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Mark: A Designer Of Clothes And Shipbuilding.

2018/4/28 11:14:00 947

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"Useless is like a boat that helps people cross the shore from this shore."

She said, "my biggest wish is to help people cross the river instead of staying on this ship forever."

At the beginning, I kept asking her business model, and then I gave up.

She only listens to her inner voice, and she judges everything in her own value system.

My remaining professional sense of "senior financial media people" was defeated by Mark's stubbornness and her firm belief.

Marco, a fashion designer and founder of the useless brand, was born in Changchun, Jilin in 1992. She graduated from the Suzhou Silk Institute of technology in 1992. After graduation, she went to Guangzhou to start her own dream journey. In 1994, she won the gold medal of the second China International Youth brotherhood costume design competition in 1994 years. She was only 23 years old. She was one of the founders of the famous clothing brand "exception". She left ten years later. In 2006, she founded a useless design studio in Zhuhai. In 2014, she came to Beijing to set up a "useless living space in Beijing" which I think is more like a utopian laboratory.

She is the heroine of the Jia Zhangke documentary "useless".

This documentary focuses on Marco's participation in the 2007 autumn winter fashion week in Paris. It tells three stories in Guangzhou, Paris and Fenyang.

In the fashion week of Paris, Marco buried her clothes in the soil, allowing time to complete the final design with the earth.

She is a designer who is tired of assembly line production, and is an artist who resists the call of fashion.

She has a unique understanding of the inner world, and has established a real connection with China's underlying reality.

We feel the pain of human beings in her works.

Her work is the opposite direction of this flashy world.

Her own way has attracted wide attention from the international fashion industry and the art world.

Jia Zhangke also won the highest award of the Venice Film Festival documentary by virtue of this documentary.

But she is not only a designer, but also an artist.

She wants to be the world of China.

clothing

The country with the largest production volume creates a world-renowned original brand.

But her goal is far more than that.

She tried to provide a solution for this crisis world.

"Useless is like a boat that helps people cross the shore from this shore."

She said, "my biggest wish is to help people cross the river instead of staying on this ship forever."

In April 22, 2018, world earth day, useless brand was founded 12th anniversary.

According to the Chinese ancient calendar, every twelve years is a cycle. On that day, I visit Marco in Beijing's useless living space.

I know there are many legends in the early days of useless creation. It is how many people want to scrape the traffic that they can not afford to rub. It is an opportunity that many people envy. But she never mentioned it.

She hoped that nothing would grow like a big tree.

And I didn't come for those stories.

I always have the highest respect for those who want to climb for life.

Many years ago, I had done something that seemed idealistic, but I didn't stick with it.

What I want to know is that this person is not very keen on being a boss, or is not very enthusiastic about starting a business. A low-key talented woman designer, with seventy or eighty people's team, relies entirely on his personal investment. How did he persist for so many years?

Designer Ma Ke

Zhong Weizhi sou Shen Ji: congratulations on the 12 anniversary of the establishment of a useless brand. I have had my own experience, so I know how hard it is, and it is even more difficult in twelve years. It is even more difficult for you to keep your ideals alive.

Mark: I think my life is quite dramatic.

I am the one who identifies one thing and will go all the way.

Because I can't hold too many things in my head, so it's very simple. I have only one goal. This goal came from my university age.

Because she wore her mother's hands to wear clothes, she chose the specialty of dress design.

After entering the University, it was also unknown to the Chinese clothing industry in the world. At that time, it was seventeen and eight years old.

But through the teacher's explanation, I know that China is the largest garment producing country in the world, but it never has a Chinese original brand that can enjoy the reputation of the world.

At that time, I was really very sad to hear this.

Because I have been very fond of reading since I was a child, and I have always been proud and proud of Chinese culture. Why is it that such a good culture can not produce the world's top brands? This is a very big question for me.

I set up a very firm belief at that time. I think since I am a designer, since I have chosen such a profession, in my future career, we must change the situation that Chinese original brands can not be based on the top of the world. We must rewrite such a situation. I think only in this way can we live up to the nourishment our ancestors gave me.

I think this is my responsibility as a Chinese person. I have to fight for such a goal.

It is because of such a dream that I have always been a very diligent and industrious student in University, and at that time all my attention was devoted to professional learning.

21 after graduating from college, I went to Guangzhou. Actually, I had such a dream. I always wanted to find an entrepreneur with my common ideals and realize this dream together.

Now many people know that I am a crazy professional. I am not the kind of person who is keen on being a boss or entrepreneurial enthusiasts.

When I arrived in Guangzhou, I had no friends or relatives. I didn't know anyone. It was a completely strange city to me.

There I started my first job as a fashion designer.

After three years, I have entered several different enterprises. But finally, to my great disappointment, I find that all enterprises will give up their promise to me when they gain a lot of profits, that is, jointly create an original brand of China and push it to the world.

Those three years of career were disappointing again and again, and again and again by the cruel reality of Chinese enterprises giving up their hearts in front of interests.

After a year of unemployment, many entrepreneurs found me and wanted to invite me to be the design director and designer, because I had won the gold award of the second brotherhood International Youth costume designer Grand Prix, so I knew something about it.

I saw more than a dozen, but at that time, 24 years old, entrepreneurs already gave me a salary of one million such a price, before that, my monthly salary was three thousand yuan, the monthly salary of three thousand yuan and annual salary of one million what kind of relationship, do you understand? But when I found that the entrepreneur gave me a high salary behind the pursuit of interests and no ideals and beliefs support, I immediately rejected the entrepreneur's invitation.

Therefore, it is very frustrating for me to take the road of entrepreneurship at last, because I really can not find entrepreneurs who share their common ideals - not for money, nor for fame and wealth, but because of such a dream. In order to enable a country with a long history of civilization to stand on the top of the world's brand, I can not find such an entrepreneur.

Zhong Weizhi search god records: for entrepreneurs, the pursuit of profit maximization is understandable.

Mark: but I will never sell my soul for profit, so I choose to give up firmly.

I am such a person, I have identified a direction, I will not change anything, of course, including money.

Zhong Weizhi search God record: I know that "useless" is your second venture, the first time is "exception". "Exception" is a very successful brand, why did it do "useless"?

Marco: Yes, after ten years of hard work, the "exception" has finally become a very unique designer brand in the Chinese apparel industry. I have also achieved some ideas as a designer in the "exception", including the creation of a unique Chinese original design style.

But because there are two founders of the "exception", after ten years of development, there has been a great difference between us.

I have always insisted on the original intention of starting a business. My dream of world top Chinese brand in university is never forgotten. I do not want to change for the sake of greater commercial interests. I can not tolerate the profit growth brought by the rapid expansion of the brand. In my view, the overdraft business is a great injury to the brand in the future, and finally I choose to quit.

Because an enterprise can not have two directions, an enterprise can only have a clear road.

At that time, I also had a confidence. I think a mother can create everything. A woman can brew a new life from scratch, bring a new life to the world. She can also give a brand-new brand a completely different value and meaning, so I choose to leave, I want to do a new thing.

Then I moved from Guangzhou to Zhuhai, a very quiet little city on the sea.

At that time, I was very happy that I finally freed myself from a series of high-speed operations every month in the enterprise. I could return to traditional Chinese culture with all my heart. I could go wild everywhere, go to the countryside, climb mountains, visit artisans, and share with the peasants. These are all my favorite things. I am very happy with them.

Most handicraftsmen are very simple in material level, or even quite below the basic survival line. But because there is no such kind of utilitarian worldly pollution in the city, they are very simple and very direct, so I feel that communicating with them is a very happy thing, that is, you do not have to worry too much about heart to heart communication.

"Useless" can be regarded as an opening of my return to the land and the return of real Chinese culture.

Time passed quickly, 12 years in a twinkling.

These 12 years' road is really not easy. If I really chat carefully, I also want to cry out a basin of tears.

But tears are a sign of no future. I think we should talk more about beautiful things.

When we arrived in Beijing in 2014, we made eight exhibitions in the past four years, such as hand made clothes exhibition, such as hundred years of shoe exhibition, such as traditional hand oil paper umbrella exhibition and so on.

In such a space, I share with you the most scarce and valuable thing in my mind.

I feel that there is no shortage of all kinds of colorful things in the world. What is really lacking is silence. It is the truest and the most pure state of returning to oneself.

Zhong Weizhi: you should be a person who looks at the world from the perspective of philosophy. But between dreams and reality, there are always mountains and rivers. How far is it from a Chinese brand to the world? Have you ever thought about it?

Mark: actually, I've been thinking about this.

I feel that I have gained a little bit. A real Chinese original brand wants to go to the world top brand goal. What elements do it need? I find that there must be a very good product at first. This product must be original, not copied and imitated. It must be original, must have its own attitude and proposition, have its own design concept, and have its own understanding of life and life. This is a very important foundation for the existence of a brand. It is not only a superficial thing about the profit of style and commerce.

On the top of the product, we have spent more than ten years, from manual spinning, weaving, to manual sewing, to plant dyeing, printing and so on. We are all doing our best to make a lot of efforts and get these valuable results now.

I have always been proud of useless products, because after wearing more than ten years of useless hands to make clothes, I really feel that there is no way to replace the charm of Chinese cutting and hand making when I have made a comparison.

Therefore, good products and unique products must be the first element.

But it is certainly not enough to have good products. I have always wondered what the most important value we can give to the world if Chinese brands want to go to the world. In fact, a brand must be backed by a very strong mental system, not just a good product, good service, so obvious.

Later I pondered this matter, I was thinking that China's reform and opening up from the late 70s to the present, forty years, the West gave China what? Now, we become a focus of the world's attention, we have greater influence on the world, then in this era, what is China's brand to provide to the world? We will find that the west gives us McDonald's and KFC, which are high priced luxury goods.

We wear a famous brand in France, a famous brand in Japan, and a famous brand in Italy.

China? Does the Chinese brand give back to the world, just "made in china"? I think it's definitely not because our roots are different, our culture is different, our ancestors gave us something completely different from the West.

What does it bring to the Western luxury goods? It is a kind of marking, highlighting the identity of the aristocracy to distinguish the common people from the common people, but China's cultural thought never protruded itself. It pays attention to inclusiveness, harmony and coexistence. It is to narrow this difference, and our origin is actually a very inclusive culture.

From this point of view, useless as a social enterprise, first of all, it represents a posture, that is, all wealth is taken to the people and one hundred percent back to the people, it can not monopolize these wealth, the profits of the enterprise must be used to support the social goals of the enterprise.

I think the value that Chinese brand can bring to the world must be a value based on the value of poverty. It is no longer a unique design, good workmanship, excellent fabric, harmonious color and noble temperament. It should be a brand of deeper spiritual value sharing. It brings to the world how to help people free from material, realize spiritual independence and freedom, not more and more greed and possession of material, and it is difficult to pull out into the bottomless hole of material.

Then I was thinking, is it enough only these two points? Can you make a world - class Chinese original brand? It seems to be missing a little.

Later that day, I want to understand, what is missing? We all know that a brand to be accepted and accepted by everyone, for the world accepted, the very important point is to have a very wide audience, must have a large number of buyers and users.

If there are no purchasers and users, the value and meaning of the brand can not be shared or perceived.

I would like to ask you a question. Do you think China is now in the era of buyers and users who create world-class brand names? How many people are willing to pay for supporting China's original? This is a very realistic level.

Because I heard a lot of people say something to my colleagues, saying that useless things are really good, and I like them very much, but I can't afford them because the price is too high.

I don't know how people look at this problem. What I want to say is that if you purchase the useless products with the amount and frequency of shopping on Taobao or shopping in other fashion shops, I believe you will feel very expensive, because that is a very large whole.

If you use the same amount of money to purchase useless products, it will bring less quantity.

But this little amount brings higher quality.

We know that all things in life are like this. If you want to pursue higher quality, you need to pay higher costs. There is no doubt that if there is no more cost in the cost, no manual handicraftsman such extreme devotion and a long process, how can we create the spiritual value behind this product? Spiritual value is nurtured rather than produced.

Zhong Weizhi search god records: I had a problem, that is, how do you see some people say the problem of high price of useless products, so you answered the third point ahead of time.

Mark: I think this third point is particularly important, that is, how we should control the wealth we have, what we do with it, what we use to buy, in fact, it can basically illustrate our attitude towards the world and our views on the world, and explain our choice of the world and our decision on life.

There is a saying that "buying is choosing" and "buying is voting". I think this is very good.

Nowadays, in fact, Chinese brands are all prepared, but only in the east wind.

What is Dongfeng? Dongfeng is everybody, that is, every Chinese belief in its own national brand.

Actually, I also buy a lot of Chinese brand products. I know they are not as good as some western brands in many respects, but I want to say that the reason why you buy Chinese famous brands is not just a one-way comparison of quality, but you realize that you buy other things that come from behind.

Chinese enterprises need to work hard, and responsible Chinese brands are also upgrading themselves very hard. But it can not be accomplished overnight, and can not become an international top brand immediately. It needs a long process. As long as the Chinese brand has not given up, as long as the founder of the brand has not given up, why can't you support more? I think the fate of Chinese brand is not in the hands of the founder of the brand, but in the hands of millions of buyers and users. If you want to make more Chinese brands to the world, you should use your purchase to tell you what your firm choice is.

Zhong Weizhi search God record: useless when I first arrived in Beijing, I had a question. Why did you choose to make this useless living space in the old city of Beijing? I can understand the useless but not in the shopping mall, but I think it is OK to choose a commercial area with relatively large pedestrian flow, which is still conducive to expanding the audience. In the 77 text, the rent will not be cheaper.

Mark: I began to consider the location of useless space in 2012.

My ideal has always been to create an original brand that can truly represent China in the world. Then I think the first useless home that appears before the world -- you see that we are a form of "home" - especially important.

At that time, two cities were investigated, one was Beijing and the other was Shanghai.

Of course, Shanghai is also an important city in China. But I think the first place is there. In a way, it represents a positioning and orientation of this brand.

Shanghai has many exotic things. It was once known as the Oriental small Paris in the last century.

The traditional culture of Beijing is deeper and weightier in history, and more consistent with the useless temperament.

Comparing and comparing, I think Beijing is more suitable.

But Beijing is so big, where exactly has it been chosen? It has also visited many places.

Later, I still hope that the useless is in the real old Beijing, but not in the place like CBD. I don't think it can represent the city of Beijing, because CBD will have every big city, and it looks more and more like a tall building in Hongkong.

Sometimes, when you wake up in a hotel in a strange city, you will never remember where it is. There is no obvious feature in the surrounding area.

At that time, I thought, the place I want to choose is the simple idea of knowing that I am in Beijing when I look around.

Finding a place in Beijing is pretty hard.

My earliest thought was to find an old quadrangle.

Since it is Beijing, it is natural to think of a quadrangle.

In the beginning, it took nearly six months to see all kinds of courtyard houses in Beijing.

At that time, almost all the intermediary companies in the Beijing quadrangle had looked everywhere. They looked at the screen as if they had scattered the net.

At that time, I flew to Beijing several times to see all kinds of quadrangles.

But later found that the courtyard is very complicated behind, not as simple as I thought before.

Behind it there are unclear property rights, all kinds of disputes, family fights, brotherhood disagreements and so on. It is too complicated. Later, it is found that this is a very difficult problem. So change your mind or do not look for quadrangles.

I want to find a simpler and more specific kind of person who does not want to spend too much energy on this matter.

Later, I stumbled upon this place. At that time, the 77 language Park was being renovated and renovated.

In fact, I was lucky. At that time, the 77 language park had not yet been renting out. I became the first tenant here. Because it came early, I chose a place to control the door.

Because we are a place to display and sell, so I hope to have a relatively easy position to identify.

In fact, I have a heart knot on site selection, that is, I have walked so many places in remote mountainous areas of China. I have always felt unfair about one thing.

I think Chinese handicraftsmen are too humble, too downfallen, too unrespected.

We do not talk about a few very successful technology experts, or the masters of the folk arts. We are talking about the vast majority. They have been living in the bottom of society, and most of them are relatively poor.

I think the most uncomfortable thing is not only material shortage, but also their value is not recognized by others.

Your greatest need for the outside world is not to live in the world. Your labor and creativity are valuable. You can get others' recognition of you. This recognition is more important than anything else, because it is not money that can be bought, is it right? This is also the basic demand of human beings. Besides survival, apart from having the most basic needs of having food and having the place to sleep, what is most important is that your work is recognized by people as meaningful and valuable. But they generally do not have such a sense of value. When I visited in remote areas, I saw that most of the people were not concerned and not recognized, which led them to despise themselves. They have such a good skill, why can't they get the least respect and recognition from the society? You know, you can accept poverty, you can accept a simple and thrifty life, but one

Because our society is based on economic interests as a yardstick. All of us are concerned about the successful people like Ma Yun and Ma Huateng. But in a normal society, it is not enough to have success.

For a normal society, it is not only new things that are good.

So in my heart, I feel that such a big country, not only in Beijing, but also in so many cities throughout the country, I have not seen a state-level or provincial handicraft Museum, or there is a place that can show its value to artisans.

You will find that museums may pay more attention to the value of cultural relics, which is the priceless value of antiques.

But the handicraftsmen are alive people. They are people living in the present age. We pay little attention to them.

You see all kinds of exhibitions, all kinds of forums, what business, finance, and fashion are all over the world, but how many of them are really craftsmen and craftsmen?

So I always feel that China needs the space of this landmark artisan in particular. I think it should be a monument type existence. It should be a banner. It is equivalent to putting a flag in the core of Beijing city center.

The banner is about the value of Chinese culture.

It enables people to be a mere medium through handicraft, handicraft, and is an external representation - ultimately exploring the values of China and defending the good traditions of the Chinese nation.

When I first started looking for the venue, my budget was four hundred square meters to five hundred square meters, but in fact, when we took the space down, it was one thousand and two hundred square meters, which was far ahead of my plan.

Originally I wanted to make a four hundred or five hundred square meter, for brand or space, it has been quite big.

But why take one thousand and two hundred square meters? On the one hand, Wen Chuang garden does not want to split the floor. You have to take such a whole block.

The voicing platform is really trying to make more people see the beauty of handwork, and see the beauty of the real Chinese culture whether we are through music or through clothing or through various prints, which are all the objects of our daily life. In fact, it is a beauty of life, but in China, beauty is rarely talked about. People pay more attention to the commercial value of a thing because I am a designer and I have a beautiful need for life. I think everyone should have the need for beauty. People need not only have something to eat, but also clothes, and we need beautiful food, beautiful clothing and beautiful environment. Later, I think about it, I do it not just for nothing, I think it should be thousands of handicraft for China.

Of course, the most important thing is that we also need beautiful hearts and souls.

I think the pursuit of beauty and the pursuit of details are the real scarcity of our society.

So since the condition is so, I will not make two endless efforts to build up useless space and make it a space for all artistes in the capital city of China to make voice, and also become their real spiritual home and sustenance.

Zhong Weizhi sou Shen Ji: you say that in China today, beauty is a rarely talked about problem. Many people may not be convinced. But as long as we think carefully about how much we have abandoned in pursuit of details and how much we respect the handicraft, we will know what the aesthetic taste of our people is like. I heard a strong view that everyone in Paris has gradually become an art venue, and the Chinese family today has become a conference room and become the most boring home in the world. If the handicraft and handmade products disappear, it will undoubtedly be a cultural disaster for a nation.

Mark: because craftsmanship is not just a superficial skill.

In fact, the culture behind us is our way of life. Our world outlook and values are hidden behind this handicraft.

I learned slowly through research visits that handicraft is like the sweet potato and potato grown in the field. The part on the ground is obvious. When you see the seedling, you estimate something below, and then when you pull it out, you will find that it still has such a deep part of the ground that it is rarely seen.

Handicraft is a thing that grows on the ground. You can see all kinds of utensils, you can see all kinds of things with real functions. But what is the foundation of it? I found out that the roots were too heavy and too precious after finding the roots.

That is flesh and blood. It is evidence of our civilization.

Without respect for traditional handicrafts, we do not respect Chinese civilization.

Zhong Weizhi search god records: from 2014 to the present, what new feelings and experiences do you have?

Mark: after our space was opened, in less than four years, there were many people who came to us.

The types of people who come to useless space are very large. They are different from ordinary brands. There is no such complex and rich crowd as other brands.

For example, foreign luxury goods, regardless of LV or Prada, has a clear target customer group, what class, background, income, roughly what kind of life and consumption habits, it will have a general portrait, there is a certain commonality.

But the characteristics of useless people are very strange. From south to north, from the old to the less, it presents a feature of borderless, cross age and cross regional.

These people get together because of useless space.

This crowd can not be completely data-driven, which is much in line with my understanding of Chinese culture. Chinese culture is tolerant, and it may not be as exact as western.

Chinese people have been a special artistic nation since ancient times. Chinese are naturally artistic temperament, and Chinese culture is the atmosphere of art.

Why modern science has not developed in China? Because the Chinese are not born to worship the industrial revolution and catch up with the future, but in fact, our culture is very advanced.

I have seen such a view, and I think it is right. He felt that our ancestors were not such intelligence and brains without developing science and technology, but they knew that the road of science and technology is a double-edged sword. It can make mankind highly efficient, but it can also lead mankind to extinction. The excessive development of technology can destroy the entire human race.

For example, such things as atomic bombs have been invented, that is, man is digging his own grave.

AI also has the same risk.

In the past, China did not go to the road of developing science and technology. It must not be, nor is it. Our ancestors did not think it was the right way. Therefore, it has been thousands of years to return to this dimension of art and culture.

Now we believe in technology and development in the western context, instead of trusting the earth or even trusting people. This is a tremendous change.

Return to our useless space topic.

After the completion of the space, many handicraftsmen from all over the country will find us.

We find that this is not just a space to see, visit, buy original hand, but really become a place where all the artisans gather in China.

On one occasion, I received a letter from a strange girl. She told me that she was a folk handicraft enthusiast. He married a Shanxi native. When she returned to her hometown in Shanxi with her husband, she found that her mother-in-law was an old man who was very good at making thousand layers of cloth shoes. She learned from her mother-in-law how to make a thousand layers of cloth shoes, and the more she knew, the more she felt the benefits of the cloth shoes at the bottom of the thousand layers. She felt that it was different from the Western leather shoes on its feet, but its market had already shrunk.

She later resigned from her job and went back to her husband's home to learn from her mother-in-law. She made shoes and sold her own shop, but it was hard to maintain, and she was very confused. She wanted to talk to me in particular, so that I could give her advice and see how to go in the future.

When I was in Beijing, I asked her to come.

When she saw that I had not spoken, tears flowed down.

It's that kind of thing, you know? - although she has never seen you, she has already regarded you as a spiritual sustenance.

I hug her.

I can understand her very well. I know the hardships of artisans. I know how difficult it is to inherit and develop this handicraft.

Later, we became attached to this matter.

When we did shoes exhibition, she also spent a lot of thought.

She later joined in useless, now useless employees.

According to the status quo of China, it is very difficult to do it alone, and you will be overwhelmed.

It's so hard for you to do things like seventy or eighty useless teams, and they do it alone.

She said, since I can't do it myself, I would rather join in useless, and hope that useless can achieve my goal, because useless goal is to help thousands of craftsmen, not just one thousand layers of cloth shoes.

Zhong Weizhi search God record: but not everyone can join in useless. For those who do not join useless thousands of people, what kind of help do you have?

Marco: first of all, there is no need to intervene in design.

Do you know why Chinese folk handicrafts are becoming more and more difficult now? One is their own reasons, the other is external causes.

There are two reasons, not one side.

The external problem is that it lacks the support of a large social group. First, it supports domestic products, and second supports artisans.

Handmade products and mechanized bulk products are totally different in value and meaning.

When you buy Handmade things, you are supporting artisans.

But if you want to buy mechanized batches of that kind of thing, which is very cheap, are you promoting them to produce more? What you buy and what will be more? That's all.

Since the reform and opening up, these decades have gone too fast. From the extreme shortage of material in the past 50s and 60s, to the beginning of prosperity, to the beginning of a lot of money that could be freely controlled, there began to be a dazzling array of commodities. In fact, the history of the one or two generation was completed.

So why do Chinese people have such a strong purchasing power, including overseas consumption, Chinese people go abroad every year to buy all kinds of money spent on world famous brands, which is a very large number.

Looking at luxury research reports before, seventy percent of the world's luxuries are bought by Chinese people.

The origin of these luxury goods is only a small proportion of the European community.

In this regard, we have not yet found our confidence and reason.

The other reason is the artisans themselves.

The general folk handicraftsmen, they will only do the traditional patterns of the past, that is, those left behind for generations. For example, the shoes made of thousand layers of cloth are still the same as they did thirty or forty years ago. When her mother-in-law mother taught her mother-in-law, she taught her like a whole life. So she did not innovate, did not keep pace with the times, and did not adjust to the changes of the times and the environment, that is to say, it was "old-fashioned".

That part is exactly what the designer is best at.

Because we both know China and then have an international view. We have also been to many international cities. We also know what is international fashion. We know how to endow it with a contemporary character through the upgrading of design.

You must pform, we say that the inheritance of handcraft is not rigid replication, but must be inherited and innovating.

It is the inheritance of skills, plus the innovation of design and consciousness. These two are indispensable.

So I think it is very meaningful for us to make such a space. Through cooperation with handicraftsmen, including the cup of pottery and water that we drink, the pot we design, we grasp the shape of the objects, and then they start to make, so that the added value of the product is raised a lot, so they will also get higher income, and the value of labor has been promoted.

Because they could only do some low-end traditional products.

Zhong Weizhi search God record: useless outside investment?

Marco: No.

Useless is entirely my personal investment. Many people have asked me, China has so many foundations, such as those funds that support traditional culture and intangible heritage projects. Why don't you go looking for it? Why do you have to use your own money to do this? And the amount of money you need to invest is very large. How can you do this in the long run? Actually, I didn't have such an idea. I've heard about it before.

But after I inquired about it, I was completely frightened by all kinds of extremely complicated processes and various audits.

In order to get this money, I have to fill out various forms, various kinds of auditing, data preparation, and process flow, etc., so I have no time to do any research or design.

And then you become a public relations and peripheral company every day, and you become a sponsor of investment.

If you use foreign capital, investors will definitely use this fund to achieve a control purpose. There are various motives behind this, all kinds of requirements for return on investment. You say you totally ignore the investors. That's not appropriate for you. You have to weigh your direction and position.

Once you weigh too much, you can't do anything.

Why do you do this? Are you willing to give the investment to your satisfaction, or do you do this thing at the beginning? This will completely disrupt my original plan, and I still want to put my main energy on creation.

So in the end, I decided not to use any external funds at all. This world is the simplest way to spend its own money. Only in this way can we maintain the independence and purity of the brand. This is very important.

Zhong Weizhi search God record: after all, you have such a small team, there should be a lot of pressure. What are the objectives of the business? Do you want it to be profitable?

Mark: sure, that's for sure.

But it has not yet reached the profit and loss balance, because you think, useless was created twelve years ago, which means we have invested twelve years. In the past twelve years, we are constantly investing, investing and investing, but our space has not been opened for four years.

If you want a general brand, it must be a chain. If you want to expand the sales network, it will be profitable when it reaches a certain scale and quantity.

There must be some pressure, but I am not in a hurry to make money, because we are not doing culture.

If you put money first, if you make a lot of decisions, you will make a completely different choice.

What I value more is the value and significance of this spirit and idea pmitted by the useless. I always put this in the first place.

This is the most important spiritual basement of useless existence.

All my business activities should be acceptable only if the premise is not distorted.

If we lose this fundamental thing, it is meaningless for us to earn more money.

Because I do this thing not to make money, but I do this thing not to make money, not equal to it can not make money.

Why do I have such a big confidence? Because I have experience and precedent of brand operation before, and I didn't do any brand before I did useless.

So I have always felt that the biggest problem of the Chinese people now is that they are too eager to make progress. Today they plant trees and want to eat fruit tomorrow. He does not want to go through farming, cultivating, killing insects, fertilizing, pruning, drying every day, you have to harvest that fruit, how much labor you have to pay in the middle, but now we do not emphasize the process, only emphasize the result.

So now many enterprises' business models are the way to spoil their growth. They are the future of enterprises and the pursuit of short-term benefits.

So the reason for so many short-lived enterprises in China is that a large number of enterprises can live longer than 35 years.

Do you know the speed of Chinese enterprises' death? Generally, eighty or ninety of those who do not exceed three years can reach five years, maybe ten percent.

To reach twenty years, that is only a few percent, a very small proportion.

So I think the first thing is not to rush for success.

I will often compare them with them. For example, if you build a building, you can see the part of the building floor. You can't see the foundation of the building by your naked eyes.

But how high the building you can cover is determined by your foundation. If you build a three story building, you need to build a three storey foundation. If you want to build a twenty storey building, you must have a twenty storey foundation.

This is the relationship between usefulness and useless.

People only see the building above the ground is useful, but if there is no solid foundation below the building, the building can not be built there, it will collapse.

The main reason why there is no profit so far is that we are still playing the base, so you have seen this building on the ground for three years. It is not like building a few months building, is it?

Zhong Weizhi's search for God's record: what we are pursuing now is higher, faster, stronger and more updated.

Mark: only speed, no details, no process, no fun, no poetry, no mood, no more.

When you go to work at home, your mobile phone or computer comes home every day, or your mobile phone, computer, and possibly TV.

Zhong Weizhi search god records: useless is to accept guests customized production mode, I remember a few years ago useless to make a suit, count weaving, about two or three months, is it still this speed? No improvement?

Mark: it has always been like this.

The old loom that we used was brought back from the countryside of Yunnan and Guizhou. A lot of the old people died. The young people would not use or want to learn. Putting them at home was just a furnishings. There was no use for them. Moreover, Chinese folk had a bad habit, that is, the things that passed away were not good, so they often burned firewood in the local area.

I think it's a pity that it came back from such a long distance.

The looms in our studio have been handed down from three or four generations to one generation.

I have also been to Nepal and India, which are more developed in handicraft industry, to see how their local artisans are weaving. They are all semi automated. It is also called handwoven, but it adds some technological changes to the handloom and improves production efficiency.

Our handicraftsmen lose their shuttles purely by hand or by throwing them on their feet. This is the slowest.

But they made the design of the pull rod, and the shuttle was automatic. If you pull a rope, there is a rope's power. You don't need to throw your hands away.

In fact, we can do this in minutes, because it is easy to understand at a glance, but I deliberately don't learn it.

Some people asked, why is it clear that production can be doubled and we do not do it? I say we use the old loom, just like the texture of the hand it makes, and the sense of irregularity.

If we start improving, as long as we start from semi-automatic, it will be farther and farther away from handcraft.

I compare the pursuit of the ultimate, I think that kind of old folk pure manual machine, although it is slow, but it has semi-automatic, automatic can not replace the kind of smell, I will not to improve efficiency and abandon this real taste.

Zhong Weizhi search God record: so your price will not drop.

Mark: I don't think it should be lowered.

I think Chinese handicraft is currently facing a dilemma, and it is not as prosperous as it seems.

Or there is a certain gap between its apparent appearance and actual situation.

Publicity is very good, for example, the spirit of craftsmen has also been very special in recent years. But in fact, the status quo of artisans' life has changed significantly? No, far from it.

Why? They first did not really get more support from consumers. Second, there are some more complicated things in handicraft. Some people just hang the name of handicraft, but actually they still go to do business things. This requires people to get to know and polish their eyes. Why don't we think about the real crux of the problem, and always want to let handicraftsmen spend so much time and so much labor to produce such cheap consumer goods for you? How can real effort and cost free handwork be cheap? Only by giving the artisans the right price recognition is the most practical support and recognition for them.

Zhong Weizhi search god records: when you go to remote areas to visit artisans, is it through the official introduction?

Mark: we all go to the countryside anonymously.

If you don't hide your name, people will look up your background from the Internet, and you will disturb the local leaders. They will come over to invite you to dinner. I feel terrible.

We will specifically avoid what masters, and specifically go deep into the folk. It is through the villagers' mouth to mouth inquiries, do you have any handicraft made especially well in this area? He said what the Lao Wang and Lao Li would do. When we ran there, we asked another person.

What we are going to discover is the real hidden talents in the society, not those who are known and known by the outside world.

Zhong Weizhi search God record: I see some people say that mark can advocate simple life and oppose over consumption, but is it a bit contradictory to come out to do business again?

Marco: what is this contradiction? Just like some people will say that I am an anti business designer, but I am also open to do business, I do not think so.

It's just like we define money. Then I ask you, do you say money is good or bad? In fact, money itself is neutral. It doesn't matter whether it is good or bad.

If you take this money to do something wrong or hurt others, then the money is bad, right? If you take it to do positive things, such as education, provide books and textbooks to children in poor areas, this is a good thing.

It is human behavior that determines the good and evil of money.

So, I think business is the same as money. It depends on what kind of business you are.

If your business is unscrupulous, it is fake and shoddy products, then you are saying that it is harmful to others' health, you are evil business.

But there are good businesses, too. You give them what others really want and need.

So I think this is not contradictory at all.

This is just like why plain things must be cheap. Why do gorgeous things have to be expensive? Who defines this? Because simplicity and gorgeous are aesthetic differences, not the cost gap, not that simple things are low cost, gorgeous things cost high, not so.

Price is closely related to cost. How much input you have and how much work you invest, you should get the corresponding labor reward, right? This is directly proportional to the time, and the price is determined by time.

But deciding the price of products and other elements besides cost is like the need of aesthetic and artistic demand.

It is also a cup, and the earthenware cup and mechanized glass made by hand, I will definitely choose earthenware, because I can feel the energy it brings to me, and the energy that the hands do is different.

So it depends on what value you agree with, and what value options you will put your money into.

It's not that I like to set high prices.

Because a handicraftsman can make a dress in two or three months. Why does it sell cheap? How can you pay for his earned income if you sell it cheap?

Zhong Weizhi search god records: what product planning will there be in the future? Apart from the current clothing and food categories, will it increase in the future?

Marco: Yes, as long as it is manual, it can enter the scope of useless business.

Which category we add to new products means that we can give more support to the artisans of this category.

For example, two years ago, we made an oil paper umbrella exhibition and made many handcrafts artists who made handmade umbrellas in China.

We later designed our own umbrellas and made technical improvements and improvements on their original basis to make them better and more beautiful.

Then we have been placing orders for these craftsmen. We are selling in the useless space. After the sale is over, we will add and make up the list again, and they will do it again, and we will sell again.

Because you want to inherit it, I think the best way to inherit it is to make artisans richer. I think there is nothing else.

You go to preach, you go to his children to say the great truth, say how valuable this skill is, you must learn, but he can come back with one word. My father has done this for a lifetime, and even now he can't afford to buy a car, even a house can't afford it. Why do I want to be like him? This sentence chokes you.

If you let people who are still craftsmen are rich now, people will follow suit. I am not worried at all.

If he got rich by making an oil paper umbrella, he would do it all over the village.

So I think the most important thing is to get more income from handicraftsmen through business, through sales, and the support of this income is the biggest affirmation and encouragement for them.

Zhong Weizhi search god records: in an article, you said, the designer's personality era is about to end, will it be over? I don't think so.

Mark: I think the world is becoming more and more integrated. This trend is very clear.

The so-called personality is to flaunt oneself is different, but do you think that you need a lot of simple and plain clothes like useless? If you are a person dressed in useless clothes, you will find that you do not need much, and you do not need to change constantly, do not want your family to hang up a lot of clothes all the year round.

People who are useless are those who want to live a simple life and return to their simple life. This is simple. First of all, the quantity of material possessions must be small, enough is enough, not much, but there must be good quality.

So when you turn to this mental state, you actually don't have much demand for material.

Matter is inversely proportional to human mental state.

The richer the spiritual realm is, the lower the demand for material is, and the reverse is the same. If he needs a lot of material, it can basically show that his need for the spirit is very low.

The total amount is constant. This way, there will be more on this side. That's how I see it.

I will use a metaphor to describe useless.

The paradox of what others say is useless is that they do not fully understand the metaphor.

I told them that useless is like a boat that helps people cross the shore from this shore.

When you reach the other shore, even this ship is not important, should also be put down, understand this truth? This is my ultimate interpretation of the useless brand. In fact, my biggest wish is to help people cross the river instead of staying on this ship all the time.

Some substance is only matter after all. How can it be publicizing and packing again? Its physical character is placed there. It can not be a spiritual thing.

But some materials can help people to cross from the material to the spiritual side. When he goes to the other side of the spirit, he no longer relies on material, or he needs only a very small amount of material. At this time, the less material demand is, the greater the spiritual freedom he obtains.

I saw the pain of too many Chinese.

What I saw in the countryside was the bitterness of material deprivation. In poorer areas, clothes and clothes were shabby, but he had no other clothes to wear, and he had to wear worn clothes.

But what I see in the city is another kind of scarcity, which is the lack of spiritual and emotional resources under the surface material richness. Without love, do you know that this is a bigger shortage and a greater shortage than material deprivation.

Because a person who has no love in his heart, he lives in this world, no positive energy can be pmitted to the surrounding people, he will bring more trouble to the surrounding people, do you know? He is like a black hole, absorbing energy from others, but he can not generate energy, he can not give back.

If there are so many people in our life, our happiness will be lower and lower.

The purpose of my useless is not to pursue great success in business, but to help people accomplish the pition from material to spiritual.

I think that when people go to the spiritual level, he can put material down, that is the root of the world.

Matter will always be less and less because of sharing, for example, I have a bread, I want to give you half, I only have half of bread, but if I have a spirit, I have a thought, I will share it with you, it is very helpful to you, you have also been inspired, I do not lack anything.

Without saying that I share it with you, my spirit will be halved.

And when I share with you, if you resonate with me and interact with each other, then you give me a kind of giving, that is, the nourishment of two people, and you will find that the power of spirit is infinite.

So I always remember Gandhi's saying, "the earth can satisfy human needs, but it can't satisfy human greed."

If human beings do not change themselves, then a few more earth will not satisfy human desire for material possessions.

From this point of view, I really hope that more people will be able to live in this useless life and be able to sail to the other side of the boat in this boat. In the end, he will find that spiritual enrichment and growth are not worthwhile.