The tartan pattern is more commonly composed of intricate lines of colours on a wool fabric and is more commonly associated with Scottish heritage since the XVIIe century (Neuville, 2013). Under the lens of the artist Chaney Diao, the tartan become more than a print. Loosing its materiality and digitalized the possibilities are enlarged and the pattern enters a new dimension, when not appliqué on a fabric it can be distorted, layered and each intersections uses as pixels for the purpose of futuristic image making in fashion. This synonym of tradition and Scottish national identity in the general view is extruded from its context and brought to a new interpretation, transcended on digital interfaces. Playful and meaningful her work of deconstruction is a representation of both renewal in the way fashion is treated yet including as a base an archaic symbol of fashion making.
 This first hint about Chaney Diao’s reemployment of the tradition could be seen as pretty obvious but we can argue that the whole hyphenation from the materiality of garments making is in fact and in essence a way to create through her unique vision the transition between tradition and modernity in fashion. Fashion is used for its imagery but not provoked in the sense that garments are not the finality of this project while still being part of a fashion design project in a modern and avant-gardist vision.



words by Marien Brandon