New York, London, Compared With Creativity, Is More Suitable For Chinese Young Designers.

Compared to creative London, will commercial real New York be a better development option for young Chinese designers?

New York, USA, "London is suitable for young designers to become famous, Milan and Paris are top designers, but New York is too commercial." this is the fashionable cliche of the fashion industry for many years.

In London, many fashion rookie selection mechanisms and tolerant marketing attitudes towards the cutting-edge design seem to confirm this statement.

So at present, most young designers in China choose to make further studies at the famous fashion design institute in London, England.

But once walked out of Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford, Wang Daren, such as Alexander Wang, Lin Nengping (Phillip Lim), Wu Jigang (Jason Wu) and other Asian Designers, has begun to welcome more and more Chinese (or even Asian) designers in New York.

In recent seasons, Babyghost (Huang Qiaoran and Joshua Hupper) and Taoray Wang (Wang Tao) are all in.

On the bright side, there are also Feng Chen Wang (Wang Fengchen) and Andrea Jiapei Li (Li Jiapei) coming out of the fashion incubator project VFiles. Both the main brands and the creative designers seem to have found their place in New York.

Why is New York more receptive to designers from different countries and races? Because the United States itself is a melting pot of immigrants.

And the distribution of New York from the Chinatown to the Little Italy in the lower city, the Little India area in the middle city and the South Korean city, as well as the East Village, the West Village and the upper east area, and so on, seems to be a new area and a new experience every ten blocks along the direction of the East, West and south.

Such a distribution does not create estrangement, but promotes the exchange of different cultures.

Coupled with the fashion and politics of the United States, it is often necessary to influence from top to bottom. Therefore, advocating the political correctness of racial balance has become the help of minority designers in their careers.

In the past, the first lady Michelle Obama often wore the works of Native American designers in public, and Wu Jigang, as a Chinese American designer, was strongly supported by her.

This has prompted more boutique stores to turn their attention to Chinese designers like Wu Jigang.

At the same time, the United States is a typical consumerist country, so New York fashion week, the only fashion week in the four Fashion Week held in non European regions, will pay more attention to business. Therefore, compared to London's flash in the pan, New York fashion week is more likely to create ambitious designers who are really building brands and meeting market pressures.

In business, American designers usually pack themselves into a way of life.

When people mention Ralph Lauren, they will think of his polo shirt and think of his American way of life.

Designers such as Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs, such as Rick Owens and Thom Browne, are paying more attention to designers who are trying to turn their brands into a lifestyle, not just a pair of sneakers or a suit.

Wang Daren, a Chinese designer who knows this way, built the image of "model worker / rave youth" in ten years. His minimalist but cool design has become part of the lifestyle of his generation.

Recently, American designers such as Tom Ford, Tommy Hilfiger and other designers have turned to "fashion facing consumers". The American Fashion Designers Association (CFDA) has also proposed a proposal to turn New York fashion week into a "watch buying mode", hoping to further commercialize fashion.

"The styles displayed on the New York show are often different from those produced and sold at the end.

When weighing the show style and sales style, we need to reconsider the washing and sample clothes, to some extent, the process of redesign.

I want to balance the relationship between show money and sales, and try to make my show money direct.

Parsons, master of fashion design at the Parsons School of design in New York, said.

This young Chinese designer who has recently been selected for the LVMH Prize young designer award list describes her design style as "fun, elegance and Sporty".

It was founded in lower New York in 2010.

Babyghost is also a model of creativity and business success: two designers, Huang Qiaoran and Joshua Hupper, have worked in Diane von Furstenberg and worked together in Nathan Jenden.

The two have achieved considerable success in New York and China by relying on the design of fun and the importance of Internet publicity and interaction with Chinese supermodels and Internet Celebrities.

At the same time, Babyghost added the high quality products in the past year to the Stash House republication series, launched new works in every quarter, and also allowed new customers to buy the hot products sold in previous years.

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For Chinese students who are committed to becoming designers, the fashion design institute in the United States has also trained differently.

These colleges will add business parts to the curriculum so that young fashion designers can be more business minded and business savvy.

"Even the most creative people need to know about the fashion industry and understand how decisions are made," says Mary Gehlhar, a professor at the Parsons School of design.

Production, distribution and finance will affect design, while knowing sales related data and bringing product to market strategy will ensure the success of the designer.

Even if you don't want to be an entrepreneur, or you want to work with a stronger business partner, you also need to understand the big environment and the specific language in the environment.

"The teacher told us that what is important to all designers is whether you are sincere and original, and whether you have invested in your clothing series or projects, regardless of whether the design style is commercial or not.

If a piece of design is sincere, customers can see it, "Xue Jifei, a third year student who is currently studying fashion design at Parsons School of design, tells BoF.

At the same time, unlike the stereotype of first impressions, the American fashion industry has always had projects for finding new talent designers and supporting cutting-edge designers.

The CFDA/Vogue fund, GenArt's fashion plan, even the Fusion Challenge jointly designed by the Parsons Design Institute and the New York Fashion Institute (FIT) every year, can also get a lot of attention for young designers.

Xue Jifei entered the finals in Fusion Challenge in 2015 and took part in the T stage show of the finals.

She will describe her design style as "retro, texture and ingenuity". She is very fond of craftsmen fashion designer Geoffrey B. Small and Paul Harnden. At the same time, she also draws inspiration from the works of Chinese independent designers such as Chen Xiang (Ziggy Chen), Wang Zhi (Uma Wang) and Li Yang (Yang Li).

She said: after the finals, Parsons's design school's social network will publish photos of its design works on social networks.

After that, many stylists can find her and make some special shots with her clothes.

Mary Gehlhar, a fashion director who has worked in GenArt for ten years, told BoF: "projects like the CFDA/Vogue foundation and the LVMH Prize young designer award are very helpful to designers.

Many of the designers I know who have participated in the CFDA/Vogue fund say that only writing excellent business plans and communicating with experienced industry people is very valuable for their brands.

I'm glad to have fashion brands, academies and manufacturers, and even help.

The development organization is holding more projects to help fashion designers.

After learning and training, young designers need to walk on the stage of fashion week.

80% of the fashionable clothes that look so beautiful are business operations.

Designers need attractive and special fashion shows to encourage buyers to place orders and lock consumers' pockets in half a year.

Famous boutiques, because of their large and extensive customer base, help designers to get more exposure when they are acting as designers.

In New York's fashion retailing world, it is often said that "the excellence of fashion designers depends on how many items his works can sell at the retail price."

Under the double impact of social networking and e-commerce, the physical retail industry has become more difficult, and it is even more difficult to sell goods to consumers without discount or retail prices.

This prompted some young designers to even come to the dealer's stores in person, and personally communicate with sales staff to inform them of their experiences and processes in designing the series and products, so that salesmen can better sell their products to customers.

At the same time, the diversified environment in New York also makes all kinds of boutique buyer shops survive and develop their own unique perspectives and viewpoints. Therefore, it is easy for Chinese young designers to find suitable retail partners here.

The Idol menswear boutique store in Broolyn, New York, was founded in 2014 by duo, who grew up in Beijing, and his friend Alex Kasavin, and Daniel Franco, founder of StyleZeitgeist magazine website Sz-mag.com.

The buyer shop selling Murakami Tachi, Taichi, m.a+ and other niche designers focuses on the integration of different cultures and expressions to form a specific aesthetic perspective and design direction.

Du Wei said he was watching the young Chinese designers in New York. He said: "because of the social networking and fashion columns and special reports, fashion has become more globalized, and everyone's fashion expression and taste have become more interesting and diverse.

It is amazing that Chinese designers and fashion professionals are starting to combine other cultural perspectives and interpretations in their works.

Not long ago, another buyer shop in New York -- Opening Ceremony, founded by Korean designer Carol Lim and Chinese designer Humberto Leon, also focused on the Chinese Lunar New Year, and invited veteran Chinese designer Anna Sui and Tan Yanyu (Vivienne Tam) to come together with the new generation of Chinese designer Chen Anqi (Angel) and Li Dongxing (Li Dongxing) to sell their products in New York Qi Qi.