Ceng Fengfei: Let The National Costume Go To The World And Become China's Business Card

Kimono in Japan, ao dai in Vietnam, sari in India, Pang Qiu in Peru... These ethnic costumes have been well known throughout the world and become symbolic symbols of a country. In contrast, China still lacks such a national costume that is recognized by the whole people and influential and recognizable in the world. Why does national costume fail to enter the public's field of vision? How to start the Chinese brand in the world stage? How can Chinese clothing achieve the spirit of traditional culture while conforming to contemporary people's pursuit of fashion?

Beauty of Chinese dress and courtesy: Chinese etiquette culture can not be lost

In March this year, during his visit to Europe, President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan visited the royal banquet for two times. They were both full of Chinese style and international standard. They were widely praised by the world. At the just concluded APEC meeting, the national leader's clothes with Chinese style once again became an attractive landscape.

"Zuo Zhuan" notes that there is a cloud: "China has the etiquette of the great, called the summer; the beauty of the service chapter, called Hua." The appellation of the Chinese nation is derived from the dress civilization, thus making China a ceremonial state. The allusions of Huang Di's "clothing and rule" show that clothing has gone far beyond the practical significance of avoiding cold and shame, and represents the establishment of the etiquette system and the arrival of the civilized era.

For thousands of years, the Chinese nation has seen such splendid costumes as "Hanfu" and "Tang suit". Today, however, Chinese clothing features seem to have gradually blurred. Liu Donghui, vice-chairman of the China Association for ethnic minorities' external exchanges, said: "today, with the popularity of Western-style clothes, China's clothing culture has gradually divorced from the atmosphere of traditional Chinese culture for thousands of years. This is a great pity. "

During the period of the Republic of China, the "Zhongshan Costume" put forward by Mr. Sun Zhongshan and the cheongsam, which was then popular, was prescribed as a national dress. However, these become history after all. After the reform and opening up, in order to break the current situation of China's unique clothing style, the leaders of the time wore the western style clothes in order to promote a variety of cultural choices. Today, China puts forward the idea of establishing a culture, and culture is the difference. In clothing culture, we must also find our own personality and characteristics. Now leaders take the lead in wearing Chinese clothing, sending positive signals. Xiong Chengyu, director of the national cultural industry research center of Tsinghua University, said.

"Diplomats have always wanted to wear clothes with ethnic characteristics to participate in foreign affairs." Lu Peixin, former director of the Department of foreign affairs of the Ministry of foreign affairs, said, "unfortunately, such a garment in China is temporarily absent. Chinese diplomats wear suits almost every occasion, and occasionally wear Chinese tunic suits. But Western-style clothes are not suitable for some work combinations, and Chinese tunic suits are not suitable for modern etiquette and costume. He believes that it is very necessary to set up a national costume today when China's international status is constantly improving and its diplomatic activities are becoming more frequent.

In the view of Zhao Weiguo, designer of Specialized Committee of China Fashion Association, there are different evaluation systems of costume aesthetics between China and the West. "Many people misunderstand the understanding of national costume. They think it is just a collage of Chinese elements. In fact, Chinese elements are only small aspects, and the ideological strength and spiritual energy behind them should be more concerned. For example, Westerners usually deal with body defects by covering and disguising, while Chinese are tolerant and natural. Similarly, the saying that "Ning wears the wrong way" also shows that we pay more attention to etiquette than appearance.

It can be seen that the beauty of Oriental dress is derived from inside and outside, and is integrated into thousands of years of wisdom and philosophy. In Chinese culture, a person's attire is a manifestation of attitude, self-cultivation, character and temperament. A nation's clothing culture reveals the spiritual charm, thinking mode and value orientation of a nation. If we are only limited to the design of the form, we are enthusiastic about the accumulation of elements, without the highlight of cultural significance, we can not call it the national costume, but only lose the spiritual wealth accumulated by Chinese culture for thousands of years.

Popular fashion: Chinese style should enter everyday life

On the China Fashion Week, the Chinese wind works are booming. However, compared with the international four fashion week, the fashion week in China seems to be somewhat out of touch with the market and has not entered the public. The "Tang costume craze" led by the APEC conference in 2001 also vanished after a short period of heat. In modern society, people's pursuit of fashion market demand has become the biggest challenge for Chinese clothing.

Zhao Weiguo mentioned that the national costume should be an affinity garment. It should not make people feel weird and feel too far away from themselves. Only close to life and fashion can they be accepted and recognized by the public and finally enter into people's life. A few years ago, the improved version of the Tang Dynasty dress was hard to promote because its historical elements were too heavy and inconsistent with the aesthetic requirements of modern clothing.

At the just concluded China International Fashion Week, many designers have launched works with a strong Chinese style, from which we can see that the fashion industry combines traditional elements with fashion elements. Ceng Fengfei, a well-known domestic designer, said: "clothing in the current environment must conform to the present thinking and reflect the present life. The designer's job is to grasp the balance between the old culture and the modern fashion, and extract and integrate it, so that it can not only bear cultural connotations, but also conform to the universality of contemporary life.

However, many excellent designers in China lack the ability to connect with the consumer market. Without marketing, fashion shows are more like designers' personal revelry. Wang Libing, a professor at the textile School of Qiingdao University, thinks that China's clothing industry is gradually moving from the family handicraft workshop to the industrialization. The history of industrial production is not long. The design and market development are temporarily restricted each other. Designers should draw nourishment from the target market.

The design exchange platform, launched for the first time in fashion week, is an attempt to connect with the consumer market. For designers, this is their first step from behind the scenes to the stage, from the T platform into life, but also promoted the pace of fashion transformation.

In promoting the diversified development of clothing culture, Chinese style clothes can also enter people's daily life. "Culture is historical, geographical, folklore and life. On the basis of Chinese traditional culture, national clothing needs to seek the combination of the two under the demand of people pursuing fashion. Xiong Chengyu pointed out that clothing that accords with public taste and allows most people to recognize is truly a national costume. In the future, more attention should be paid to whether Chinese clothing can enter the public fashion, enter the consumer market, combine inheritance with creativity, and combine culture with industry, thus improving people's dressing habits and internalizing them into people's life style.

China's business card: the opportunity for the apparel industry to go global

By the end of 2013, China's clothing exports amounted to US $177 billion 100 million, and nearly 10 garment companies could produce four billion and a half billion units per year. The average person in the world can wear 7 pieces of clothing produced by Chinese people every year. However, China's clothing industry has been hovering at the low end of the industrial chain. Without the development of cultural connotation, it will not be able to gain global influence. Can the concept of national costume become a "business card" for China's apparel industry to go global?

China's clothing industry is the largest garment industry in the world, with the largest volume of production and export volume. But China is a large garment country, but not a strong garment country. "The biggest problem is cultural issues, not the clothing industry itself." Feng Dehu, vice president of China Garment Association, pointed out.

Only "made in China" has only huge economic figures. Over the years, China's garment industry has become a synonym for cheap. Ji Xiaofen, vice president of the school of clothing at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, thinks that the production fabric and production technology are the hardware components of clothing, but a mature international clothing brand also needs the software of spirit and culture. Clothing includes a contest of cultural soft power between a nation and a country. It is more important for Chinese clothing brand to go out of the country and do well in software.

From the marketing mode of foreign high-end clothing brands, we can see that from conceptual design to promotion and marketing, they all pay great attention to the integration of local culture, so as to enhance the cultural value of clothing products to get consumers' favor. However, most clothing enterprises in China have not fully explored the rich cultural resources, and can not highlight the clear style and characteristics.

Nowadays, the application of Chinese elements to the fashion industry has become increasingly frequent. Ink, embroidery, Chinese characters, traditional patterns, blue and white porcelain and other elements often appear in the new works of designers at home and abroad. Ceng Fengfei believes that Chinese clothing should go to the world, not only to make good use of its own cultural resources, but also to consider the understanding and acceptance ability of people of different cultural backgrounds.

The concept of national costume is facing a rare opportunity, and it will also promote the transformation of Chinese garment industry's operation thinking and industrial mode. Blind imitation and lack of creativity can only make the Chinese garment industry lose itself, and linger in the low-end market of "made in China". Chinese clothing can only make a strong cultural influence and make a strong influence. It will win a place in the international high-end clothing market, and deliver a shining "business card" in the exchange and dialogue with the world brand.