Fashion Designer Chu Yan On Traditional Chinese Clothing Inheritance

Last November 10th, 21 leaders and spouses wore

The main design of the "new suit", to participate in the APEC state banquet, in the banquet hall outside the "Asia Pacific family photo".

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 did Chu Yan design the "new suit" 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 2014 International Art Salon in January 10th.

Beauty, and tells the story behind the APEC costume.

Because of APEC leaders

Before entering the public view, Chu Yan has been very famous in the industry.

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 be 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."

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At the age of 18, Kris was admitted to Belgium's prestigious Royal College of Art in Antwerp.

"Everything started from that time."

He thought back.

He has a very high opinion of his alma mater. It is precisely after he graduated from Paris in 1998 that he made two unintentional actions: "I came to Paris - though I really don't like it here - and then began to design men's clothing, which I have never met before."

(because he repaired women's clothing in school.

Why did he make this unexpected choice? Because this is a chance anyone can hardly refuse: I got a four month internship in Yves Saint Laurent.

"I thought at the time that I could save time for myself and find a job that would really suit me."

Of course, the end of the story is also surprising, because this is not an ordinary internship.

In Saint Laurent, Kris served as assistant to Hedi Slimane. At that time, although Hedi Slimane had not become such a dazzling star today, he began to reap the attention and applause from the successful commercially selling and tailored men's clothing design.

The four month internship has been pformed into a six year formal job. Kris followed his famous fashion instructor in 2000 and left Saint Laurent to Dior in charge of men's wear design.

After that, he worked quietly for 4 years behind the scenes, helping Hedi rebuild Dior Homme from one series to another, making it a real leading brand in the men's clothing industry. Its very fine men's profile is the definition of the clothing style of young boys and girls around the world in the next ten years.

However, Kris's aesthetic perception is very different from that of his former boss. The designer said he learned more about the actual operation level than the creativity level when he worked for Yves Saint Laurent and Dior Homme.

"I can see how a fashion series was constructed at first, and how all the departments around it work together, such as publicizing public relations, marketing and so on. These are the knowledge that I can't really touch in Antwerp, though this school is excellent.

To launch Dior Homme as an assistant to Hedi is absolutely a very important thing for me, because at that time, I realized that the buttons on my coat did not fall from the sky without any reason.

You have to make these buttons yourself; if you want a brand logo on buttons, you have to button logo on your buttons.

The designer said that in those years he served as assistant for Hedi, it could be described as a "six years' process of verification."

He also found, "it's not enough to be a good designer, and you have to have a very good team to help you."

Because what you can do on your own is very limited. You have to let everyone do what they are good at.

This is my greatest understanding. "

It is a rare necessity for him to take the stride forward.