"We feel for the most part that fashion is made of production, so you can't overlook that." Photography by Gerardo Somoza.

Social Work Spring 2019 Presentation

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Can you all tell me the meaning behind the name Social Work?

QI&nbsp;The name is Social Work because we always want to remind our customers that we&#39;re embracing workers rights. We wanted to call it [that] because we&#39;re building a bridge between the customer and the makers, so all of the garments we create have a specific code, and you can search to see who made it and you&#39;ll see the specific person who made the clothes.

ZHANG&nbsp;We have a database on our website. You can search a code and then you can see the individual workers that have been contributing to the garments, how long it took them to make it and where it&#39;s made &mdash; information like that. We want to educate our customers.

QI&nbsp;And then aesthetic-wise, we are always inspired by what the workers wear as well.

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What decades were you inspired by? 

QI So we were inspired by the 60s, both in the West and the East. So in the West, it&#39;s all about liberation, youth, counterculture, and then in China, we had the opposite. We had the Great Cultural Revolution, so everyone [was] oppressed. So the contrast we think is really interesting.

ZHANG&nbsp;A lot of it is bringing these juxtapositions of the two different cultures, blending them together, and then presenting it to our customers so they can form their own opinion. I think it&#39;s an interesting contrast.

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Why do you think it&#39;s important to mix the two? Has there always been a disconnect?

QI Yeah, there&#39;s always been a really extreme disconnect, so it can be really convincing since we are Chinese to talk about it, and since a lot of the factories employ Chinese workers. So much of American fashion is made by Chinese workers, why don&#39;t we get to see them?

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What are some things you&#39;ve learned at Parsons that you feel has really helped you be able to launch your own brand?

QI&nbsp;I think at Parsons we focused on a lot of conceptual thinking. We learned that you always need to have a cultural reference, and then a concept behind your collection to make your story really strong.&nbsp;

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Visit&nbsp;<a href="https://socialworkny.com" target="_blank">Social Work</a>&nbsp;for more information.&nbsp;

Social Work is a New Fashion Brand Bringing Attention to Workers' Rights

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Social Work is a New Fashion Brand Bringing Attention to Workers' Rights

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