Yilin (Leah) Gao

Yilin (Leah) Gao is an unconventional designer. Having trained and worked in the financial field, she did not have any artistic background before studying at the Royal College of Art. The great turning point in her career path, the collision of rationality and sensibility, enabled her to treat design as a medium that can help people to find their true selves.

My design is not limited by form, material or topic. Experimentalism and playfulness are the main characteristics throughout my work. I tend to realise the interaction between people and objects, to give the initiative to the wearer and equality to the object. I believe that design is only one part of creation, and that the creation can be completed only when it is reinterpreted by the wearer.

A designer never knows the ending. The ending is never the end.