Saint Laurent's Imagination Of The East Is Unimaginable.

There are many commercial considerations from curatorial exhibitions to invitation letters this year. Business belongs to business and fashion to fashion. On the red carpet, the landscape of dragons wearing Phoenix and green dragons red coincides with the hidden lines of the mirror. At least in the fashion industry, Western imagination of the East has not made any essential progress, and China seems to be addicting to the self fantasy of "Chinese star contracting MET Gala". In fact, there is nothing to be proud of.

The "Chinese series" introduced by fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in 1977 was the most sensational presentation of western style designers to the "Chinese style". Saint Laurent, who has never been to China, with rich imagination, applies the traditional elements of Liriodendron, pair of buttons, buttons and official hat to the tailoring of western style garments, and quickly catches the attention of the whole fashion world. That year, Yves Saint Laurent launched the famous opium perfume later.

38 years later, the imagination of China continues. This year's MET Gala almost reproduced the Yves Saint Laurent T stage show. MET Gala, known as "New York Metropolitan Museum of Art charity dance", is held in early May each year. It is a celebrity gathering before the opening ceremony of the Museum of fashion academy. Since Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of the American edition of Vogue, took over the party and supervised the main business such as charitable gain and guest invitation, it has gradually become the most important social activity in New York every year. It has the reputation of "fashionable Oscar" and the admission fee is as high as 25000 dollars.

Until last year, MET Gala's gossip was only circulating in a small area. This year, because of the theme of "China: the moon and the moon" and the collective drop of the Chinese legion, it quickly occupied the height of the topic of social interaction. Guests attending the party will be asked to wear costumes related to the exhibition theme, so we can see piles of buttons, shoulders, cranes and poppies. Even though Rihanna's "egg pie" skirt that has been tucked up for thousands of times is nothing but a rough copy of the Dragon Robe symbol, it is stacked by complex embroidery.

No progress has been made in the fashion industry for the use of Chinese elements.

"China: mirror and water moon" to some extent is not a real China, but a fantasy about China, a sharing between East and West. He said so. Since its early 1970s, the Fashion Institute's annual special exhibition has been one of the most attractive exhibitions in Metropolitan Museum of Art every year, but it is just not the MET Gala as the foreplay.

In the preparation process, Andrew Bolton learned a little-known detail: Yves Saint Laurent's most prestigious Chinese series is actually one of the most "unworthy" collections in fashion history. The inspiration for this series does not come from China, but from the Josef express von express of Shanghai, a Hollywood production film featuring an English prostitute story, directed by an Austrian director and a German actor.

During the British Empire, there was an indoor game called the "Chinese Whispers", a group of people whispering the message through the whispered game, and the information was finally distorted several times. Since the beginning of communication with China in sixteenth Century, the West has been yearning for mysterious places. "However, the distance between time and space has aggravated the romantic misunderstanding of China. This is also the message that the exhibition hopes to convey." He introduced.

The three floor of the Metropolitan Museum delineated the scope of the exhibition. At the entrance, you can hear the familiar background music of "I love Beijing Tiananmen". Behind the dusty 1970s clothes is the "sunny day" playing. Over 100 fashion items are on display here, and have spanned over 200 years since eighteenth Century. In addition to Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford and Karl Lagerfeld, there are many "Chinese faces" among designers, including Guo Pei, Wu Jigang, Xu Jianshu and Marco, who designs clothing for Peng Liyuan. The museum will also display ancient Chinese decorative arts, including jade, lacquerware, cloisonne, and blue and white porcelain. These are mostly collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In an exhibition hall called "water moon", Maison Martin Margiela and Dior in John Galliano era are displayed. The exhibits are inspired by Chinese Peking Opera and Japanese Kabuki, and are projected into the center of a pool of water, reflecting a seemingly empty reflection.

"The basic concept of exhibition is Chinese aesthetics. Designer But I also want to express how the costumes and decorative arts make the cultural exchanges between the East and the West concrete in the past century. They prove that the mysteries and mysteries of the mysterious objects and patterns are full of illusion, nostalgia and romance, and create a virtual China. Andrew Bolton would like to explore how China constantly develops these illusions, and why are those outdated styles assembled into a distinct image?

Wong Kar Wai was invited to be the artistic director of the exhibition, while Zhang Shuping supervised style design. The two films are important materials for Western imagination in China's imagination. They are interspersed with scenes like Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou and Kaige Chen, annotating the image of China. At the same time, some unique Chinese women, such as Song Meiling, Empress Dowager Ci Xi and Gu Weijun's third wife, Huang Hui LAN, are also showing their images. They have defined the image of Chinese women in the West in a certain episode of history.

"Many patterns and Culture Images are lost in translation. " Andrew Bolton said. Western design for the interpretation of eastern culture and even misreading, as well as Oriental design in the western world before a variety of ways of display, based on the exchange of two different cultures, but communication itself may be misplaced.

This is not the first Metropolitan Museum of Art curatorial exhibition featuring Chinese clothing. In 1980, the museum displayed the cheongsam of Qing Dynasty on the theme of "Manchuria dragon, Chinese Qing Dynasty dress". Orientalism introduced in 1994 the traditional costumes of China, India and Japan.

"When Western designers think of the image of China, the first thing that will appear in their minds is China in eighteen or nineteenth Century." Andrew Bolton Say. The earliest recognition of China in the West originated in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. A large number of missionaries brought back the fine artifacts and traditional skills of classical China. Their records of Chinese culture settled the Chinese in the minds of the western public. Louis Xiv was dressed in Chinese style clothes and was lifted from the eight people's sedan chair. The moral system from the East even outlined the ideal model of Voltaire. In the field of art, the Rococo movement of collecting and imitating Chinese handicrafts was launched, and porcelain was once popular.

These missionaries are the first "whisperers". Their selective interpretation of Chinese culture has been repeatedly misread. The distance between space always leads to excessive romantic feelings.

By the time of the Republic of China, the number of Chinese and Western exchanges increased, and the specific image of China gradually became clear. When Chinese people are keen on western style objects, women are starting to fashion fashion with cheongsam. Wearing a high split cheongsam and painting a yellow eye cream with a high eye liner, the Oriental signboard was created through the big screen, and the images of Chinese women were linked with words such as laziness, vermilion, charm and mystery. Paradox is that in Hollywood, Huang Liushuang is a symbol of China, and in China, she is also regarded as a Hollywood star.

Saeed, who wrote the Orientalism, holds that the eastern society is constructed. Many people just look for memories in their imagination. When the earth becomes more and more flat and Chinese aesthetics tends to the west, the western art creators can only travel back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Republic of China and the cultural revolution, and draw inspiration from them.

When the mysterious novelty color gradually faded, China's image as a "luxury consumer power" has become more and more vivid. MET Gala can be regarded as an institution. Its name is "raising funds for museums", but it has developed into the best display platform for brands, attracting almost every important designer, model and actor. Under the leadership of wartour, the institution has raised over $145 million in funding for the clothing Institute. Participants were willing to take a 25 thousand dollar ticket and a minimum price of $175 thousand for each 10 person table.