Silk Culture: Fashion Trend

In the long process of development, silk has been endowed with rich cultural connotation, and its appearance changes with the times, releasing new vitality

Today, with the development of ecological civilization, silk culture, with its green concept of traditional handicrafts, is playing an important role in the fashion trend

What we provide to the world is not only silk as fabric, but also the silk culture of inheritance and innovation, which embodies the wisdom of generations of Chinese people in technological practice and cultural creation

There are nearly 100 idioms related to "silk" in Chinese, and there are countless Chinese characters with "Gu" as the side. China's silk culture has a long history and is extensive and profound. From the unearthed remains of silk culture, the "Silk Ivory cap shaped device" is about 7000 years ago, and the first artificially cut cocoon in human history is nearly 6000 years ago. In the long process of development, silk has been endowed with rich cultural connotations, and its appearance changes with the times, releasing new vitality.

　　 Cultural heritage revitalizes

Silk has the unique nature of long production process, high technical difficulty and high artistic aesthetics. Through complicated, meticulous and ingenious procedures, the industrious and intelligent ancient Chinese people refined elegant, soft and elegant silk from natural life, and woven it into exquisite and beautiful silk, leaving many cultural heritages for today's people. "Zhejiang Huzhou Sangji fish pond system" has been recognized as an important global agricultural cultural heritage by the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "Chinese traditional mulberry silk weaving skills" and "Nanjing brocade weaving skills" have been listed in the UNESCO representative list of human intangible cultural heritage. Sichuan brocade, song brocade, Yunjin, xiangyunsha, hangluo, Kesi, Suzhou embroidery and other national intangible cultural heritage projects.

These cultural heritages in the field of silk, combined with contemporary life and modern crafts, have been constantly glowing with new vitality. As one of the few agricultural cultural heritages with a history of more than 2500 years in China and even in the world, "Zhejiang Huzhou mulberry base fish pond system" has created the benefit of "both benefits, ten times of grain and crops" through the mode of "planting mulberry on the basis, feeding silkworm with mulberry leaves, raising fish with silkworm sand, fish manure pond and pond mud choking mulberry". In recent years, this agricultural cultural heritage has been further combined with modern agriculture and beautiful rural construction, promoting the traditional Sangji fish pond to play a better role and making the traditional agricultural cultural heritage "alive".

Another example is "Brocade", which represents the highest level of silk weaving skills in ancient China. After thousands of years, it is still active in the field of contemporary culture and art, constantly innovating the inheritance mode.

The first is to inherit the traditional process route at the same time cross-border integration. Not long ago, in the art exhibition "the light of extraordinary Julian art", Qian Xiaoping, the representative inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage project song brocade, used the skills of song brocade to express the series of works of Italian painter Modigliani. In the light and shadow of silk thread, the three-dimensional texture of the original characters is highlighted, showing the charm of the blending of eastern and Western art.

The second is to innovate technical means to prosper modern brocade industry. "Brocade" is valued for its complicated weaving and rich colors in silk. Li Jialin, an expert in brocade technology, invented the "five color interweaving method", which has changed the traditional silk weaving image expression mode and traditional brocade production mode which has been used in many countries for more than 100 years, and has created more than 4500 colors. In his hands, there are many modern brocade works, such as silk weaving scroll "Qingming Riverside painting" and color brocade painting "Fuchun Mountain Residence".

In addition, people also improved the mode of silk production to better meet the market demand. Xiangyun yarn, which has been inherited for more than 600 years and is known as the "soft gold" in the silk industry, was originally the crystallization of collective labor. The traditional production of Xiangyun yarn generally requires dozens of craftsmen to operate at the same time, and has to go through "three washing, nine steaming and eighteen drying" for nearly a year. Pure handmade and super long production cycle, the production of Xiangyun yarn has been very low and expensive for hundreds of years. In recent years, people have greatly improved the production efficiency and output of Xiangyun yarn by improving the dyeing and weaving technology, and the production cost has also been reduced. Xiangyun yarn has entered more ordinary people's homes.

　 Fashion trend

In today's actively promoting the construction of ecological civilization, silk culture, with its green concept of traditional handicrafts, is playing an important role in the fashion trend. "Hanfu", "Qipao" and "new Chinese dress" with silk as important fabrics are leading the continuous innovation of traditional clothing culture.

In 2014, the "new Chinese dress" whose root is "Zhong", whose soul is "Li" and whose shape is "new", as APEC leaders' clothing, shows the world the style of Chinese clothing. In recent years, "Hanfu craze" has gradually risen, "China's Chinese clothing day" and "Guosi Hanfu Festival" have attracted many young people to participate in and are deeply loved. Then came the popular "cheongsam style" at home and abroad. Nowadays, cheongsam has evolved into a formal dress for women. In this new trend of clothing, silk is an indispensable material whether it is a new Chinese dress that highlights the temperament, a wide, thin and elegant Han suit, and a graceful cheongsam. For example, Nanjing brocade with "inch brocade and gold" is an important Chinese element in today's international fashion industry.

From the World Expo, the International Film Festival to the international fashion week, Chinese silk represented by yunjinhua clothing is constantly demonstrating the innovative fusion of tradition and fashion, shaping and interpreting the fashion "Chinese style". At the same time, a series of Chinese brands rooted in tradition have been incubated and expanded. Silk elements have been applied in fashion, clothing and home design, and the ancient silk has embarked on the road of fashion industry. For example, Suzhou Soochow silk weaving factory founded in 1919, Nanjing Yunjin Research Institute founded in 1957, and Chengdu Shujin factory founded in 1951 have now become innovative enterprises, winning development opportunities in domestic and international markets and interpreting contemporary fashion life.

　　 Science and technology endows silk with new life

With the integration of science and technology, it will open up a new road for silk culture and make it better serve contemporary life. In recent years, silk innovative technology and extension industries such as mulberry leaf tea, artificial intelligence customized silk and silk hard disk have been emerging. Mulberry leaf tea is refined by scientific baking and other technologies, with a pleasant and mellow taste. Artificial intelligence "fashion designers" can deeply understand consumers' personality characteristics and clothing needs through dialogue, and design unique Digital Art Scarves combined with fashion trends. China's scientific research institutions have also developed a "Silk hard disk", which uses silk as a storage medium like a CD-ROM to write and read digital information.

The development and release of technical standards for silk inspection continuously enhance the international influence of Chinese silk. In 2014, the first silk international standard was formulated and implemented by China. The electronic detection technology of raw silk contained in the standard is mainly researched by China and recognized by the international silk industry. It is of great significance to improve the quality level of raw silk in the world, promote silk economic and trade exchanges, and enhance the international influence of China's silk. More than 2000 years ago, the silk road made the world's magnificent imagination of the East. Today, under the belt and road initiative, economic and trade exchanges and people to people exchanges between countries along the belt and road have become increasingly frequent. Among them, many silk producing and consuming countries are carrying out close exchanges and cooperation in technical brands, creative design, history and culture, and marketing brands. The cultural spirit of the silk road has once again become a link and bridge for cross-cultural exchanges.

Silk is a great invention of the Chinese nation and a cultural symbol of Chinese civilization. As a major producer and exporter of raw materials for sericulture and silk, what we provide to the world is not only silk as fabric, but also the silk culture of inheritance and innovation, which embodies the wisdom of technological practice and cultural creation of generations of Chinese people. Looking forward to the future, the ancient silk culture will bloom with new brilliance on the road of inheritance and innovation.

(source: People's daily)

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