Being a fashion student on one of the world’s most prestigious design courses is arduous work for anyone — sleepless nights and excruciatingly early mornings are just part and parcel. But for 23-year-old Samson Leung, the process hasn’t exactly been traditional. “I would stay up til 3 or 4 in the morning making slime,” the Hong Kong-born creative tells SLEEK. Yes, you read that right — slime. What sounds like a Shrek-esque activity has in fact formed the basis of the young designer’s graduate collection (even if it makes his small student apartment sound more like Dexter’s laboratory than a comfortable place to rest after a long day’s work). “It’s really not the ideal situation,” Leung explains. “One time I’d just made this fresh batch of liquid slime and I knocked the drying rack and everything just went everywhere. I’ve wasted so much slime!”
Granted, it’s not exactly out of the ordinary to try and push the boundaries of materials in fashion. From 3D-printed this and heat-tech that, we’re inundated with so many “smart” designs that even the news of legitimately wearable Tinder was barely cause to bat an eyelid. But when an email from the soon-to-be CSM grad popped up in our inbox, we were intrigued. Garments from gunk? We asked Leung to tell us more.
First things first, why slime?
(Laughs) Well the slime thing actually started when I was in Japan on my placement year. I was getting more into film then and experimenting with pushing the boundaries of fashion film. At that point I was really intrigued by dramatic brains, the ones you see on TV, and I was thinking of ways to recreate these through texture. It was also the same time that this whole Instagram slime obsession took off, you remember?
Yeah!
So one day after work I tried to make it myself, trying out different recipes. A lot of them didn’t work at all — most of them actually, but some did. So then I started to think about how I could use this material as a fabric.
And how was that process?
Difficult. I ended up spending three months trying different recipes to make the perfect slime. Some batches would be too flakey when they dried, almost like snowflakes, and then I couldn’t make clothing out of them because it was so fragile. But I’m naturally quite ambitious and I’m very interested in handcrafted techniques, so I just kept experimenting until I found the recipe.
But is it safe to wear?
When I made the collection my tutor often raised this question, like can people actually wear it? Would it scratch someone? So far it’s been fine. But it’s a very sculptural material to work with and no-one’s done it before, so it was quite tough for me. I invented a material myself, and I had to find out how to use this material in a fashion context.
So what are the properties of your slime? How is it to work with?
When it’s hot, it’s really flimsy — you can stitch it like leather; and then when it’s cool, it goes like cardboard — it’s very stiff and makes this papery kind of noise as you walk in it.
Do you see it catching on, do you see slime in fashion’s future?
So there you have it folks. Get slimed.