Hongdu "Cui · Ying" Art Exhibition Appears In Nanxincang, A Century Old Clothing Brand Wants To "Chase" New

On March 24, the art exhibition "Cui · Ying - New Proposition of Chinese Aesthetics in Hongdu" opened at No. 10 warehouse of Nanxincang Cultural and Leisure Street. For the first time, Hongdu Clothing "shows" itself in the way of holding an exhibition, which allows the audience to feel the charm and culture of Chinese traditional clothing closely, and also steps forward in the innovative development of a century old brand.

As part of the China International Fashion Week (hereinafter referred to as "China Fashion Week") in the autumn and winter of 2024, more than 50 pieces of Hongdu costumes were exhibited in this exhibition. With the core concept of "innovative development of Chinese aesthetics and traditional dress culture", the art exhibition combines traditional oriental aesthetic elements with modern design concepts to create works and achievements that have both traditional charm and modern fashion sense. Hongdu has two municipal intangible cultural heritages, namely, "Hongdu Zhongshan Suit Making Technique" and "Beijing style Cheongsam Making Technique". At the moment of national trend, intangible cultural heritage technology is emerging.

The exhibition hall is located in the "Nanxincang", which has a history of more than 600 years. Historically, it was a royal official warehouse storing imperial grain and rice in Kyoto during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Entering the exhibition hall, you will see the "Spring" series clothing in the main exhibition area. This series of clothes is designed and produced by Li Yanchun, the fifth generation inheritor of intangible cultural heritage of Beijing style cheongsam traditional production skills.

The clothing works take the blue and white as the main tone, and the design inspiration comes from the Song lyrics "the east wind blows the willow and the sun grows, the rain leaves the fragrant grass and the sun sets", which symbolizes vitality. As an auxiliary color, tea white forms a harmonious contrast with cyan white. Weaving brocade, yarn, lace and other fabrics, together with traditional cheongsam production processes such as inlay, inlay, piping, plate, etc., enables clothing to achieve the integration of oriental characteristic fabrics, traditional clothing culture and innovative design, giving people a simple, quiet, implicit beauty.

In the sub exhibition area, classic clothes such as Zhongshan Suit, Youth Suit and Beijing style Cheongsam are displayed. Clothing and accessories are not separated. In addition to Hongdu Clothing, two time-honored brands Daming Glasses and Maolong also appeared together with accessories. In the cultural and creative exhibition area, dozens of cultural and creative products independently developed by these time-honored brands are quite interesting, such as the environmental protection concept cloth bear made of garment surplus materials, ear ornaments inspired by disk buttons, red eight petal crabapple fan, brocade woven Chinese handbags, etc.

A new Chinese style aesthetic fashion show was also staged at the entrance of the exhibition hall. The models were dressed in Chinese tunics, youth clothes, Beijing style cheongsam and new Chinese style clothes, showing the elegance and elegance of time-honored brands on the catwalk, and also making people feel the profound connotation of time-honored brands.

The time-honored brand originated from the Hongbang tailors with a history of 100 years. It occupies a special position in the history of Chinese clothing development and is known as the "golden signboard" of the clothing industry. In 1956, in order to solve the problem of making clothes in Beijing, under the kind care of Premier Zhou Enlai, Hongdu was jointly established by the 20 most famous garment enterprises that moved from Shanghai to Beijing.

This art exhibition is an innovative attempt of the old brand. Jin Meimei, general manager of Beijing Hongdu Group, said that time-honored brands have their own needs for innovation and breakthroughs. In recent years, the government has also introduced a number of measures to support time-honored brands to glow with new brilliance. Against this background, Hongdu has demonstrated itself for the first time by holding exhibitions. From moving to Beijing in 1956 to establishing Hongdu Group in 1993, 2024 can be said to be the "first year" of Hongdu's innovative development.

How to innovate and develop? It is reported that in terms of brand positioning, time-honored brands should integrate more modern elements into their clothing design and become more market-oriented on the basis of maintaining the traditional "needle counting" skill. At the same time, we also need to integrate information technology into clothing design. For example, the use of 3D software will greatly shorten the production cycle of sample clothing from more than 30 days in the past to 2 to 3 days. In this way, more electronic sample clothes can be produced and quickly enter the market to avoid the problem of too long sample clothes production time in the past. At present, Hongdu has more than 40 stores nationwide, including 6 directly operated stores in Beijing. The number and quality of stores will be further upgraded as the brand is relocated to the first and second tier cities.

It is understood that the exhibition of "Cui · Ying - New Proposition of Chinese Aesthetics in Hongdu" will be held from March 24 to March 31, from 10:00 to 17:00 every day. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

(Source: Beijing Daily client)