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Fashion Figures: How The New Generation Of Chinese Designers Drive The Sustainable Transformation Of Fashion Consumption

2023/6/6 16:59:00 0

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On May 6, 2023, the beginning of summer in the 24 solar terms of China, the famous "super rich and long" in Shanghai has always been regarded as the most fashionable street with the most "tone". Among them, WWD Fashion Lab on Changle Road welcomed 12 Chinese contemporary original designers, whose most representative works were collectively presented to participate in a joint exhibition with the theme of "sustainable fashion".

In fact, with the recovery of offline economy, there are a series of activities to support the local fashion industry in the "Jufuchang" area located in Jing'an District, Shanghai, including green themes. For example, entertainment stars and ordinary people enthusiasts ride together in "Jufuchang", which is recorded by cycling teams supporting green environment protection. Later, in the process of social media fermentation, slogans such as limited plastic consumption and low-carbon travel were recorded and fission spread. There are many other activities like this. Green and environmental protection has become a major symbol on the streets of Shanghai at present. However, the "sustainable" will expressed by the joint exhibition of 12 designers in WWD Fashion Lab is far more than that.

As early as around 2018, the recycling rate of used clothes around the world was not high, while the recycling rate of used clothes in China was only 0.1%. Today, the global average recycling rate of used clothes is about 15%, but China is still less than 10%. Just last year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Recycling of Waste Textiles, which clearly planned to establish a recycling system for waste textiles, and by 2025, the recycling rate of waste textiles should reach 25%.

How can we achieve the 25% goal? A new generation of designers are working hard from different dimensions.

In cities in southern China, after the baby was born in the daytime, the parents paid a visit to hundreds of people to collect cloth and sew it into a patchwork dress, commonly known as "hundred family clothes". Wang Fengchen, a designer who has cross-border cooperation with many international brands, took this as an inspiration in the 2023 autumn and winter series, recycled the fabric of the previous season, and spliced and refreshed in a sustainable and symbolic way.

Such works expressing the concept of sustainability in terms of form symbols and cultural implications are not rare in such an exhibition called 12x12 Prospective and Exploration - Sustainable Shaping and Practice Design Exhibition. As the designer Wang Fengchen said, in ancient villages in China, clothes made from hundreds of cloth are a kind of emotional bond. Behind them are humanities and communities. What Chinese people value most is the sustainability of this community and clan culture.

It is also recycling. Designer Wang Fengchen recycled the fabric for a new season, while another designer, Zhang Na, who is known as the "first person of sustainable fashion in China", insisted on transforming old clothes into new fashion throughout China for 12 years. Since 2010, her "Reengineering Clothes Bank" has invited low-income women who come to work in cities to join her camp, taught them sewing technology, and clearly transformed the old clothes discarded by residents in Beijing, Shanghai and other first tier cities from old to new and turned waste into treasure; Since 2014, we have cooperated with herdsmen in Tibet in yak felt materials to support the economy of pastoral areas and improve the living conditions of local residents; In 2016, we began to set up a fabric laboratory to make recycling, reconstruction, design and sales have a certain technological content in the way of industrial chain linkage, and there are thousands of recycled materials alone... Now, there is always a recycling box at the door of the flagship store of the clothing bank. While recycling old clothes, we tell the donators that these clothes will be "reborn" in the hands of designers, It becomes part of the fashion economy and is sold to Africa or North Korea.

As a leading lifestyle brand with sustainable fashion as its core in China and even in the world, Zhang Na founded the Clothing Bank to build a design system that uses art design+technology, folk art+emotional healing to transform people, things and things, To form a unique recycling, recycling and marketing - Repay Earth complete closed-loop system and all-round R&D laboratory.

Whether it is a season of new products inspired by "100 family clothes" or a 12 year effort to create a new design system, behind the creation of new generation designers, there is a profound sense of sustainability, and even has jumped out of the narrow sense of fashion and become the imprint of an era.

In Zhejiang, China, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of a province called Pinghu, with a population of only 700000, does not produce down, but produces more than 50% of China's down jackets, with an annual shipment of more than 150 million pieces and an annual sales scale of about 30 billion yuan. In this small town in the south of the Yangtze River, where the "clothing legend" is known, the industries of production, distribution, design and so on have created 100000 jobs.

Among them, after only three years of corporate operation, William Shen, who landed in Milan Fashion Week, magazines and covers in 18 countries, often studied and thought about China's traditional culture, and applied traditional cultural elements such as bamboo weaving, traditional paper-cut, the stretching Great Wall, and even bamboo slips in the design of high-end down jackets. In this process, Shen William, a science student, realized the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, which is a kind of differentiated competition in itself, and is a sustainable way for the increasingly "voluminous" fashion design industry. In addition, he replaced printing with colored paper-cut sculpture process, and used the fashion expression scheme with algorithm concept to reduce the environmental and ecological pollution in the traditional fashion printing process, It is more sustainable.

Also a science student, Zhi Chen, the "color expert selected by Apple", started with fiber materials and knitting technology to make the product sustainable and the production process sustainable. JUDY HUA, known as the "architect of fashion", uses recycled fiber as yarn material to create sculpture and architectural knitted works. At the same time, he uses the works to metaphor the philosophy of "transcending geometry in geometry and getting rid of destiny in destiny". At the same time of combining fashion beauty and humanistic reflection, she stressed that "the design that has lasted for ten years, in addition to the original concept, the corresponding whole process is a sustainable practice, from design, research and development to production, even transportation, and fabric selection, all aspects should form a relatively benign cycle."

What is a real virtuous circle? Represented by JUDY HUA, the new generation of Chinese designers are extremely strict with the whole process of designing products. They began to pay attention to not wasting paper from the time of pattern design. In the process of mass production, they pursue not wasting the facing materials, and the unavoidable residual fabrics should be designed as interesting products or gifts to give back to consumers. In the process of this pursuit, we strive to achieve zero inventory.

In addition, more and more designers have become advocates of "high fashion". They use the requirements of near perfectionism to create a high-quality fashion that is as perfect as a work of art. They try to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible. When they deliver high-quality fashion to consumers, they hope that one can wear for ten years. "Making a dress that can wear for ten years and buying a dress that can wear for ten years is environmental protection in itself," said JUDY HUA.

Every commodity is not only the commodity itself, but also the value of "sustainability" and "social justice" attached to it. The new generation of designers are making efforts to let fashion products speak for consumers, say what they want to say for users, help people in need, and even intervene in public issues. When fashion enters the era of highly civilized development, fashion itself has not existed to meet people's rigid needs, and the relationship between the practicality of goods and consumer purchase decisions is weakening. Just as fashion has already broken away from the functional attribute of concealment and become the expression of aesthetic and spiritual thoughts, today's Chinese consumers are more and more clearly aware of the significance of simplifying consumption: every sum of money spent is to vote for the world they want.

When consumers consume, they vote for a better world. Designers use design to create a better world, which is no longer just touching people with concepts. However, when more and more consumers and designers reach a consensus on sustainability, it will force more industry giants to start unswervingly implementing sustainable actions, and the market will no longer need to gloss over the peace with stories.

Riding a bicycle to shuttle the "super rich" can contribute to reducing carbon emissions; Go to the WWD Fashion Lab located in Changle Road to watch the exhibition carefully, feel the designers' awe of sustainability in every link from materials to technology, and even production. There will be more "dandelion" seeds in the green fashion camp, and a touch will be enough to make green go to more places; Buying a fashionable piece from Sustain 100's online and offline beautiful design sales platform means support for fair trade and circular economy... Today's "sustainable fashion" in Shanghai has gradually formed a business climate, not only the creative concept of designers and brands, but also goes deep into the behavior and life of consumers.

The choice of whether to buy or not becomes an action for people to build the future world with a fashionable attitude. The new generation of Chinese designers on the sustainable fashion track is enough to drive the transformation of fashion consumption ecology.