Ying Gao

Ying Gao is a fashion designer who has been a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) École supérieure de mode since 2003. Her interactive projects are experimental creations that often involve a metaphor for a social issue or a visual interpretation of a great author’s ideas. Among the themes addressed are uncertainty, security, neutrality, and absence.

Ying Gao, 2019 © Malina Corpadean. Photo courtesy of Ying Gao

Her robotic dresses and coats light up or move, usually activated by the viewer’s voice, facial expression, gaze or fingerprints.

Her approach questions the very concept of clothing, which she considers a medium of expression.

This blend of fashion and technology is made possible with the help of Simon Laroche, who has engineered electronic components for Ying Gao for many years. She also hires undergraduate students from the École supérieure de mode to assist her in the studio with the design, production and promotion of her creations.

Ying Gao’s always experimental, one-of-a-kind garments are created for collectors and museums. They have been the subject of solo exhibitions, notably at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and been featured in over 100 group exhibitions around the world. The 2026 exhibition presented by the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Costume Art, includes one of Ying Gao’s interactive dresses.

© Mathieu Fortin. Photo courtesy of Ying Gao

Entitled Incertitudes, the piece explores the boundaries between the tangible garment and subtle elements in its surroundings.

Several institutions, such as M+, Museum of Contemporary Art , in Hong Kong, and the Musée de la Civilisation, in Quebec City, have acquired her work for their permanent collections. Ying Gao’s creations have been covered by major media outlets around the world like the magazines Vogue and Dazed and Confused and the New York Times newspaper.