One wave has not subsided, but another wave has arisen.
In early August, in Dior’s latest new 2022 autumn and winter ready-to-wear series, several pieces of clothing were printed with the style of traditional Chinese flower and bird paintings. The topic of Dior’s “appropriation” of flower and bird images has become a hot topic, but Dior has argued that it is the iconic winter garden pattern of the series.
In mid-July, Dior’s official website launched a variety of skirts, one of which was a “mid-length skirt” that was accused of plagiarizing the traditional Chinese horse-face skirt, sparking doubts and heated discussions. As of press time of the China Textile News reporter, Dior has not yet made a public statement on the matter, except for removing the controversial products from the shelves in some areas.
From horse-faced skirts to flower-and-bird paintings, from so-called “iconic silhouettes” to “iconic patterns,” Dior’s response was feeble. The Dior incident has given us a lot to think about.
The embarrassment of the same dress but different prices
On a domestic shopping platform, if you search for “basic” single-color horse-faced skirts, you can see that the selling price of these products is basically “cabbage price” and the sales volume is low.
Change the “waistcoat” and the situation will be completely different.
On Dior’s official website, with the label “Iconic Dior silhouette” or “Iconic Dior pattern”, the “Dior version of the horse skirt” can be sold for tens of thousands of yuan, and is almost sold out.
Among domestic independent clothing brands, there are few brands that can achieve such an exaggerated premium. Traditional clothing, represented by horse-faced skirts, lacks market competitiveness.
“China’s economy is already the second largest in the world, but we still lack big brands that are well-known in the international fashion industry. Through the horse-faced skirt incident, we should reflect more on the importance of traditional Chinese clothing. We still have a long way to go to conduct in-depth excavations and graft them into modern fashion design.” Wu Mengxiong, an analyst at Ruiyide Consulting Company, believes that Chinese fashion designers need to further enhance their cultural confidence when creating clothing and apparel. .
“Foreign designers seem very natural when conveying their own country’s aesthetic elements; they also appear to be very skillful when ‘borrowing’ cultural elements from other countries. In contrast, when our own designers tap into traditional excellent cultural elements, they appear to be very It seems a bit ‘unfashionable’, making it difficult to closely integrate some traditional clothing cultural elements and even Chinese cultural elements with clothing design.” Wu Mengxiong said.
Chen Shiyu, deputy director of the Han and Tang Dynasty Costume Research Center of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, has been engaged in the research and restoration of ancient costumes for a long time. In an interview with a reporter from China Textile News, he said that the Chinese fashion circle had paid attention to horse-faced skirts at least more than ten years ago, but it lacked achievements in digestion, reference and innovation. Chinese designers may think it is old-fashioned and the ancient styles are not in harmony with current life, so it is difficult to find a selling point in the market.
Some fashion designers have not really delved into the structural characteristics of traditional Chinese clothing. When designing so-called Chinese style, they simply understand it as a stacking of traditional cultural elements, which is obviously different from market expectations. Chen Shiyu gave an example: “The horse-faced skirt designed by Chinese designers more than ten years ago may not even have understood the basic structure. They just made a big pleat in the middle, but they didn’t know that the pleats in the middle should actually overlap.”
Today, after Dior’s skirt was launched, the market reacted violently. This not only illustrates the great charm and market value of Chinese traditional clothing, but also highlights the many shortcomings in the protection, development and innovative development of traditional clothing culture in my country. , there is still a long way to go to bring traditional clothing back to life in the wave of market economy.
Building a brand does not mean making quick money
A report released by Deloitte shows that almost all of the top international fashion brands are European and American. The world’s largest fashion group is France’s LVMH. Its well-known brands include LV, Hermès and Dior. Its global revenue in 2021 will be close to 350 billion yuan, making it one of the world’s top 500 companies.
In contrast, the largest clothing company in my country is Anta Group, whose revenue in 2021 is only close to 50 billion yuan.
The cultivation of a brand requires long-term precipitation, and it also requires the perseverance and creativity of designers.
“Creating a Chinese clothing brand requires fashion designers to carefully study and have a deeper understanding of Chinese culture, especially the essence of Chinese traditional clothing culture.” Chen Shiyu said, for example, that the tailoring of traditional Chinese clothing and Western clothing are very different. Some parts will be heavily used, and some may deliberately not pinch the waist. Chinese designers must first learn and understand their own culture, have a deeper understanding of the evolution of traditional clothing culture, and have a deeper sense of its aesthetic logic.
“Haste makes waste.” Zhou Ting, a luxury goods research expert and president of the Yaoke Research Institute, believes that if China wants to create a local traditional clothing brand, it must persist, persevere, and even suffer. “Some clothing entrepreneurs use a business mentality to build brands, and even equate brand building with making quick money. On the other hand, the development process of some international brands requires a long time of accumulation. This kind of time accumulation is also what we lack. . In addition, our business started relatively late, and the traditional clothing education in colleges and universities has not kept up, and there is no professionalTalentIt is difficult to have a professional brand. Chinese brands need to learn to tell Chinese cultural stories more confidently. ”
High-end customization brand GRACE CHEN has developed a golden ratio that fits the Chinese body shape and applied it to its own high-end clothing, gaining favor from the market. Its founder Chen Yehuai emphasized that the Chinese clothing industry’s investment in traditional clothing culture exploration, brand connotation, and technology research and development is far from enough. The extensive and profound Chinese culture is the foundation for the survival of traditional clothing and an important cultural treasure house for the research and development and design of the modern clothing industry. Chinese brands must adhere to the same cultural connotation, master the skills of cultural expression in clothing design, and find the fulcrum to leverage world fashion.
Digging deeply into traditional cultural genes
In fact, in addition to Dior, which has been popularly searched, there are also many international big names that are “borrowing” from traditional Chinese culture. For example, the cross flower, the classic logo of a luxury brand, is basically the same as the treasure cross flower of the Tang Dynasty in terms of layout and color matching.
“Plagiarism! Stop being infatuated with big international brands, it’s time to wake up! From now on, Dior people should stop using the so-called Western aesthetics and culture to be condescending!” A “post-00s” netizen left a message on Weibo.
With the improvement of China’s comprehensive national strength, more and more consumers have become more internationalized and have stronger cultural confidence. This is fertile soil for the growth of Chinese traditional clothing brands.
“Based on the world with national fashion brands, this is an important direction for the development of Chinese clothing branding.” Chu Yan, the founder and artistic director of the new Chinese clothing brand Chuhe Tingxiang, has been committed to the inheritance of traditional Chinese clothing for many years. Focus on the research and design of traditional costume culture, especially Han and Tang costume culture, Dunhuang costume culture, and new Chinese aesthetics. She talked about the grace and magnificence of the Tang Dynasty, the simplicity and elegance of the Song Dynasty, the gentleness and restraint of the Ming Dynasty. Chinese beauty is very distinct in different historical periods. Whether it is Tang suit, Hanfu, national fashion or new Chinese style, they all have their own merits.
It is understood that the Chuhe Tingxiang brand has successively launched in-depth cooperation with the Dunhuang Academy and the Palace Museum to conduct research and innovative design on the restoration of traditional Chinese costumes. Chu Yan has been visiting the Costume Museum of the Palace Museum since last year, trying to find traditional elements and Chinese aesthetics from the cultural relics of the Palace Museum, and design national fashion clothing that is more suitable for the daily wear needs of Chinese people.
“Over the years, the textile and clothing industry has held a large number of design competitions, fashion weeks and other activities to support the development of clothing brands and cultivate more innovative designers.” Beijing’s time-honored brand has long been committed to the research and development and production of Chinese traditional clothing. Li Yanyan, president of Enterprise, Dade and Long Qingxiang Clothing Co., Ltd., suggested that the government should provide corresponding support to domestic enterprises that are committed to the development of fashion or cultural fields with oriental aesthetics and Chinese charm. At the same time, it is also necessary to guide mass media, film and television works, and e-commerce platforms to gradually influence the popular concepts of Chinese people in a wider range of fields.
Five departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently jointly issued the “Digitalization to Support the “Three Products” Action Plan for the Consumer Goods Industry (2022-2025)”, which clearly proposed the innovative development of national fashion brands. Excavate traditional cultural genes and intangible cultural heritage such as Chinese culture, Chinese memory, and Chinese time-honored brands, strengthen research on the consumption orientation of new consumer groups, innovate consumption scenarios, and promote the construction of national fashion brands.
The reporter learned that in recent years, in the competition with international big names, the recognition of national fashion brands has increased rapidly. Ipsos data shows that 71% of Chinese consumers believe that Chinese brands are very important, and 69% of Chinese consumers believe that the development of Chinese brands is promising in the future. With the rise of the national trend and the improvement of the R&D strength of local clothing brands, it is believed that traditional clothing culture and modern clothing design will be more closely integrated in the future, and the embarrassment of “same skirts at different prices” will gradually be resolved.
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