From Pasture To University, What Are The Points Of The Woolmark Company And The Wool Education Center Built By Donghua University?

Fashion is an industry driven by innovation. Talent, especially creative talents, represents the star power standing on the top of fashion.

In recent years, the global fashion and luxury industry has been taking frequent actions in the field of education. For example, the luxury goods giant LVMH, Fairui and Fairui Fashion Institute have launched vocational training programs. Kering (London) has joined the London Fashion Institute to launch the first sustainable development course in the industry.

The interaction and integration of fashion education and industry in China is also increasing. Recently, The Woolmark Company (International Wool Bureau) unveiled a newly established wool Education Center at Shanghai international fashion and creative Institute, Donghua University (SCF school).

"Gorgeous" specially interviewed the general manager of The Woolmark Company (China International Wool Bureau) general manager of China, Ma Jie, executive vice president of Greater China and Asia new market, and Li Jun, vice president of international fashion and creative Institute, Donghua University, to understand the thinking behind the establishment of the wool Education center.

Above: the opening of the first wool Education Center in Colleges and Universities

Since entering China, the international wool Bureau has not only focused on the promotion of merino wool in Australia, but also has been focusing on education and training.

In fact, from the 2008 International Wool logo award to the establishment of the wool Education Center, the international wool Bureau has always played the role of "support" in the fashion industry with the aim of "linking, inspiring and education". Ma Jie emphasized that these two supports were based on the different stages of the designer's growth.

The international wool logo award has attracted 100 designers from around the world's 6 major competitions.

In China, starting from the 2008 champion Qiu Hao, who has won the title of the year, more and more design stars have come to the fore through this award, including BAN XIAOXUE, VMAJOR, SIX LEE, Li Yushan and Zhou Jun (PRONOUNCE) and Chen Xu (XU ZHI) and so on.

The international wool logo award has provided an international stage for young designers.

Through awards, we can get to the best retailers, opinion leaders and famous designers in the world and invite them to be judges.

Ma Jie said.

The newly established wool Education Center focuses on students who are not yet out of school.

Ma Jie said the international wool Bureau wanted students to systematically learn wool related knowledge and understand the diversification, innovation and use of wool.

He said: "the international wool Bureau has been holding regular lectures at domestic fashion colleges, and invited famous lecturers to impart knowledge about wool. But the wool education center is the first one, and it is the first time that we have systematically done this."

Above: Ma Jie, general manager of The Woolmark Company (International Wool Bureau), executive vice president of Greater China and Asia new market,

After the initial contact last year, with the promotion of Ma Jie, the international wool Bureau and the international fashion and creativity Institute of Donghua University (hereinafter referred to as SCF) have reached a cooperation intention. The wool Education Center has only six months from planning to final landing.

Li Jun, vice president of SCF College of Donghua University, said that this kind of efficient cooperation stems from the co - operation and tacit understanding between the international wool Bureau and SCF Institute. "Everyone is communicating in the same language."

He said.

In addition, he stressed that the innovative spirit of Donghua University and the international wool Bureau for the fashion industry shared the two sides together.

According to him, SCF Institute has been committed to creating a "fashion academic community", which coincides with the international wool Bureau.

It is worth mentioning that before the international wool Bureau and Donghua University have established more than 10 years of cooperation in scientific research and academic field, this laid the foundation for the establishment of the wool Education Center.

In addition to having a common vision, the environment of Shanghai's fashion industry also provides soil for cooperation.

Ma Jie said that Shanghai, as the center of the textile and fashion industry chain, has gathered outstanding partners in the industry.

Every season of Shanghai fashion week brings together a large number of new and mature designers in China to release the latest works.

Not only that, more and more designers, even overseas designers, have pferred their work base to Shanghai. From this level, the cooperation between the international wool Bureau and Donghua University can be described as "success."

Left one: Vice President of international fashion and creative Institute, Li Jun, left two: The Woolmark Company (International Wool Bureau), general manager of China, Ma Jie.

1, education: Interactive Classroom

If the wool education center is compared to a toddler, then the international wool Bureau and Donghua University will play the role of parents. There is no doubt that the two sides will link resources in their own networks to continuously inject energy into the platform.

Ma Jie said that the wool education center is first of all a "classroom" with strong interactive attributes.

Here, the international wool Bureau will provide students with information on market trends, innovation, technology and procurement for the first time. Seminars and training courses will also be held regularly to give students an opportunity to understand the characteristics of wool.

As a platform organization, the international wool Bureau has established long-term cooperative relations with more than 60 commercial brands and designer brands in China, including ICICLE's Wo, JNBY, supermodel Lv Yan's original brand COMME MOI and so on.

In the future, the wool Bureau will also make full use of these brand resources to provide students with design and business guidance, such as inviting designers of these brands to come up with masters' Auditorium and so on.

"At the same time, we also hope that a mature business brand can dig out future designers and build mentoring relationships, which will provide students with more practical opportunities before choosing jobs," said Ma Jie.

In an interview with "gorgeous ambition", Ma Jie just returned to Shanghai at the end of the international wool bureau general manager meeting in Dubai.

He disclosed that he had jointly planned with the head of digital marketing at headquarters, and will carry out interactive education in the future with the latest hardware and equipment of digital innovation in the wool Education Center.

"For example, we will soon launch the online wool knowledge education course around the world, and it will also be on the wool Education Center."

Ma Jie said, in their plan, the wool education center is like a "pilot unit", because students' feedback is the most valuable.

Referring to the curriculum, Li Jun added that the SCF Institute will relocate some of the existing courses (such as "Fashion Material") to the wool education center to teach students to contact wool materials in person, and feel the impact of material quality on product design.

2, industry: resource sharing space

The main driving force of fashion innovation stems from the opening and sharing of resources.

From the perspective of fashion industry, the wool Education Center also plays the role of "resource sharing space". At this level, the international wool Bureau has natural resource advantages.

Backed by sixty thousand Australian herdsmen, the international wool bureau is committed to providing R & D and marketing services for the global supply of Australian wool, and has the most resource in the wool industry chain.

In addition, in the aspect of textile fabric innovation, taking China as an example, the international wool Bureau has established deep cooperation with Shandong Ruyi, Nanshan Group and Jiangsu sunshine group, including wool information sharing, fabric innovation project, technical support and so on.

Li Jun said that the wool education center and SCF college students will benefit from the rich resources of the international wool Bureau. For example, in real practice, students often do not know how to choose wool materials and how to convert wool materials into finished products.

And the excellent wool spinning enterprises such as Nanshan, Linglong and other international wool bureau network systems provide practical support for students.

In the previous graduation design, the students have already obtained the support of these enterprises in materials.

Although the wool Education Center has just been established, students will get more resources from these enterprises in the future.

Li Jun said.

In addition, as a "shared space", the wool Education Center will be open to all partners in the industry chain.

Ma Jie said that industrial partners can hold work releases, training and interaction.

"Although this is a physical space, it is open, and we provide a gathering place for brands, designers and college students."

He said.

3, looking forward to the future: challenges faced by fashion design education

From the international wool logo award to the landing of the wool Education Center, the international wool Bureau has always been committed to supporting the growth of young designers.

Ma Jie said frankly, the current Chinese cutting-edge designers are still in the "infancy", lack of supply chain resources, and also slightly immature in business strategic planning.

"But we are pleased to see that China's textile industry is actively changing, from the order quantity, procurement cycle and other aspects to make adjustments, hoping to serve the domestic outstanding new designers and brands."

Ma Jie said that the international wool Bureau will continue to provide more support for the cutting-edge designers to help them develop more mature and systematically.

Referring to the challenges facing domestic fashion education, Li Jun said: "the biggest challenge must be whether our designers can really go to the forefront, and believe that this is also what most traditional fashion colleges are facing."

"We often say that design, technology and technology, as well as business, constitute the" design of the iron triangle ". For designers, only the iron triangle can be built to sustain development," he said.

Li Jun believes that students need to have the spirit of independent research before they can really solve problems when they move towards industry.

In this mode, Donghua will interact more with China's fashion industry, such as making full use of the industrial resources in the international wool bureau system.

More interviews:

Hua Lizhi: with the more extension of the international wool Bureau in the whole industry chain (including the yarn and fabric enterprises in the middle and upper reaches, the independent designer clothing brand in the lower reaches, and the terminal commercial retail), how do you view the current situation and trend of Chinese fashion industry?

Ma Jie: one of the phenomena is from China to the world.

For example, Shandong Ruyi group, China Fosun Group and other Chinese capital joined the global fashion industry through mergers and acquisitions.

In fact, the foundation behind this is the growth of consumption power of Chinese consumer groups.

In addition, more companies are involved in the competition of the global fashion industry. For example, in February this year, Tmall China day, which was held in New York fashion week, was successful both in terms of its influence and its commercial value.

This is a benign phenomenon, and I believe more enterprises will join in the future.

Ornate ambition: can you tell us what the next international wool Bureau will do in the fashion industry?

Ma Jie: wool education center is a very important project this year. It is also a long-term strategy.

As a platform organization, our business model is based on "cooperation", so we will continue to cooperate with China's outstanding designer brand and business brand.

Other global projects include our cooperation agreement with Mini Cooper. We will focus on fashion promotion, discover designers, CO publish capsule series, and bring them to the global stage.

Last year, we joined Lane Crawford, a well-known luxury goods retailer, to invite Chinese designer brand Helen Lee and Particle Fever to design the capsule series with "Sport x Fashion (Sports x fashion)" as the theme.

In the second half of this year, we will have another cooperation with LK for China market.

Hua Lizhi: what do you think are the three most important words for the wool Education Center?

Li Jun: Openness: This is an open platform, opening up makes innovation possible; interdisciplinary: different disciplines will participate in this platform; Internationalization: combined with the resources of the Bureau of globalization and the international teachers and students of Donghua University, we will continue to promote the future development of China's fashion industry.

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About The Woolmark Company (International Wool Bureau)

The Woolmark Company (International Wool Bureau) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian Wool Innovation Limited (Australian Wool Innovation). It is a non-profit organization owned by 60 thousand herdsmen. It is committed to providing research and development for the global supply of wool.

Promotion services.

The Woolmark Company has established a cooperative relationship with wool textile and fashion enterprises all over the world and regarded wool as the most natural garment.

And high fashion fashion fabrics.

Pure wool logo (Woolmark) is the world's most famous textile logo.

It is not only the guarantee of high quality, but also the best quality and innovative design representative of the entire industrial chain from pasture to final garment.

About Shanghai international fashion and creative Institute, Donghua University

Donghua University Shanghai international fashion and creative Institute (hereinafter referred to as "SCF Institute") is a two level college affiliated to Donghua University, which is co operated by Donghua University and University of Edinburgh.

SCF college and internationally renowned

The cooperation of design institutes integrates domestic and foreign industrial resources, integrates theory with practice, and aims to cultivate leading talents for fashion and creative industries.

SCF has established close cooperation with 14 famous fashion and art institutions in 7 countries and regions.