'Victorious Voices' with Haoyue Zhao

Meet Haoyue Zhao, the winner of the FIDA Student Excellence in Visual Art, Graphics & Illustration Award and a talented SCAD Fashion Design student. Haoyue is making waves in the digital fashion world, using tools like CLO and Blender to push boundaries and merge fashion, art, and innovation. With a vision to broaden her audience, she aims to take fashion into truly unimaginable places.

Is being an artist your full-time profession, or more of a personal passion?
I don’t think I’m an artist, at least not yet. I am a SCAD Fashion Design student, working hard to complete my MFA graduation project. In the future, I hope to continue working in various areas related to fashion design.

Have you entered the awards before, and if so, how many times? If it’s your first time, what made you apply or influenced you to take the plunge?
I have participated in FIDA competitions twice, which were recommended by the school for students to join. Quite a few of my works made it to the shortlist. Most of the pieces I submitted before were hand-drawn fashion illustrations.

How did you feel when you found out that you had won the award, and what do you hope to gain by winning?
When I learned that I had won the award, I was traveling in Mexico. Due to poor internet connection, I had to refresh multiple times to see the results. I was quite excited because I had already submitted many works, and almost all the pieces in the shortlist were outstanding. I hope this award will help more people learn about me and my work because, as a student, my social media and personal website currently lack visibility and high traffic.

What does this recognition mean to you as an artist?
I believe it can help me gradually transition from being a student who is only active within campus to becoming a quasi-artist capable of independently reaching a broader fashion audience and social media presence.

Can you share what inspired the winning piece and tell us a bit about your process/what mediums you used?
I want to call the award-winning piece "Desert Queen." It is a virtual fashion project mainly created using CLO software. The inspiration for this collection comes from a poem by a young Chinese director: "To find you, I moved into the bird’s eye, watching the passing wind at all times." I really love this line, as I think it expresses an indescribable deep longing. Therefore, I chose design elements related to the concepts of birds, wind, and longing, such as feathers, the moon, long gauze that reflects the flow of wind, a bird’s pupil, and a flower called forget-me-not. I combined and rearranged these elements to design many prints. At the same time, I believe that intense longing can dry up a person’s heart, like being in a desperate desert. So, I used the desert to construct the main scene of the work.

During the creation of the piece, I downloaded a large number of 3D models to assist with scene construction. Meanwhile, I am trying to learn and integrate the use of Blender, Daz 3D, and CLO, along with PS and AI. Although CLO excels in pattern-making, it has limitations in scene construction. I hope these software tools can work together to build a fragmented, surreal virtual fashion space distinct from reality, which helps expand the boundaries of imagination and aesthetics. Nowadays, people are increasingly accustomed to building their own kingdoms in the virtual world. Fashion should naturally follow suit, which is also part of what I want to explore.

Is there anything that would you like people to know about you and your work?
I am a student, a young designer, and an art enthusiast. I was once a history major, so most of my works focus on historical, cultural, and social events. I see fashion as a form of self-expression that can carry social responsibility. I consider digital fashion and hand-drawing to be my strengths and highlights in my work. Additionally, I enjoy exploring various technical means such as 3D printing. I hope fashion can break free from some of the traditional limitations of materials and techniques and become more "unimaginable."

Will this recognition influence the themes or direction of your future work?
I think this recognition will allow me to further affirm my efforts in digital fashion. At the same time, I will continue to learn broadly and accumulate more knowledge and experience in the fashion field.

What advice would you give to other artists hoping to achieve similar recognition?
I believe my advice is to keep learning. The fashion industry, over the past few centuries, has not been a technologically advanced industry. I think it has always been relatively slow in response. Many designers I know still work in relatively traditional ways. However, the development of technology is changing rapidly. Everyone is talking about AI and the virtual world. Designers’ learning scope should not be limited to sewing machines and looms. Our thinking should be more open, realising that everything seemingly unrelated to fashion could be applied to it in some way. Therefore, continuous learning is particularly important.

Is there someone or something you’d like to dedicate this achievement to?
I want to thank the two teachers who taught me to use CLO and build scenes, Kori Smith Urso and Mengjie Di. They are both SCAD professors, and they made me realise the possibilities of CLO.

What’s next for you in your artistic journey?
Next, I will focus on my graduation project, which is related to cultural resistance and the punk movement. It has a streetwear vibe and is a very interesting theme. I will also use various 3D software to construct a more surreal virtual fashion world beyond physical garments. I hope my work can be seen by more people.