YIWEN STUDIO's Spring/Summer 2020 collection of models
The first time I saw Cao Yiwen was on TV, when the popular TV series "China Little Boss" was broadcast, and I suddenly had an impression of the "Toot Toot" in which he had bangs, two pigtails, and ghost horse spirits. Later, I heard that she had switched to a fashion designer, and it was hard to imagine how she had changed from the glamour in front of the camera to the silent cultivation behind the scenes. Later times I saw Cao Yiwen, I was at her costume conference site, I originally thought she was just "playing tickets", but after watching her come season by season, I understood that this petite, gentle-talking girl was really making clothes in a down-to-earth manner. Her designs are just like her people, gentle and determined, but like an old friend, at this time of year, as promised.
Elected Miss Shanghai at the age of 19, she got the first heroine in her life at the age of 20, and transformed into a costume designer at the age of 25, Cao Yiwen's life is more exciting and crisp than most people. The wonderful thing is that not everyone has cao Yiwen's experience of becoming famous at a young age; simply when most people still have the impression of Cao Yiwen as an actor, she has unconsciously worked hard for another dream of herself, and at the age of 25, when her acting career is at its most prosperous, Cao Yiwen decisively transformed into a costume designer, just to realize her dream from childhood.
The starting point of the design
YIWEN STUDIO Spring/Summer 2020 collection
When it comes to why he wants to be a designer, Cao Yiwen admits that this is part of his dream. In his childhood, Cao Yiwen grew up in his grandparents' parents, and the most profound thing when he was a child was that the tailors invited by the adults made clothes for everyone in the family. Xiao Yiwen lay on the desk to watch the fabric play with the fabric, draw out the style and color matching he wanted, and then watched with anticipation as the tailor completed it little by little. "I love the process of getting a dress done, it's as fun as the actor's process of creating a character." Yiwen's artistic talent was well protected by the adults in the family, and after going to school, the systematic study of art became a natural thing. Strictly speaking, YIWENSTUDIO is actually not Cao Yiwen's first venture. At the age of 16, she and her mother opened their first clothing store in Shanghai, and also founded their own brand "Ancient past and present", which entered the show room of Shanghai Fashion Week, and the brand was also reported by fashion newspapers. "At that time, I was still a student, and I spent all my spare time working, taking the morning train to Suzhou to get fabrics, closing the shop at night and then doing the bus home, often sleeping on the bus, and basically I didn't have a weekend between the ages of 16 and 20. That time let me know how to put my dream a little bit into action to achieve, let me have the basic resilience of entrepreneurship, but also let me lay down the design, clothing production, the understanding of fabrics, the understanding of women's body shape, tailoring, production process of the basic skills. The article said when referring to the first venture of the young man.
A lot of things are arranged in the dark. When mentioning why he wanted to transform, Cao Yiwen mentioned that acting and costume design are his dreams since childhood, "I like acting, but I also like costume design. When I was 19 years old and was elected as the runner-up of Miss Shanghai, when the media asked me what my plans for my future were, I naturally said that I hoped to be a good actor before the age of 25, and to be a costume designer I wanted to be after the age of 25. At the age of 25, my acting career happened to encounter a bottleneck period, I began to start a second business, when I was fully committed to design, to do my own brand, I had no energy to be an actor anymore, so everything followed the heart, a natural choice. Since you have chosen, you must try to do a good job and be worthy of your own choice. And for me, costume design and performance are both a way of expression. So they all give me a flow-like sense of satisfaction. ”
Unlike being an actor in front of the camera, being a designer brand, especially a fledgling designer brand, is to withstand loneliness. In the early days of entrepreneurship, Cao Yiwen was not only a brand designer and factory director, but also a brand public relations, sales, procurement, driver, cashier, operation and other roles, Cao Yiwen not only had to take care of her customers, but also took care of her own employees, including a needle and a line of products need to be thought of by herself. "But it is precisely in this way that the world you see is broader, and the perception of self, of others, and of time can continue to improve." I can grow better. I love the down-to-earth feeling. When you are an actor, it is a bit like living in an atmospheric bubble, seeing the world like a layer of glass, and it is difficult to make so many real female friends from all walks of life. They made me see and learn more. When mentioning his current work, Cao Yiwen said contentedly.
Fabric maniacal design view
"I've been collecting a lot of fabrics since I was a kid, and every time I go abroad, I have to visit the fabric market and re-stitch, combine, and redesign these fabrics." Mentioning the fabric, Cao Yiwen immediately became lively, as if she was talking about her old friends and could tell a lot of stories. Grandma's cloakroom was the favorite place to play when I was a child. She is a natural "fabric controller" and loves to collect fabrics. With a love for delicate fabrics such as velvet and satin, Yiwen began to use traditional Chinese fabrics to make qipao. When I was a child, my grandmother managed to buy a rare fabric, which also became the original design material of the discussion.
Even before each season began to design, the first thing that Yiwen determined was the main fabric of the season. Some fabrics are developed in-house, and some are even sourced globally. "In my same series, there may be fabrics purchased from Japan, high-end fabrics from France and Italy, fabric prints made in China, and we even develop some patterns ourselves." The text will put these fabrics of different materials back together and redesign, so that the good fabrics speak for themselves. Because she always felt that all art has a commonality, that is, to create contradictions and resolve contradictions, this commonality, in the design of the text, with different fabrics and slowly appear.
Effortless elegance
YIWEN STUDIO Spring/Summer 2020 Series Backstage Highlights
Effortless elegance and fashion that can stand up to time are the principles that are consistent in the design of the text. THE AUDIENCE OF YIWEN STUDIO'S CLIENTS IS VERY WIDE, WITH DIFFERENT OCCUPATIONS AND AGE GROUPS, WITH THE LARGEST GUESTS BEING 90 YEARS OLD AND THE YOUNGEST ONLY HAVE A FULL MOON. He hopes that his designs can be cross-age. Women of different ages, different occupations, and different personalities have their own beauty, and Yiwen does not like their own design box in a human design. Yiwen hopes that his brand will be passed down for a hundred years like LANVIN: "I hope that my clothes can really accompany women to grow up together, when I put on clothes, what I see in the mirror is satisfied with myself, and when the clothes are hung in the closet, customers will also thank it for always accompanying themselves, hoping that their clothes can accompany customers for five years, ten years, or even longer." "Treat every client as the heroine of their life." The text should be designed to suit their life scenes, through clothing to help women better become what they want, in the words of the text, that is, "decent". "My clothes are for people. I hope that my clothing can accompany my guests to experience the growth of life, so my design does not like to be too full, I like the wisdom of oriental aesthetics, leaving blank, letting the picture breathe, so that the relationship between people and clothing is timeless. "Seven points of design, three points of blank space, is the criterion that Cao Yiwen has always adhered to. If the clothes are designed too full, just empty shelves on people, so that the temperament of the guests into the fashion is the pursuit of the text. To this end, YIWEN STUDIO launches a classic series with a very simple design every year, so that everyone can play freely and wear their own charm.