The core of fashion is inseparable from cultural heritage

Participants watched the student's design work. (Photo courtesy of Donghua University)

Perceived, degradable, wearable... High-tech elements have become a hot word in today's fashion design; at the same time, oversized suit pants, flared pants, frog mirrors... various retro elements are also popular on the fashion week stage. Is fashion fashion going left or right? Yesterday, at the 20th International Fashion Schools Alliance (IFFTI) Annual Conference hosted by Donghua University in 2018, more than 200 fashion experts from 60 fashion colleges and institutions in 24 countries around the world focused on integration and development design. The five major issues of technology and material innovation, business and industry discovery, cultural heritage and development, and education diversity are comprehensively interpreted in the future of fashion.

The experts at the meeting mentioned that, despite the integration of high technology, the fashion core is always inseparable from the cultural heritage. Today's fashion is time to return to the tradition with high technology.

Traditional culture is still the foundation of Chinese fashion

What is the fashion in your eyes? Some people say that they are wearing Nike, Adidas tide shoes, others say that they are addicted to Dior, Chanel's luxury... Each era has a different fashion lifestyle, but the fashion core is always inseparable from cultural heritage.

“If art is the highest form of culture, then fashion is the way of life of culture.” Wu Haiyan, a member of the Design Discipline Review Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and the dean of the School of Design and Art at the China Academy of Art, has been committed to integrating traditional culture into contemporary Chinese fashion life.

"From ancient times, the most significant background of Chinese people's fashion life is history and culture." Wu Haiyan exemplified, "Han poetry and painting, enjoying snuff bottles, wearing glasses... At the time, it was a fashionable lifestyle."

After the introduction of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the snuff bottles gradually became oriental. The Chinese condensed their artistic wisdom on the snuff bottles, combining painting, engraving, inlaying, honing and other techniques, using blue and white, multicolored, carved porcelain, inner painting, etc. Techniques, it can be said that snuff bottles are a microcosm of ancient Chinese handicraft art. “After the introduction of snuff bottles into China, it was closely integrated with Chinese culture, and people used it to become the most fashionable lifestyle at the time.” Wu Haiyan said.

Each era has a different fashion lifestyle, but none of them are influenced by Chinese culture. Despite the rapid development of high technology, in some international fashion events, blue and white porcelain and peony, which represent Chinese elements, have appeared frequently, and traditional culture is still the foundation of Chinese fashion.

“Without culture, fashion loses its soul and command. Technology and material innovation is a powerful driving force for the transformation of fashion and multi-generation. The whole process of fashion R&D and consumption will also undergo great changes.” Wu Haiyan believes that culture and art are condensed by humans. The extreme sensitivity and supreme aesthetic of the development of social things is the original gene of creativity, so it is the irreplaceable foundation and connotation of fashion.

New fashion points to green nature

“The new fashion is to combine nature and culture.” Zhao Feng, curator of the China Silk Museum and professor of the School of Fashion and Art Design at Donghua University, said in an interview. The combination of traditional silk crafts and modern design techniques of China's intangible cultural heritage is getting closer and closer, and this is what Zhao Feng has been doing. He said: "Silk is a traditional Chinese fabric. Today's popular silks have both the traditional weave and the cultural description of contemporary design, as well as the latest weaves that blend traditional patterns."

“What do we admire in China today? More goods are still catching up with fashion at a faster speed?” Ye Shouzeng, founder and chairman of Shanghai Wohe Fashion Industrial Group, and Donghua University alumnus believes that people and people are doing rapid development. Natural unity is the true color of fashion. Under the support of environmental protection concepts and the latest technology, Ye Shouzeng has fully automated the manufacturing process with the Internet of Things, creating natural cotton wool and linen garments, leading his team out of a green and intelligent manufacturing road, leading local original brands to the European market.

Ann Cantrell from the New York Fashion Institute, in the face of the status quo of garment industry waste has become the world's second largest source of environmental pollution, and explores the concept of sustainable development of recycling of fashion products.

As the most powerful response to the demand for sustainable development of fashion, Donghua University will lead the launch of the seven environmental protection standards of China Textile Industry Federation at the end of this year. This is the first time at home and abroad to regulate and guide the whole life cycle of fashion product development and consumption.

Multiple open fashion education incubating creative talents

Creative talents determine the future of the fashion industry. The multi-open and open fashion education environment is good for inspirational collisions and is the best incubator for talent growth. For the first time, this year's annual meeting set up nine immersion seminars on education and research to showcase the latest achievements in the development of Donghua Design Discipline.

At the seminar of the functional protection service dummy survey, Donghua University displayed professional research equipment and achievements in the interdisciplinary field of digital interconnection and intelligent manufacturing, such as the astronaut costume research and development design team; At the seminar of the People's Research Institute, experts saw that as the first batch of participating institutions of the Ministry of Culture's non-genetic population research and development program in China, Donghua University actively promoted the integration of traditional crafts and modern technology, so that traditional skills "live in the present"... ...

China's fashion industry has transformed from a global apparel manufacturing center in the 1980s and 1990s to a global fashion consumption center in the new century and now to the global creative and design center. "Talent is the inexhaustible driving force for the innovation and development of the fashion industry, and fashion education is the basis for its survival and continuation." Jiang Changjun, president of Donghua University, said that in the future, the school will further cultivate fashion creative talents with a global vision and local awareness. Promote the construction of “Huandonghua Fashion and Creative Industry Cluster”, and deeply serve Shanghai to build a globally influential technology innovation center and international fashion capital, design capital and brand capital.