Deciphering "New Suits", APEC Designer Chu Yan Explains

At the welcoming dinner at the just concluded APEC conference in Beijing, leaders and ladies dressed in Chinese style.

Appearance, instantly attracted the eyes of the world.

The success of APEC's clothing has pushed the major designer behind Beijing Institute Of Fashion Technology, the associate professor of Beijing Institute Of Fashion Technology, Chu Yan, the top ten fashion designer in China for nearly a year.

Chu Yan

APEC clothing is now in shape, and how did it go through its tortuous design process? How did Chu Yan choose in terms of fabric, color and design details? On the afternoon of 19, the reporter came here.

The studio, listening to her telling us about those things behind the "new suit".

The first time I came near Chu Yan, I was surprised by her beauty.

In front of me, a charming woman sitting on the sofa in peacock blue Chinese style windbreaker, and I was as elegant and elegant as the clothes she designed, so our interview began.

Clothes rack

Bold use of cardigan to innovate Chinese clothing elements

"At the end of December last year, I received an invitation to APEC fashion design and did not submit the design plan until the first round of March this year.

During this period, we have been constantly exploring and experimentation with design sketches.

In fact, like most designers, the most puzzling part of the design stage is the choice of clothing styles.

The costumes of different dynasties in China have their own characteristics. In different periods, there are different representative costumes. In the end, what kind of clothing is the most representative and most representative of China?

"My practice is to do more, so the rate of selection is even higher.

We made 4 series.

One is the series of standing collar, the one which is familiar to everyone; the second is the set of collar, the last one, the last one, and the other one. Finally, it is the cross over collar set that is combined with the collar.

Although Chu Yan understatement of these, but I know that she must have paid a lot of painstaking efforts.

Although the style of "standing collar to cardigan" was finally chosen, it can not be said that it represents China completely.

"Where is the starting point of the new Chinese style?" from the very beginning, Chu Yan made clear that he did not stick to the direction of a certain historical period and the dress of a certain ethnic group. Instead, he tried to blend the characteristics of Chinese clothing for thousands of years, and boldly used the innovative Chinese clothing elements such as cardigan, which showed a warm, elegant and tolerant power.

After the design is the choice of patterns and colors.

Chu Yan and her team are preparing for many cases from the traditional Chinese aesthetic concept, the collocation of men's wear and women's wear.

Chu Yan's lips always emphasize "do more" and think of all the design options as best as possible.

No accident, she was elected.

Fabric pattern selection details to keep improving

At first, Chu Yan submitted only the red sample of the Imperial Palace.

After the confirmation of the style, after the expert evaluation and the improvement advice given by the leader, it is required that at least 4-5 colors should be designed for foreign leaders to choose freely.

Therefore, the deep red, blue, golden brown and black brown are developed on the basis of the red color of the Imperial Palace, which is based on Chinese traditional aesthetics, highlighting its dignified and mellow characteristics, and has more traditional color aesthetic meaning.

Choosing this low saturation color also circumvents the taboo of color saturation in some countries.

For the selection of fabrics, all the participants submitted the plan, including all the most exquisite fabric manufacturing processes in China, such as brocade and silk.

But the sponsor's requirements are silk fabric first, followed by brocade, which requires traditional patterns, not just plain colors, but the last requirement is not too luxurious.

"We searched for the three famous brocade in China, and finally set up the song brocade in Suzhou because it has the characteristics of matte light, and it is not flashy and expensive, but it is very consistent with the Chinese people's inner spirit."

Chu Yan introduced, "in general, the fabric of song brocade is relatively light. Considering that Beijing is already the early winter during the conference, the material has been adjusted, and wool yarns added in the weft are both warm and crisp.

Moreover, song brocade is the only computer in China that can use computer jacquard technology, so its production cost will not be too high.

If all manual weaving is adopted, time is not allowed, and the cost of manpower, material resources and financial resources is too high.

Song brocade and Zhang satin are not only suitable for the simple and elegant style of Chinese costume, but also the exquisite and exquisite of traditional patterns.

In the process of determining the patterns, many designers chose the "sea and river cliff pattern".

On the one hand, this is indeed the pattern often used in Chinese traditional costumes.

Secondly, from the Song Dynasty, the "sea and river cliff pattern" was widely applied not only to clothing, but also to porcelain, architecture, furniture and so on.

Finally, this pattern has a beautiful meaning, implying that the landscape is correspondingly and continuously, which indicates that the 21 economies of the APEC conference are friendly and mutually supportive.

APEC is the beginning of an exploration, not the end.

When I asked about the most difficult or tangled things in the whole process, Chu Yan was silent for a moment.

"In fact, the most difficult choice is the choice of styles.

I always want to find one that best represents Chinese characteristics, but we always have different opinions. "

But in the process of revising and arguing constantly, Chu Yan gradually clears up what exactly is the real time to represent China.

"In fact, in the selection process is still very entangled, every day is like riding a roller coaster."

Speaking of this, I can read her pride and excitement from the colorful words of Chu Yan.

She herself said that the reason for summing up the final selection was attributed to the adequacy of the preparations.

Although APEC has ended, our national costumes, even the national culture behind the costumes, still need people of insight, such as Chu Yan, to continue to publicize and promote.

For Chu Yan, has been preparing for a long time, ready to go.

Many years ago, she explored her clothing brand.

Who thinks, everything is rewarded today.

"China is known as the" Kingdom of clothes "and" the state of ceremonies ".

The sense of historical mission is very heavy.

If this meeting can let people start to understand and like new Chinese clothing, that's my happiest thing. "

"In the future, we will continue to explore new Chinese style clothes as before.

APEC can only be said to be the beginning of an exploration, not an end, nor a static one.

Chu Yan said.