Japan Has The Kimono, Korea The Hanbok; What’s China’s Most Representative Apparel?
Many designers have sought to modernize traditional Chinese fashion design in recent years
Although China now has no shortage of home-grown fashion designers, some of whom studied at the best design schools in the world, the sheer vastness of the population and dramatic differences in taste seen throughout the country mean that a clear “Chinese style” has yet to emerge. While we see pieces influenced by everything from blue porcelain to the traditional qipao (cheongsam) from domestic Chinese designers (and everything from take-away boxes to “chinoiserie-lite” from non-Chinese designers), the country still lacks, for better or worse, a “representative” national piece, akin to the Japanese kimono or Korean hanbok, writes Yang Ningshu (杨宁舒) this week in the Heilongjiang Daily.
From Yang’s article (translation by Jing Daily team):
Richemont-owned Shanghai Tang is among the highest-profile companies that creates pieces inspired by traditional Chinese design
All well and good, but as the writer points out, try as they might, designers still encounter resistance from Chinese consumers:
Continuing, the writer quotes Zhang Xiang of the Heilongjiang Province Academy of Modern Art as saying that the absence of aesthetic education about China’s traditional culture, coupled with the dominant Western culture that permeates the country’s fashion industry, has created something of a vacuum in China’s sense of fashion identity. Going on, the writer suggests that Chinese designers shouldn’t ignore the importance of creating a new “national costume,” not only to for cultural reasons but also to catch up with other nations: