Chinese Jewelry Brand Turned Prosthetics Into Wearable Art

**Prosthetics Jewelry Collection by YVMIN**

This article is originally from Vogue

The Story Behind the Collection of Prosthetics

Xiao Yang, a Chinese influencer and model, has been wearing a prosthetic leg for almost 20 years now. Despite the saying that nowadays she feels like it’s a part of her, it has not always been like that. It has a personal challenge and it was difficult to feel good with herself when it comes to dressing up., “In high school, when I was very eager to dress up, I thought that the prosthetic limbs affected my external beauty”, she tells Vogue.

“Wearing a prosthesis also caused one side of my buttocks to be deformed. I [still] feel unsafe if I wear tight pants or tops that are shorter than the buttocks—like [I’m] being exposed. I wore T-shirts and straight pants for a long time.”
Xiao Yang

But as time went on, Yang began experimenting more with her fashion choices and she began to find herself and wanting her prosthetic to reflect her sleek, modern style – yes, graphic t-shirts included-. But, earlier this year, she met Xiaoyu Zhang and Min Li, the creators of the brand YVMIN, and together they came up with an incredible idea: “What if we treat prosthetics like wearable art?”.
The YVMIN brand is known for creating delicate, feminine jewelry and this was the perfect opportunity for the creators to challenge themselves and to bring extra happiness to someone else through their work.

“When we saw Xiao sharing her OOTD photos on social media with her strong personal style, we thought it would be a good opportunity,”
YVMIN

Xiao was immediately on board with the idea because it meant her prosthetic would become a piece of art. And the best part? She could wear it, “This project tells everyone that wearing a prosthesis is a fact that cannot be changed—but wearing a prosthesis that looks gorgeous is also achievable (…) there will definitely be more people who need to experience it.” Now, this brand made it possible to use your prosthesis as an accessory and has already created three different decorative shells that can be worn over the prosthetic leg. Some of them have little details such as a heart-shaped “knee cap”.

To create these very special pieces, the designers had to take 3D scans of Yang’s prosthetic limbs and legs in order to make a structure that could easily fit over them. The shells are made of nylon and resin, “This lightweight material can ensure that the shell will not burden Xiao”, one of the designers says, “We used vacuum plating to give the resin and nylon materials a metallic luster (..) We also inlaid jewels, like purple zircon, on it.”

Their idea and collection has a success that conquered many fans online because it was more than just cool visual content and some users identified with this very special collaboration, “I myself wear a prosthesis, but I have never seen such beauty,” commented one user.

“We [hope this project] lets more people pay attention to the decorations that can be used for prosthetics. Prosthetic wearers can have their favorite accessories without replacing expensive prosthetics. We hope that our design and creation can give people more choices, no matter which group they belong to—this is our motivation for the future.”