Ying Gao

Ying Gao has been a fashion designer and professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) École supérieure de mode since 2003. Her interactive projects are experimental creations that often involve a metaphor for a social issue or a visual interpretation of a great author’s ideas. Among the themes addressed are incertitude, security, neutrality, and absence.

Her automated dresses and coats light up or move, usually activated by the spectator’s voice, facial expression, gaze or fingerprints.

Her approach questions the very concept of clothing, which she considers a medium of expression.

This blend of fashion and technology is made possible thanks to the engineering work of Simon Laroche, a long-time collaborator of Ying Gao.

Ying Gao’s always experimental, one-of-a-kind garments are created for collectors and museums. They have been the subject of solo exhibitions, notably at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and have been presented in over 80 group exhibitions around the world. The work of Ying Gao has attracted international press coverage from magazines like Vogue and Dazed and Confused and the New York Times newspaper.

Ying Gao, 2019 © Malina Corpadean. Photo courtesy of Ying Gao