Yuhan Xu

Shanghai, as a newly developing financial and trade center, is attracting more and more people. Imagine you come from a different city or even from a different country, to work or learn in this multi-cultural city. In the day time, you are a professional wearing a suit; during the night you want to be stylish to meet with friends or have a romantic date. In Shanghai, an enormous city, it seems impossible to go back home and dress up. This was the starting point for Yuhan to create an apron which could work in multiple situations. illycaffè’s project gave her the opportunity to develop an idea she had been thinking about for a long time. There is a Chinese saying: “Up to the hall, down to the kitchen”, which describes a person who shows graceful manners when working along with culinary skills in the kitchen. She believe that everyone is multifaceted: we are spirited and composed, soft and strong, unique and inclusive. Shanghai and its people where her inspiration as well. Her apron is multi-functional, turning into a top, a skirt, a dress that can be worn in multiple ways by folding and ruffling. Her design draws from shape of illycaffè’s signature coffee cup and aesthetics. The prints include an educational element, showing not only the process of coffee quality control, but also its natural beauty and the waste from the pattern cutting was re-assembled and re-used for the details.