Taiwanese-American fashion designer Olivier Green was eliminated halfway through the most recent season of Project Runway, but he made a name for himself with simple yet individualized designs that he hopes will attract investors.
In a recent interview with Central News Agency in New York, the 23-year-old designer said that, after leaving the show, he had been busy designing and was looking for financial backing to launch his own brand.
Green was the youngest designer during the Project Runway season, which was broadcast from July 28 to Oct. 27 in the US, and he finished eighth among 16 contestants, perhaps not the ideal launching pad for a new fashion line.
However, his style of integrating different textures and materials, from leather and wool to plastic and cambric, into classical designs caught the attention of the judges during the show and that is the direction his collection is going to take, he said.
Instead of using vivid colors, or bold and wild designs like most young Western designers, Green’s simple and restrained designs reflect his Asian roots.
Designs are a way of “having my own voice,” he said.
Unlike most designers who enjoy a life of partying, the reserved Green said he enjoys walking around looking at different structures and that he had drawn inspiration for his fashion aesthetic from architectural design.
Green, who has dyed blond hair and speaks English more fluently than Chinese, was born in Ohio, but he lived in Taiwan until the age of 16, when he moved to the UK to further his studies.
It was in the UK that his life underwent major changes.
Green said he became depressed because it was the first time he had to live independently.
He decided to change his Chinese surname — his Chinese name is Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) — to Green to help him overcome the depression and find himself again.
Prior to moving to the UK he had pursued his interest in music, but he later decided to switch to a fashion design and he eventually moved to Milan, Italy.
Though his run on Project Runway did not end the way he had hoped, he said competing on the show allowed him to grow and present his works to important figures in the fashion world.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South