This January, there are three good reasons to stop by the COS store at Marina Bay Sands. One: the clothes, of course. Two: COS’s Lunar New Year collection, which includes a range of lucky bag charms. Three: the window, which currently spotlights a beautiful textile artwork by Amber Chen.
The Shanghai-based artist—who is one half of the buzzy, beloved Tanchen Studio—was in town last week to unveil her collaboration with COS. Her works are also showcased at the fashion brand’s stores in Beijing, Shenzhen and Kuala Lumpur. The collaboration materialised as a way to welcome the Chinese New Year; Chen’s shimmering textile creations reflect her interpretation of unity, togetherness and family ties.
The handwoven artworks also reflect Chen’s dexterity with a loom. The artist studied Textile Design at Central Saint Martins in London, before pursuing her master’s degree at the Royal College of Art. For her collaboration with COS, Chen created her handwoven artworks in her studio with a Japanese loom. She employed traditional jacquard weaving techniques in unexpected ways, resulting in the uneven textures of her artworks. The colours of the threads—maroon, gold and soft pink—also add to their striking appearance.
Below, Chen tells GRAZIA Singapore all about her COS collaboration, and how she brought her intricate textiles to life.
How did you come up with the concept for your collaboration with COS?
Amber Chen (AC): Because the collaboration is for the Lunar New Year, we wanted something more festive and which also matches COS’s Lunar New Year capsule collection. It’s also a celebration of springtime, so we wanted something to remind people of flowers blossoming. Something that creates a warm kind of feeling.
The artworks are part of your series, “The Unwrapped-Wrapper”. What sparked the idea for that series?
AC: That was the final collection for my master’s degree. I started this whole project from my own personal experience. I really enjoy food—not eating food itself, but looking at ingredients, or how food is prepared, or even how ingredients are laid out in a market. You can see so many different colours and textures. I’m also very interested in the plating of food, and how food packaging interacts with the ingredients. So this idea of having all that “information” wrapped together and then unwrapped and presented in a different way—that’s what I wanted to show in my textiles.
How long did it take you to create your artworks for COS?
AC: The first meeting I had with COS was in July 2024. I took about two months to come up with the idea for the artwork and put together some samples. The weaving part was the shortest part of the project. The design part took a much longer time. This is a jacquard weave, and it features some crazy structures. It is made with a mohair wool yarn and metallic yarns, so the fibres are very different. It can be quite difficult to weave different fibres together. You have to test a lot to see if they are “happy” with each other. If not, how can you adjust the structure of the weave? You also have to consider the colours, the finishing and the volume of the weave as well. And that’s the whole planning stage.
What is your favourite detail from the artworks in your COS collaboration?
AC: If you take a closer look at the artwork, there are a lot of floats—loose threads. But underneath those threads, there are layers with a different structure as well. Even below the surface, there are a lot of things going on in the artwork. So it’s like a celebration of different things. [In my artworks for COS] there are no front or back sides. Everything is on the right side.
How do you plan to spend the Lunar New Year?
AC: It’s just going to be a holiday! I was working through Christmas for my project with COS, as well as the collaboration’s launches [in Beijing, Shenzhen and Kuala Lumpur]. Singapore is the last stop for the whole collaboration. I am expecting to spend the Lunar New Year with my family in China.
The new year brings new beginnings. Is there anything new you want to try in 2025?
AC: This year, I’m going to try to bake a cake every month. As designers and artists, we always look at different things to get inspiration. I spent some time last month looking at beautiful cream cakes that are very intricate. I thought it would be very interesting to try baking them this year.
READ MORE
Meet Lauren Clay, The Artist Behind The Trippy Window Displays At Hermès Liat Towers
#GraziaGameChangers: Sanchia Tan On How Design, Textiles And Weave Are Intertwined
Meet Charmaine Poh, The Singapore Artist Examining Social Relationships And Issues Through Art
