Five square colors, thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, treasure flowers... The award ceremony costumes for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games present the wisdom of traditional Chinese costumes from color matching, patterns to design ideas. When the Winter Olympics meet the Lunar New Year, the award ceremony costumes "Ruixue Xiangyun", "Hongyun Landscape" and "TangHua Feixue" will decorate the highlights of the Winter Olympic Games with Chinese charm. The People's Daily reporter interviewed the designer of the main creative team to interpret the traditional cultural connotation in these costumes for netizens.
Chinese colors depict romantic encounters
The Beijing Winter Olympics coincided with the New Year, and the designers first focused on the cultural elements of the Spring Festival. "Chinese red can best express the auspicious and festive atmosphere. At the same time, the dignified, atmospheric and calm blue reflects the fighting spirit of the Olympic games. You Jia, designer of the award ceremony "Hongyun Shanshui" and associate professor of the School of Fashion Arts and Engineering of Beijing Institute of Fashion, introduced, "The red and blue here are very positive Chinese colors. ”
What is a "positive" color? Historical records have recorded that "the five square colors of green, red, yellow, white and black are also square". In the view of Chu Yan, the designer of "Tang Hua Feixue" and a professor at the School of Fashion Arts and Engineering of Beijing Institute of Fashion, "Traditional Chinese colors have five square colors, which usually refer to colors with very high saturation and relatively heavy weight." For example, red, yellow, and blue are highly saturated, and they look relatively positive. ”
Applying visual elements such as the core graphics and color system of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the colors of the awards dress have a quaint and beautiful name. Colors such as Tianji Blue, Ice Blue, Xiaguang Red and Ruixue White are derived from traditional Chinese mineral pigments, which are derived from the investigation of the Spring Festival culture of the three cities in the competition area, and contain an understanding of the four hours of nature, the five squares of heaven and earth and the twenty-four solar terms.
The three sets of design schemes are all red and blue, but each set of colors is slightly different. In this regard, Chu Yan believes that "whether it is Xiaguang red, Tianji blue or ice blue in the core color system of the Winter Olympics, the same color system presents different shades and cold and warm tones, and designers will match different reds and blues according to their own preferences and understandings." ”
"In traditional Chinese costumes and even paintings, the higher the grade, the more positive colors are used." He Yang, director of the National Costume Museum of Beijing Institute of Fashion, introduced her own thinking on color, she is not only the designer of the Winter Olympic series of uniforms, but also the designer of the "Ruixue Xiangyun" dress and hat. She had the same choice for the color of the Winter Olympics awards dress.
Legendary drawings spark inspiration
Green mountains and rivers, thousands of miles away. The dance "Only This Green" of the artistic restoration of "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" made a stunning appearance at the Spring Festival Gala and attracted much attention. The "Hongyun Landscape", which also integrates this legendary picture, combines with the abstract mountain shadow in the core graphic of the Winter Olympic Games, colliding with the aesthetic rhythms of tradition and modernity. Through the millennia, this landscape painting will decorate the Winter Olympics with new design patterns.
"How to perfectly combine tradition with modern Yamagata is a challenge." You Jia recalled the design process and was very emotional. Considering that "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" has the characteristics of close-up and long-range view, she led the team to carefully design the mountain-shaped pattern on the "Hongyun Landscape", combining lines and surfaces, pulling apart layers and enriching the performance content.
"Each mountain shape on this dress is a repeated attempt, the effect of superposition and combination, and finally presents the momentum of the mountains and rivers."
The motif of "Tang Hua Fei Xue" is also inspired by tradition, and as the name suggests, the main graphics of this dress are composed of Baoxiang flowers and snowflakes on Tang Dynasty fabrics.
According to Chu Yan, Baoxianghua is a classic pattern on fabrics and utensils in the Tang Dynasty. Baoxiang flower, also known as Bafang Ruyi. It is not a realistic flower in the true sense of the word, but a collection of lotus flowers, peony flowers, chrysanthemums and even traditional ruyi patterns, composed of eight ruyi clouds. Chu Yan said: "Using such an auspicious pattern is also a blessing for the Winter Olympics. ”
It is worth mentioning that the velvet flower, which is the accessory of the "Tang Hua FeiXue" felt hat, is an intangible cultural heritage technique from Beijing Huairou, and is completed by Cai Zhiwei, the sixth generation of the old Beijing velvet bird velvet flower intangible cultural heritage. The exquisite craftsmanship and decoration awards dress that has been passed down for thousands of years will also be unveiled together in the highlight moment of the Winter Olympics.
The concept of "cherishing things" presents the wisdom of Chinese clothing
Professor He Yang, who led the design of the uniforms for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the design of the entrance dresses of the Chinese delegation to the Tokyo Olympic Games, and the uniform design of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, has an indissoluble relationship with the Olympic Games. The white walls of her studio are plastered with samples of Olympic costumes from previous Olympic games, including an analysis of the color scheme of sportswear from various countries. In He Yang's view, with comparative research, we can better find our own characteristics. "To show the characteristics of China, in fact, is the visual cultural attributes, of which clothing is a good cultural carrier."
Whether it's designing ground heating for Shenzhou 11 astronauts or costumes for the Olympics, she believes they all have the same attributes. "It's all about showing Chinese culture to the world through clothing."
The exquisite hat-shaped design in "Ruixue Xiangyun" has attracted the attention of netizens. He Yang introduced: "According to the earliest excavated physical objects, this hat top liao dynasty existed, and it is very simple to do. "A piece of cloth equal in length as the head circumference, rolled into a cylinder, and then found 8 equal points, put together ... He Yang took a pen to decompose the handmade cap for the reporter step by step.
"I barely move the scissors, I remove them when I don't want them, and the cloth can continue to be used." Embodying the concept of 'cherishing things', this is the wisdom of traditional Chinese clothing. He Yang said.
Obey the time of day, punctuality, and save things. Years of fieldwork have given He Yang a strong interest and in-depth understanding of the concept of traditional ethnic costumes. "Traditional wisdom is derived from long-term use, and the simplest way to create a beautiful effect can be used."
Just like a blue and white porcelain bowl used by folk to eat, a blue edge at the mouth of the bowl can express the feeling of blue and white porcelain, beautiful and practical. The beauty of traditional costumes lies not only in the precipitation of time, but also in the inner experience of the makers. He Yang said: "Good design must be through perceptual understanding and use, in order to become better and better. ”
Source: People's Daily (Lu Jing), Strong Country Forum
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Chu
Proofreader: Guo Yanhui