APEC Fashion Designer Chu Yan On Traditional Chinese Clothing Inheritance

In November 10th last year, 21 leaders and spouses were dressed in the "new suit" designed by Chu Yan to take part in the APEC state banquet and take the "Asia Pacific family portrait" outside the banquet hall.

At the end of 2013, the APEC Organizing Committee began to collect the leader's costume design plan, and the more than 100 design teams submitted more than 1000 sets of programmes, and finally Chu Yan's design came to the fore.

How does Chu Yan's "new suit" designed by the chief designer stand out from the more than 1000 set of programmes?

In January 10th, he invited Chu Yan as the guest speaker at the end of the 2014 international art exhibition of Nandu International Art Salon. He talked about the evolution of Chinese ancient fashion styles, shared the beauty of Chinese clothes in her eyes, and told the story behind the APEC costume.

Chu Yan has become a celebrity in the industry because of the APEC leader's fashion design.

APEC fashion design work lasted nearly a year, after many modifications and discussions, Chu Yan participated in the whole process and had a deep understanding.

"How to inherit traditional Chinese clothing and how to innovate, all expert review teams and leading decision-makers are faced with perplexity.

It is at the beginning of the selection that whether we should pmit from where we are from the historical dynasties to the ethnic groups.

In the end, the leaders and spouses' clothing was designed with collar, pair of cardigan and shoulder sleeves. The men's coat was made of Song Jin fabric and jacquard sea water scarf, and the lady wore a cheongsam in addition to cardigan and shoulder sleeve sleeves.

The choice of fabric selection is due to its inclusion in the world's intangible cultural heritage. It is also known as "three famous brocade" with Yun Brocade and Shu brocade. Two, because song brocade can use computer jacquard machine to make.

In recent years, Chu Yan has been thinking about what kind of clothes he can wear to show the concept of China.

She studied a lot of Western designers, and felt that they only used Oriental style as a good visual element for clothing, without considering whether it accords with Chinese cultural etiquette.

"Did you use dragon, Phoenix, and these elements to make up Chinese clothing?

I don't think so.

Chu Yan believes that the most direct understanding of Westerners to Chinese is the aesthetic characteristics since the Qing Dynasty. However, from the Han and Tang Dynasties to the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, there are more advanced and more aesthetic ideas of Chinese culture in different periods.

"Knowing this, whether you use peony or other flowers, you will feel differently."