Ethnic style leading China's new fashion

The 2024 China Fashion Week focused on Chinese aesthetics, intangible cultural heritage innovation, and green and sustainable content. Caroline Wu delved behind the scenes, conversing with designers of Chinese-style and high-end oriental clothing, exploring the design concepts and inspiration behind their works, and showcasing the sparks of collision between "New Chinese Style," ethnic elements, and contemporary fashion.

"SUBAI" designer Ma Guai said, "The source of inspiration for this show is based on Tibetan culture. The elements we used throughout the show, for example, our braided hair, are some of the characteristics of the Xizang Autonomous Region. Meanwhile, natural pulu, hand-dyed pulu, and hand-woven pulu are used. Pulu is a woolen fabric produced in the Xizang Autonomous Region." Ma said many may find it difficult to integrate ethnic elements into our lives, but through the hands of designers, ethnic styles can lead fashion. This is one of the responsibilities for designers.

Zhang Jilin, a designer of "J.LInN NiCENESS," who won the China Fashion Award for "China Fashion Week: Emerging Accessory Designer" in 2020, introduced us to Dong embroidery. She said, "We collaborate with intangible cultural heritage craftsmen to design and produce products. In the past, the intangible cultural heritage items that everyone knows may only be available for viewing in museums, but we applied the techniques of intangible cultural heritage to everyday wearable items and made them practical."

"The 'New Chinese style' is an important concept in our brand positioning. The inspiration for this show comes from a poetic feeling in Chinese poetry. We integrate the beauty of subtle imagery with modern Western silhouettes – a minimalist design concept," said "YEAREAST" designer Xu Wenjie. She further elaborated that they wanted to reflect an abstract, reserved, and subtle beauty of the East. This kind of subtlety is inclusive and features non-concrete Eastern aesthetics.