Ever since the Silk Road opened the trade between ancient China and the Roman Empire, beautiful and precious silk embroidery products have amazed and conquered the Western world as a symbol of "Chinese fashion". As Westerners learn more and more about China, the vast and profound Chinese culture has begun to inspire the imagination of artists and creators around the world, and Chinese style and Chinese elements have become a constant source of inspiration in Western design structures.

Victoria Beckham in a blue and white porcelain gown by Roberto Cavalli
Today, the significance of China to Western fashion is much more than aesthetic inspiration. The Chinese market has become the heart of the global luxury and fashion market. In 2020, the global luxury goods market suffered a comprehensive impact, and the data show that China's luxury goods market has "bucked the trend" and become one of the few markets in the world to achieve "positive growth" in sales in 2020.

Therefore, "Chinese style" has become a cultural and aesthetic consideration that Western brands cannot ignore when carrying out design creativity. The most typical example is that every year as the Spring Festival approaches, major brands have dug deep into the image of the Chinese zodiac to launch the Spring Festival limited series, trying to organically combine their DNA with the spiritual core of Chinese culture to create new explosive products.

However, at a time when national culture is becoming more and more confident, for Chinese consumers, it is more important than ever for international luxury brands to correctly understand and use Chinese culture and Chinese style symbols, and even to present them beautifully.

Jia Xizeng, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Fine Arts, is undoubtedly the most representative of the voice of Chinese consumers: "' Chinese style 'fashion refers more to a feeling, between seeming and not specific Chinese style." It needs to be established in the world's popular fashion culture, and it needs to be an international Chinese style."

Fashion curator Pooky Lee told WWD, "In fact, most Chinese audiences are happy to see Chinese culture interpreted by Western fashion designers and presented on the international stage, as long as the designs are done with heart and respect."

As social media has made society more transparent and open in recent years, the issues surrounding cultural appropriation have become increasingly sensitive, but most consumers are concerned about more than just culture. "To be honest, they care more about the quality and price of fashion products, or whether the design of the dress makes them look more beautiful, and they become more sensitive when it comes to serious issues such as politics," said Dr. Christine Tsui, a fashion scholar.

Lee and Tsui agree that Giorgio Armani is one of the most respectful of Chinese elements in fashion design. "Armani has an elegant style, which has some similarities with the spirit of 'harmony' in China. Secondly, the use of low saturation color is very much in line with Chinese aesthetics."

Bamboo perseverance, and China's perseverance, never yield the spirit is very similar, so Giorgio Armani with a dignified bamboo to show the unique Chinese style
In 2015, as a tribute to the 10th anniversary of Armani Prive haute couture series, 81-year-old Italian fashion master Giorgio Armani, with "ink bamboo" as the theme element, the use of exquisite high fashion production skills, deduces the international popular fashion with Eastern traditional cultural artistic conception. This is considered by industry insiders to be the most wonderful Chinese fashion show ever.

Lee also mentioned Prada as another interesting case study, as the brand often reveals a deeper and more complex cultural perspective of China in its designs. In addition, when John Galliano took charge of Dior's creative power, the designer used imaginative and dramatic techniques to become one of the most popular and well-known figures in the Chinese fashion industry. In the past 15 years, he has paid tribute to traditional Chinese culture many times, whether it is the blue and white porcelain elements of the dress, or the "Oriental dragon woman" wearing cheongsam, none of which is the designer's understanding and reorganization of Oriental symbols.

John Galliano's "Chinese style" has a wide range of expression techniques, romantic and beautiful, and full of drama. Every time, it can bring huge visual impact and imagination to people
The end of the 20th century was the era when Chinese elements were the most cited in the Western fashion world. At that time, the fashion design masters used Chinese elements to interpret their beautiful imagination of fashion. Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and other designers have used Chinese elements in their dreamy fashion designs.

In 1985, when French designer Yves Saint Laurent held a retrospective exhibition of his works at the National Art Museum of China, he also said, "What country has so captured the imagination?" Only China, we Western art can be said to have been given more by China."

In 2015, the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited "China: Through the Looking Glass" (China: Through the Looking Glass), which aims to interpret the artistic creation and imagination generated by the mysterious and congesting Oriental culture and movies for centuries, deconstructing the collision and fusion of Eastern and Western fashion and culture.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's flagship exhibition, "China: Through the Looking Glass," has attracted a record 816,000 visitors in four months, making it one of the most popular exhibitions in the museum's history and one of the most powerful expressions of China's aesthetic influence
Among the most famous pieces in the exhibition at the time were a Yves Saint Laurent gown (designed by Tom Ford in 2004) inspired by the dragon robe worn by the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Puyi, when he ascended the throne, and a Chanel blue and white beaded gown (by Karl Lagerfeld in 1984) And a Chinese porcelain patterned gown designed by Roberto Cavalli. At the time, chief curator Andrew Bolton told WWD that designers and artists saw the East as "a culture of unfettered inspiration and creativity."

Bolton suggests that throughout the history of fashion, "many designers have tended to look at other countries' cultures, even their own, at very superficial structures." GQ once commented in an article: "When designers face huge cultural differences, reducing Chinese culture and language to a single aesthetic element does not resonate with local consumers."

Laura Biagiotti, who held a fashion show in Beijing in 1988, was one of the first European designers to show in China
The late Italian designer Laura Biagiotti, known as the "Queen of Cashmere", was the first Italian designer to hold a fashion show in China. In April 1988, she showed her silk and cashmere collections in Beijing, which made her brand name Oriental. "They treated me like a movie star," Laura Biagiotti told WWD in 1993. "The flash made me see almost nothing."

As one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in the world, Edward Waefie Said regards Orientalism as a kind of discourse. In 1978, he wrote, "Rather than creating a clash of civilizations, it is better to focus on slowly overlapping cultures, overlapping and borrowing from each other. To gain a broad understanding of culture, we need time, patience, and a skeptical spirit of constant inquiry, but in a world that demands immediate action and feedback, That kind of faith is hard to sustain for a long time."

"I'm not saying that designers shouldn't draw inspiration from global cultures," Lee explains. "Designers should do the necessary and appropriate research, understand the cultural and social context, and most importantly, treat the subject with equality and respect when interpreting and interpreting culture."

Chinese fashion designer Huishan Zhang is redefining Chinese fashion by combining modern Western aesthetics with traditional Eastern craftsmanship
In the design methodology of the rising designers Uma Wang and Huishan Zhang, it is no longer the use of superficial symbols to try to tell consumers what is "Chinese style", but from the perspective of the integration of East and West, Chinese elements are no longer a tool to show identity, but into integration and recognition.

Designer Uma Wang has never deliberately emphasized the brand's emphasis on the application of Chinese elements, from the outline of the clothes and the sense of space, to naturally show the fascinating Chinese style
In general, Chinese fashion culture in recent years has gradually moved away from Hollywood, K-pop and even the entire Western fashion system, gradually creating a unique fashion cultural ecosystem to meet the growing consumption needs of Chinese consumers, and reflect the new identity and aesthetic revival law.

While encouraging the presentation of Chinese aesthetics, what people need to rebuild is a cascade of cross-cultural two-way dialogue, avoiding conflict and equal dialogue in this imaginative adventure of fashion.