"Fashion cannot be separated from the foundation of culture, and the new Chinese style is the combination of cultural inheritance and fashion innovation." When we use the aesthetics of design to express and become a way of life applicable to the present,
young people will feel that this is our real national style, Chinese style." Xiong Ying, a famous designer, artistic director and founder of Gaia Legend clothing, said that the Chinese lifestyle driven by clothing is also being recognized by the world, "because beauty and art have no national boundaries, and the world also needs Chinese clothing."
LAN Yu, a famous designer and founder of the "LANYU" brand, believes that the absorption and innovation of traditional culture in China's fashion field is a manifestation of cultural confidence.
"The enthusiasm of young people is an important factor in the development of new Chinese style. Coupled with the rapid response of the domestic production supply chain and online channels, the new Chinese style has become a trend."
For Generation Z, the national style has become their "popular culture". Post-95 entrepreneur Zhang Wenkang is a "three pits girl" (Internet buzzword, refers to the same time like Hanfu, lolita clothing, JK uniform three kinds of clothing and willing to spend money for girls),
after graduating from university, she will combine interests and career, into the traditional culture to create a boom. "Is there no clothes? In the eyes of this class of young people,
from "pan buckle" to "cloud shoulder", from "flowers and birds" to "landscape", the new Chinese style worn on the body is not only beautiful clothes, but also cultural confidence and national pride.
Based on the present to create national culture
From the minority to the circle, new Chinese clothing has become a new highlight on the fashion stage. In the 2024 Autumn/Winter Shanghai Fashion Week, velvet, Chinese satin "meet" bow, ostrich hair,
beads, is the opening show brought by Le Fame Laflem, with Shanghai new Chinese style to convey the "good voice" of Chinese fashion design. Into the Shanghai style house of Shanghai Theatre,
a "garden tour dream" brings new Chinese exhibition and fashion show, the designer cleverly seeks balance and iteration between the new and the old, the original and the innovation.
"Traditional Chinese culture is a 'treasure house of wisdom' for future fashion craft." Xi Hua, the chief designer and founder of "Five Clouds", brought a finely crafted new Chinese costume to the Oriental New Chinese Fashion Exhibition,
which was inspired by the "Grass, insects, Flowers and Butterflies", a female artist's history of the Southern Song Dynasty in the collection of Shanghai Museum. The two designers and two embroiders spent thousands of hours, using 16 embroidery methods to reprint the patterns in the scroll and integrate them into the fashion. Made a beautiful piece of work.
There are high-end customization that inherits ancient techniques, and there are new fashion ideas that suit the public. Founded in 2008, Yi Hongyan is the first brand to make cheongsam on the e-commerce platform,
positioning cheongsam as a common dress into thousands of households. Brand founder Ma Junyu said that new Chinese clothing needs to find a balance between charm and fashion, while absorbing traditional culture,
but also to create a national culture in line with the current social form. Let the national wind not only sweep China, but also "good wind by force" to help us establish a new cultural image in the world.
"Only national, is international", seems to have been the consensus of the fashion industry. However, Wu Haiyan, vice chairman of the China Fashion Designers Association and professor of the China Academy of Art,believes that Chinese fashion designers appear on the international stage, not to meet the Western society's curiosity for mysterious Oriental art, but to form a unique "one yuan" with unique opinions in the context of globalization, and then promote the multi-cultural interaction of the world.
Starting from her own experience, Wu Haiyan believes that Chinese designers should have two abilities, one is the ability to express the unique aesthetic taste of the nation in the international popular language,
and the other is the ability to show the common international aesthetic trend with the traditional elements of the nation. "China has a splendid and long-standing fashion culture,
and it should also have a voice in the international fashion industry, which requires Chinese designers to constantly create persuasive works, relying on 'as' to obtain' status'."
She said that Shanghai, as a fashion highland in China, should first establish and improve a sustainable fashion ecosystem, including financial capital, news media, college talents, industrial processing, designer talents, fashion life and so on.
