Bethy Yuhan Niu
I am a fashion designer with a focus on knitwear, exploring softness and structure through the combination of knit and woven materials. My work develops sculptural yet wearable silhouettes, balancing fluidity with construction. I focus on fully fashioned knitwear to reduce yarn waste, while using concealed construction and reduced seam lines to create clean surfaces and refined forms.
Still, The Water Murmurs
This project focuses on the traces left behind after water has passed. Water is fluid and transient, yet its influence continues to remain within the environment. Riverbeds, landscapes, and eroded boundaries retain the paths once carved by water, becoming quiet records of time and memory.
The collection uses knit as its primary language, combining knitted and structured materials to translate movement, residue, and transformation into garment form. The project particularly focuses on how material can carry traces and memory through texture, structure, and the process of wear. Soft knitted elements shift with the body and movement, while double-faced wool acts like land and riverbeds, preserving the trajectory and imprint of water. Together, they create a balance between fluidity and stability.
Research began through observing streams, reflective surfaces, and the rhythm of moving water, which later developed into textile and draping experiments. Techniques such as plating, irregular pleating, inlay, and the combination of contrasting yarns allow the fabrics to remain soft while maintaining structural integrity, keeping the garments in a continuous state of transition.
The project also considers a longer-term relationship between material and environment, seeking a more responsive approach to sustainability where materials continue to evolve through time, wear, and natural processes.
It begins with a trace of water
Soft, shifting, almost disappearing, yet something always remains…
The garment panels were developed based on river channel maps, translating the flow and contours of the landscape into construction lines. The combination of single-bed knit and pleating reflects layered landforms and shifting terrain. Inlay knit details at the trouser hems subtly brighten the overall look while adding movement and texture.
A look combining knitwear, cyanotype, and double-faced wool. The outerwear maintains an airy quality while holding a structured silhouette, with fringed edges falling like remaining traces of flowing water. The skirt transitions from heavy wool into lightweight cyanotype silk, creating a gradual sense of fading and disappearance.
The curved edges of the double-faced wool help hold and define the shape of the knitted sections, creating a balance between softness and structure. Inlay combined with single-bed transparent yarns enhances a sense of lightness, breathability, and layered texture.
She walks where water once passed…..
The river has receded, yet everything it has reshaped remains. Eroded edges, altered surfaces, and nearly invisible traces form a quiet record.
