverance to have faith in the concept and also the integrity to say, ‘it has to be like this’, The fabric has to be undamaged.

Tutors would ask ‘But why don’t you just cut that bit off and then it will work’, they would say. Because as soon as I do that the whole project is meaningless.

Going through your socials, you immediately get the sense that friendship and people are very important to you. How do these relationships, if at all, shape your creative vision?

One of the most exciting things of this past year, has just being around friends. Working towards the same deadlines and being able to talk about it.

I'm the youngest child, so I need constant validation on things, even though I can be quite strong minded and know what I want it to be. A lot of people make quite a fuss about being in fashion and see it as the end of the world when something goes wrong. Personally, I've picked to do this degree, which is in itself quite self indulgent. I get to do this thing every day. I get to mess around with fabric every day. I don't really like the idea of it looking at it like it's not. such a luxury.

I don't really know how other people feel about their own practice. But for me, it's my entire life and it's the only thing I'm really interested in. My brother's are the same way. My dad would say it's his influence and my mum would say it’s hers. My parents are very hardworking, and I wouldn't necessarily say it was pushed on us. but somehow we just get our kicks from doing. The sense of achievement, the feeling when you're doing something all on your own and you manage to do it. Nothing compares.

Taking a deep dive on your instagram to your second ever post, what can you tell me about this bum bag? And what do you feel looking at it now after your debut award winning collection?

I don't know. It's a bit of a stupid project, but I was only 16. There's not really much critique I can give it because it was just the rumblings of wanting to make stuff with material, having an idea of making it, you know.

It's nice to leave it up because it's just honest about what it is. It's quite nice to see the evolution. You know, I was young. I think I was going to a festival, so I made it. 

What festival?

Reading Festival.

What are your plans going on forward from this historic runway show?

At the moment, there's a lot of shit which has piled up in my life because I've been putting it to the side. I like to pick stuff up off of the street. So there's just loads of broken stuff in my house, which I need to fix before I sell it.

So there's like that getting in the way of my parents, who I live with, and they get on my tail about it aha. There's lots of design projects, which I just have been thinking about over the past three months, which I've just wanted to do. It's basically clearing that backlog first and hopefully with a bigger following, it can maybe lead to something, but we will have to wait and see.

In this time of copy & paste design and money motivated manufacturing, more and more ‘designers’ and brands feel like they lack so much authenticity and originality. What drives you to stand on your own two feet and be an individual in an era dominated by copycat creatives?

I think a lot of fashion is very self referential. It looks at the previous collection, and then it works out how to tweak that and to sell more stuff. I've always just wanted to do something a bit more,. I guess a bit more fundamental, a more fundamental comment on the world. I think I've always wanted to do that, and I will always do that. I will always be myself. But it is a really amazing feeling that I’m now, Starting to find the people that are understand that and are looking forward to what comes next. It’s quite an amazing feeling.