Start with an international fashion show, where you can find elements of Yi embroidery.
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This is the image of the launch of Chuxiong Yi embroidery ready-to-wear collection at the Milan International Fashion Week in Italy on September 23. At first glance at this video, the reporter was deeply amazed - you know, Yi embroidery, born in southwest China, has a history of more than 1,700 years and is the "fingertip art and spiritual flower" that the Yi people are proud of; However, such a very "national" cultural element is so perfectly integrated with modern fashion that people have to be impressed by the charm of traditional culture across time and space.
It is understood that this is also Chuxiong Yixiu's walk from the oldest "village catwalk show" in Yongren Zhitho to Beijing Fashion Week, Shanghai Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, and once again entered the world's four major fashion weeks.
From Yunnan to the international stage, from the countryside to fashion, this embroidery needle has nothing to do with sewing, only with beauty and art, and the Yi family relies on it to string out the Milan fashion show. Along the way, many people are curious: why?
01By what? "Beauty" refined by time
Time has passed, over thousands of years.
It is already difficult to trace which Yi girl of Lan Xinhui embroidered the first stitch between the warp and weft of the cloth; It is also difficult to explore the beautiful patterns on Yi costumes, which slim hands come from.
However, through the colorful and beautifully patterned patterns, we still seem to touch the emotions they represent at the moment of birth—admiration for creation, anticipation for the future, and the pursuit of happiness.
The expression of these emotions has been repeatedly selected and pondered by generations of Yi families, and finally hit the hearts of modern people fiercely after a thousand years, and they are stable and accurate.
We call it: beauty tempered by time. It is fully in line with the core of the national spirit that we have forged for thousands of years, and has reawakened the cultural memory and cultural resonance of modern people.
Especially in recent years, with the rapid enhancement of the mainland's comprehensive national strength, the continuous improvement of its international status and the continuous expansion of its international influence, the youth of the times have deeply participated in the dissemination of traditional culture, and more and more cutting-edge designers with international vision have begun to launch original designs incorporating Chinese elements.
As one of the outstanding representatives of traditional culture, Yi embroidery has also attracted many artistic talents on this "outlet", and has become a cultural expression that highlights the concept of originality, avant-garde and individuality. Jin Ruirui, a deputy to the National People's Congress who returned to his hometown to start a business, Fan Zhiyong, a leading figure in Yi embroidery, Zhang Liqiong, who became an expert in the protection of intangible cultural heritage from a museum docent, Li Guoxiu, who became the director of a Yi embroidery workshop from a migrant girl in a foreign country, and Pu Yuzhen, a national intangible cultural heritage inheritor of traditional culture, are among the best.
02By what? With "innovation" that keeps up with the times
Born of beauty, changed by time. Feelings are butterflies flapping their wings, and to make traditional culture including Yi embroidery into "tide" into "wind", it is inseparable from continuous innovation based on modern life and aesthetics.
This time, the 40 sets of clothing released at the Chuxiong Yi embroidery ready-to-wear series launch of the Milan International Fashion Week in Italy use Yi elements such as moire, seeds, horse cherry blossoms, and silver jewelry, integrating Italian niche craft fabrics and laser cutting methods.
Look at these women's clothing ↓↓↓
Milan Fashion Week Chuxiong Yi embroidery ready-to-wear series launch released clothing photo by Zhang Xin
Imagine them appearing in homes, subway stations, pedestrian streets, offices, cafes... There is no sense of violation at all, elegant and versatile.
This time, fashion designer Ji Cheng, who participated in the Milan Fashion Week Chuxiong Yi embroidery ready-to-wear series launch, is one of the first batch of returnee designers in China, graduated from the Italian Marangoni Institute, and has been associated with Yi embroidery for four years. IN THIS CATWALK, JICHENG ALSO SPECIALLY INVITED COCCINELLE, A CLASSIC ACCESSORY LEATHER BAG BRAND FROM PARMA, ITALY, TO JOINTLY PRODUCE YI EMBROIDERY HAND-EMBROIDERED ACCESSORIES AND LEATHER BAGS, SHOWING THE MAGNIFICENT COLORS AND RICH ORIGINAL TOTEMS BROUGHT BY YI EMBROIDERY TO CONSUMERS AROUND THE WORLD.
JICHENG AND ITALIAN BRAND COCCINELLE CO-PRODUCED YI EMBROIDERY HAND-EMBROIDERED ACCESSORIES AND LEATHER BAGS PHOTO BY DING ZHONGZE
Perfect integration with modern life use scenarios is one of the main directions of Yi embroidery innovation and development in recent years. In addition to Yi clothing, Yi embroidery elements are also widely used in bags, silk scarves, pillows, tablecloths, curtains, bed sheets, water cups, head ropes and other supplies and utensils, giving modern people silent companionship, "Meet Chuxiong", "The Wizard of Green Feathers" and "Fulai Yunxiang" three series of Yi embroidery cultural and creative products are highly sought after by the market.
03By what? The "foundation" of the industry with 100 million yuan
An embroidery millennium, a billion yuan industry. Chuxiong Yi embroidery, which keeps up with the pace of the times, is a complete industrial chain that includes R&D, training, production, promotion, sales and other links.
Up to now, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province has formulated a "1+1+N" policy system to accelerate the high-quality development of the Yi embroidery industry; Developed the country's first hand-embroidery standard represented by "Chuxiong Yi Embroidery", unified pricing standards, embroidery technology, and traceability system; Initiated the compilation of the country's first handicraft industry development index "Xinhua Yi Embroidery Industry Development Index", and built a data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination system for Chuxiong Yi embroidery industry.
The embroiderers gathered together, and in the midst of laughter, the embroidery works were made one by one. Yang Zishuang photo
At the same time, it actively applied for the special certificate of "Yunnan Province Special Vocational Ability Assessment Specification Development Project - Yi Handmade Embroidery Craft Production", cultivated 167 people who entered the list of Yi ethnic clothing intangible cultural heritage inheritors, and Ding Lanying was selected as the 2022 "Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Person of the Year". The first Yi embroidery modern industry college in China was established, cultivating a group of composite management talents combining fashion and tradition, and training 17 "Xingchu famous craftsmen" in the field of Yi embroidery.
Successfully established two provincial-level cultural industry parks, created the "Yi Embroidery Garden" incubated by Yi embroidery characteristic cultural industries, launched the "Yi Embroidery Tour" to experience the Yi embroidery inheritance boutique route, and took the lead in the country to innovate and launch the "Yi Embroidery Loan" exclusive bank loan "Yi Embroidery Loan" and reduce the logistics cost of Yi embroidery enterprises.
Up to now, Chuxiong has cultivated 538 Yi embroidery business households, including 12 enterprises on the scale; The first batch of national and provincial non-genetic inheritors Yi embroidery workstations were named, 167 people were cultivated into the list of Yi costume non-genetic inheritors, 57,000 embroiderers, and 77 Yi embroidery workshops and 260 embroidery workshops were built.
Chuxiong Yi Embroidery Digital Cultural Industrial Park Yi Embroidery Products Trading Center. Photo courtesy
On August 8 this year, Chuxiong Yi Embroidery Digital Cultural Industrial Park Yi Embroidery Products Trading Center was launched, which built a higher-level, wider area and more channel Yi embroidery product display and sales platform for local Yi embroidery enterprises and the majority of embroiderers, and created a demonstration platform for the national national embroidery product research and development, production, centralized display, and online and offline trading.
Chuxiong Yi embroidery has formed a development pattern of "regional parks, county enterprises, townships and workshops, and villages and embroidery workshops".
04By what? "Tempering" with the combined efforts of many parties
The scale of the industry continues to expand, the degree of agglomeration continues to increase, and the needle and thread of Yi embroidery have realized "going out of the mountains and going to the sea", which amazes the world.
From the oldest "village catwalk show" costume festival in Yongren Zhitho to today's cultural business card, the starting point of the road of Yi embroidery "out of the mountains and the sea" should be in 2018 - Yi embroidery industry assistance was put on the agenda as an important work of Shanghai-Yunnan cultural assistance. In that year, Shanghai invested 8 million yuan in Shanghai-Yunnan assistance funds, adopted the model of "inheritance + modernity + integration + development + tourism", and implemented the project of "Chuxiong National Costume Industrialization Internationalization".
At the "Shanghai-Yunnan Mountains and Seas, Culture Rejuvenates the Countryside" Chuxiong Yi Embroidery Characteristic Cultural Industry Promotion Conference, the Yi costume "Silk Road Cloud Clothing" walked the catwalk. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Chuxiong Prefecture Party Committee
In the following five years, the two sides successively promoted Yi embroidery to take the development route of "fashion" and "high-end" by shooting Yi embroidery theme image films, creating Yi embroidery theme plays, launching publicity advertisements, establishing Yi embroidery talent resource pools, holding exhibition and sales months and theme shows, inviting fashion designers and experts to create new colors and new patterns, and introducing leading enterprises to participate in industrial development and brand building.
Chuxiong Yi embroidery appeared in AW (Autumn Winter) 2023 Shanghai Fashion Week. Photo courtesy
In 2023, Shanghai will invest 4.85 million yuan in Shanghai and Yunnan to carry out the launch activities of Shanghai Fashion Week and Milan International Fashion Week, and support counties and townships to build Yi embroidery cultural and creative industry parks and support workshops.
Guangdong, Fujian and other provinces and cities have also focused on the development of Yi embroidery.
In June this year, Yi embroidery made a stunning appearance at the Shenzhen Cultural Fair.
"Mazu Culture" - "Chuxiong Yi Embroidery" intangible cultural heritage jointly developed cultural and creative products Photo courtesy
In July, Chuxiong Yixiu signed a cooperation agreement with the Administrative Committee of Meizhou Island National Tourism Resort to jointly establish a joint venture company to develop and sell "Mazu-Yi Embroidery" joint intangible cultural heritage cultural and creative products, realizing the successful cooperation of the two intangible cultural heritage products of "Chuxiong Yi Embroidery" and "Mazu Culture", and selling simultaneously online and offline in tens of thousands of Mazu cultural and creative product stores around the world. Cooperate with "China Shoe Capital" Putian shoe enterprises to develop "Chuxiong Yi Embroidery-Putian Shoes" joint cultural and creative products, and once again realize the successful handshake between Chuxiong Yi Embroidery and the international and domestic markets.
In the first eight months of this year, the agreed order amount of Yi embroidery enterprises in Chuxiong Prefecture reached 51.8538 million yuan, of which 6.924 million yuan was completed for export orders.
Embroidered with the sweetness of happiness. Photo by correspondent Ma Xinghua
Iron pestles sharpened into needles, beautiful, innovative, basic, tempered... The "needle" that strung out the Milan fashion show has also been polished thousands of times to become the sparkling appearance we see today.
Flowers add spring color with jade fingers, birds grow feathers after gold needles, and the pride and confidence of Yi embroidery culture are all in this journey.
Coordinator: Zhang Zheng
Curated by: Han Huanyu
Reporters: Fan Chunyan, Sun Yinxiang, Du Shiyu, Cui Qingbo