On March 29th, the 2024 Autumn/Winter China International Fashion Week • Xiamen Day, hosted by the China Fashion Designers Association, co-organized by the Xiamen Textile and Apparel Industry Association, and guided by the Xiamen International Fashion Week Organizing Committee, grandly kicked off at the official venue of Fashion Week, Beijing 751D•PARK.
Chen Dapeng, Vice President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council and President of the China Fashion Designers Association, Yang Jian, Executive Chairman of the China Fashion Designers Association, Jiao Pei, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Fashion Designers Association, and Xie Fangming, Full-time Vice Chairman of the China Fashion Designers Association, attended the event.
Leaders from the Xiamen Development and Reform Commission, the Xiamen International Fashion Week Organizing Committee, the Xiamen Textile and Apparel Industry Association, as well as renowned designers and industry professionals, gathered in Beijing to support Xiamen’s original brands in showcasing their design strength, witnessing the shining moment of Xiamen’s fashion!
Five outstanding designers from Xiamen presented their original works on the Fashion Week runway, integrating traditional culture, cultural trends, urban life, intangible cultural heritage elements, future technology, inspiration, and new types of fabrics. They perfectly interpreted the brand show, conveying the design concept of Xiamen’s original brands and showcasing the fashion charm with “Xiamen concentration” from different dimensions.
WOW-IN·Luan Shutao: Seeing Mountains
As the first event of the AW24 China International Fashion Week • Xiamen Day, WOW-IN brand founder and design director Liu Shengyi joined hands with young designer Luan Shutao to present the “Seeing Mountains” AW24 series women’s wear collection on the fashion week stage, showcasing the cool and clean mountain-inspired female fashion style to the audience.
The event, themed “Seeing Mountains,” was inspired by memories of looking at distant mountains.
Designer Luan Shutao blends the mountain style YAMA-Style with elements of ancient Chinese style in the design, akin to WOW-IN’s bags. The entire collection is concise and powerful, with aesthetics on point. “Loose Heart” is the visual aesthetic language created by the designer for this occasion. The wide-cut garments presented on the runway, taking into account functionality and wearability, incorporate thoughtful considerations for both body comfort and environmental protection.
The broad internal space of the clothing, combined with functional woven fabrics and woolen tweed fabrics that retain body temperature, effectively locks in warmth. Based on observations in mountainous environments, loose clothing can ensure adequate bodily fluids and provide appropriate cushioning against direct physical impacts, offering the body a clever and composed arrangement.
While elements of naturalism unfold, modernist minimalist style pure large blocks of color, olive green, and sky blue are interspersed.
In terms of structural patchwork, the clothing incorporates partial patchwork of cotton-blend knitwear and detachable functionality, aiming to emphasize the protective, durable, temperature-resistant, and characteristic properties of joints under dynamic conditions.
Looseness is not just about the structure of clothing; it is also the designer’s focus on expressing the wearer’s return to the essence of life, believing that the new generation can face life’s challenges with more confidence and explore the world in a freer and more comfortable way to realize themselves.
Throughout the entire show, whether in clothing or accessories, between order and disorder, a lively “mountainous” dream belonging to WOW-IN was precisely constructed.
On the stage of this China International Fashion Week, the 2024AW series of “Butterfly Shadow Insect” takes “Kiss” as its theme, cleverly recreating Gustav Klimt’s classic painting “The Kiss” with “The Woman with the Fan,” injecting the brand’s unique color language into it.
Designer Dong Ya’er carefully extracted elements from the artwork and, through secondary creation, transformed the original image into a print pattern in the style of Butterfly Shadow Insect, retaining the romance and passion of Klimt’s original work while integrating the brand’s consistent fashion and vitality.
These printed designs are rich and harmonious in color, unique and creative in pattern, not only showing Butterfly Shadow Insect’s respect for classic art but also highlighting its unique brand style. Whether it’s clothing or accessories, one can feel the unique charm and sense of fashion brought by Butterfly Shadow Insect at a glance.
The theme of “Kiss” for this design undoubtedly will become one of the highlights of the 2024AW series of Butterfly Shadow Insect, leading the fashion trend, allowing people to appreciate art while also experiencing the unique charm of the Butterfly Shadow Insect brand.
Natural Life • Li Zhen: Twilight Theater
Renowned fashion designer and Creative Director of the zrsh, Li Zhen, combines clothing with theatrical elements, presenting the theme “Twilight Theater” at this year’s China International Fashion Week, paying tribute to Oriental romantic sentiments through artistic fashion.
Li Zhen believes that when artistic interpretation reaches its pinnacle, words seem pale in comparison, and the profound emotions engraved in the soul burst forth in the twilight theater. In his view, every traveler paying homage to art is an engraved pioneer in the hall of art, a witness to theatrical performances, and a participant in the cycle of fashion.
Adhering to the core belief that both inside and outside the drama are integral to oneself, the designer extracts the scene-based demands of urban life to create four styles: French commute, noble academy, high-minded writer, and carefree travel. While analyzing these styles, each piece from The zrsh carries its own story, representing different vitality. The expression of vitality is precisely the charm of this theme, “Twilight Theater.”
On the runway, starting from irregular cutting, every stitch and line conveys the connection between handwork and fabric through techniques like pinching, folding, hand-beading, and twist fringe. Structural reorganization and three-dimensional embroidery are applied to enhance the texture of the fabric. These techniques give wearers a new tactile sensation, interpreting various expressions of the theater through the language of clothing.
By combining exaggerated deconstruction with a variety of textured materials, the designer, through keen fashion perception, conveys the inner source of power in urban life that is unrestricted and unafraid of constraints.
The 2024 “Twilight Theater” autumn-winter collection abandons intricate colors, breaking free from conventional constraints. It is based on a clean and pure earthy color palette, boldly incorporating soft hues like cornflower blue, pepper stem green, and pale poppy red. Joyful yet carefree, fresh yet elegant. Featuring nature and environmentally themed patterns, complemented by embroidery, patchwork, drawstrings, and pleating techniques, the collection integrates the brand’s spirit and culture into its products, standing out with its taste and refusing to be swayed by worldly affairs.
The “Twilight Theater” collection endows the brand with a comfortable sentiment and romantic perception. We will follow the footsteps of the wearers, integrating delicately into life with refined senses, and continuously changing life through exploration. In this “theater,” we can be both outsiders and characters in the drama.
Ge A Xin · Yang Chunlin: Breaking Cocoon
The founder and designer of the emerging Chinese original brand “Ge A Xin,” also known as Yang Chunlin in Han Chinese, hails from the Miao ethnic group. This season’s AW24 China International Fashion Week presentation is named “Breaking Cocoon,” with “Butterfly” as its theme, personally designed by the designer Ge A Xin, narrating his own story of “breaking cocoon” to become a butterfly.
This collection is centered around Miao ethnic heritage culture, combining modern design elements to showcase the perfect integration of heritage innovation and traditional culture.
In terms of color usage, white represents the color of the silkworm cocoon and the initial color of life, while black symbolizes the confinement and oppression of the narrow world inside the cocoon, as well as being a symbol of energy and hope.
In terms of heritage innovation, this season’s works not only incorporate the core technique of Miao embroidery but also combine Miao wax printing, Dong embroidery, Shui ethnic tail embroidery, Yi ethnic applique embroidery, brocade weaving, and hairpin flower embroidery. Patterns are extracted from the traditional “Butterfly Loves Flower” embroidery patterns of the Ming and Qing dynasties, incorporating more innovative designs boldly applied to the clothing. The entire collection is filled with strong ethnic charm and unique artistic charm.
The release of the “Breaking Cocoon” collection is a fresh interpretation of Ge A Xin’s brand of heritage culture and traditional craftsmanship. The designer hopes that the appearance of this series will set off a new trend in the emerging Chinese fashion scene, bringing a breath of fresh air to the fashion world and leading more people to pay attention to and inherit intangible cultural heritage.
At the China International Fashion Week stage, the presentation of “Square Root 3 – My Era: Between the Sea of Clouds,” brought by China’s top women’s wear designer Chen Yu, attracted numerous eyes.
The theme of this season aims to depict the state of the upcoming future era, focusing on the drastic social changes and the explosion of AI technology. This will reshape society in a short period, triggering new life scenarios and demanding new understandings of fashion and attire. Futuristic design faces the contradiction between tradition and innovation, as designers must contemplate how to inherit historical culture while embracing social change.
In this rapidly changing era, people are increasingly aware of the rapid development of artificial intelligence in our daily lives and workplaces, and its significant implications for future society. This phenomenon has sparked designer Chen Yu’s concern and expectations for future social development, prompting him to explore unknown topics in extraordinary ways.
Therefore, this presentation serves as the prologue to a futuristic narrative, emphasizing the coexistence of technology and romance, heralding an era of advanced artificial intelligence filled with wisdom and warmth.
In this presentation, the possibility of convergence between technology and romance is explored. This cross-disciplinary fusion is cleverly demonstrated in the collaboration between designer Chen Yu’s CHNNYU brand and GAIAIAG® virtual world developer, Square Root Three Technology.
Designer Chen Yu does not envision a typical understanding of the future world. Instead, he envisions a future world with highly advanced AI that is warm and humanistic. Therefore, throughout the entire series design expression, futuristic styles and states can be seen, but more prevalent are design elements filled with vitality. The future is not unfamiliar; the futurism here is “subtle futurism.”
The future has arrived, as this season’s presentation showcased a balance between tradition and innovation, signifying insights into future societal trends and a steadfast commitment to brand prosperity.
Perfect Conclusion of Xiamen Day
The 2024 Autumn-Winter China International Fashion Week · Xiamen Day concluded perfectly in Beijing, with stunning appearances by Xiamen designs, radiating dazzling brilliance!
The Xiamen Textile and Garment Industry Association will continue to serve the textile and garment industry in Xiamen, integrate resources, play a bridging role, and provide more display platforms for Xiamen’s original design brands, empowering local brands and assisting in their development. With the strong support of the Xiamen Municipal People’s Government, the development of the fashion industry in Xiamen will surely thrive, and the design strength of Xiamen’s fashion industry will shine on the world stage!