The Form And Meaning Of "Chinese Elements"

In every season's fashion show, we can see more or less the use of "Chinese elements". In fact, in the international fashion design world, few fashion brands do not take Chinese material as the source of inspiration, whether Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen or Chanel or Tom Ford as the artistic director of YSL. I feel the great use of "Chinese elements" by foreign masters. If you take away the Chinese elements in their costumes, they will still be a complete garment, because designers always blend all the elements and details they want.

I have made a series of women's clothing design with the theme of "Flowing Clouds and flowing water". I chose the fabric like the texture of Xuan paper, and then printed it with wild grass and fine brushwork. I think it is similar to the feeling and feeling of ancient literati reading and wind blowing through the pages of the book, that is the feeling of running clouds and flowing water. At the same time, the pattern of women's clothing was set up as the details of the popular waist line and shoulder drop in the Tang Dynasty, but eventually the series was evaluated by many people as "French China". But this is the unavoidable prerequisite. I am Chinese, and I deeply obsessed with all the culture of this mysterious country, and my youth's acceptance of art in France. Therefore, more from a story as a premise to think about a design background, from a plot of imagination to extract, create design, hoping to bring cultural artistic conception to clothing. In this series, in order to pursue the sense of cloud and water, cutting time also made me spend a lot of time. First I consulted many familiar foreign designers, they gave a lot of solutions, but in the end, they still used stereoscopic cutting, no use of petticoat or substitutes, and made full use of the tough texture of the yarn material to create the desired effect.

On the other hand, from the current situation of domestic industry, we can not effectively support designers to create and design freely. Speaking of printing and dyeing, I personally like to use "rendering" fabric, inkjet printing paper, semi transparent silk material will produce just like Xuan paper and Chinese painting effect, but do digital printing on silk fabric, domestic manufacturers need to do batch work. If I make a single sample for the next season, only a few meters to 50 meters... They will not take orders. Once in order to solve this printing problem, they used French imported pigment to ask the designers in the team to make hand painted fabrics. This situation is far from the overseas design industry. As far as I know, in the UK, student designers can get very cheap printing services, or even free. From this point of view, it is difficult for China to have a local designer. After all, in a mature design industry, we will get a lot of cooperation to achieve a burst of inspiration. For example, the John Galliano I worked for, the design department came out with a new design. If embroidery technology is involved, the embroidery department will be responsible for the related design and material utilization to achieve the desired effect.

We should also understand the "Chinese elements" and even the "Oriental elements" from a broad perspective. It is not narrow. It can be understood simply from the surface phenomena of Chinese red and silk fabrics. This has long been a widely used material in the design world. China has such a long history and diverse culture, and at the same time, it is also a special element of the ethnic minorities. For example, the Miao silver elements made by hand can be integrated into the design of clothing. After improvement, I have designed a bonnet based on Miao silver, fur and veil.

Will you always use "Chinese elements" as inspiration for design? Of course, I will continue to make new Chinese elements design, not only for a new season, but a series of ways to extend it. He will appear in different stories and different forms in your unexpected place. It will represent a certain spirit of a certain kind of people. Chinese elements should be the inheritance of the attitude of history and tradition, which is a comprehensive design consideration.