FROM APRIL 16 TO 21, AT THE 2024 MILANO DESIGN WEEK (MILANO DESIGN WEEK), THERE WAS A STUNNING APPEARANCE OF "DENIM BLUE" FROM CHINA, WHICH IS "JUN'AN DENIM" FROM FOSHAN, GUANGDONG.
Jun An Denim
It is understood that Milan Design Week is the world's top innovative design concept and design achievements of the pinnacle exhibition, is the world's design field of the grand event, has the Olympic reputation of modern design, attracting global designers and fashion people to participate. This is the first time that "Junan Denim" has entered the world stage with its own brand, and it is also the first time that a Chinese denim clothing brand has been unveiled and released at Milan Design Week in recent years.
在米兰展出的《Beyond BLUE：AI-enhanced Denim fashion and product design from China and Italy》（《超越蓝色：人工智能协助下，源自“中意”的牛仔新时尚》）设计展。
This year, with the theme of "Materia Natura", Milan Design Week digs deep into the harmonious symbiosis between design and nature, and the Chinese brand Jun'an denim clothing on display this time is mainly based on AI-inspired innovative design works and "Kung Fu Jun'an" concept clothing, inheriting the Taoist natural green concept, and presenting diversified design styles, including the Chinese intangible cultural heritage skill "bamboo weaving" as the design concept work "Fusion Weaving" and "Dragon Re-debut" Kung Fu denim clothing.
Jun'an denim, with its profound cultural heritage, has formed a unique design language, showing the world the unique charm and infinite possibilities of Chinese denim.
Profound accumulation: Spanning 40 years of development, Junan denim has always been new
Jun'an Town, located in Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong Province, is one of the largest denim garment production bases in the country, with an annual output value of more than 6 billion yuan and an annual output of more than 100 million denim garments, and one out of every 20 denim garments in the country is produced in Jun'an, and has nearly 1,000 upstream and downstream enterprises, forming a denim industry cluster with a complete industrial chain.
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In 1979, the villagers living in Hong Kong and Macao brought orders and technology for denim clothing to Jun'an, and Junan began to produce denim clothing.
In the 1980s, Kwan On Denim Garment Factory flourished, mainly through the "three to one supplement" OEM orders in Hong Kong, and in 1985, Kwan On private denim factory was born and developed.
In 2002, Junan Fuan International Denim City was completed, and the first industry association of Jun'an "Junan Textile and Garment Chamber of Commerce" was established.
In 2004, Jun'an Town became one of the first four "Famous Denim Towns in China" in China.
In 2006, Jun'an Denim Industrial Base completed the three major infrastructure facilities of sewage treatment, water supply and steam supply. Realize the "four ones": that is, a chimney, a sewage pipe, a water supply pipe, and a steam pipe, so that the sewage, steam supply, and water supply are integrated. In 2011, China's first denim clothing research institute settled in Jun'an.
In 2016, Jun'an denim garment industry integrated digital optical engraving technology into the traditional denim washing process, revolutionized the washing technology into the era of environmental protection, and gradually built an efficient, clean, low-carbon and circular "green denim" manufacturing system.
In 2018, Junan An introduced capital to build the "Zhongyilian" platform.
In 2020, Junan successfully registered the collective trademark of "JunAn Denim", opening the road of brand development.
Gorgeous transformation: create an innovative highland and accelerate the construction of independent brands
Over the years, Junan On denim has enjoyed a high reputation in the European and American markets, and is the preferred denim clothing production base for internationally renowned brands such as Levi's, EVISU, Armani, Valentino and other international brands. However, Jun'an denim, which has always been produced by OEM and OEM, is a little "low-key" on the international design stage due to the lack of independent brands, and it also lacks popularity in the domestic consumer market.
In 2022, the Third Plenary Session of the 14th Shunde District Party Committee proposed to make every effort to build the most friendly manufacturing area, and Jun'an Town actively promoted the manufacturing industry to be the leader, and unswervingly took the road of "industrial strong town". Under the guidance of the Jun'an Township Party Committee and Government, the denim textile and garment industry, as one of the important pillar industries and advantageous industries of Jun'an, has been breaking through the situation in high-quality development. In September 2023, the Jun'an Denim Design City, which took three years to build, was officially opened, and a number of design master studios, international design platforms, and industry-university-research bases signed contracts to settle in, and in December of the same year, it successfully applied for the "Shunde District Industrial Design Theme Park", committed to building a highland for the innovation and development of "Chinese Denim".
Kwan An Cowboy Design City. / Photo by Yang Ting, reporter of Foshan News and Media Center
Not long ago, the final of the 7th "Jun'an Denim Cup" National Denim Innovation Design Competition has just come to a successful conclusion, encouraging the integration of denim elements into different industrial fields such as home appliances, furniture, home furnishing, cultural and creative industries, further expanding new space, new application scenarios, and new consumption hotspots for the development of the denim industry, and striving to enhance the added value of the denim industry. The competition has attracted nearly 1,000 outstanding design talents, technical experts and management talents at home and abroad to participate, promote the establishment and improvement of the talent introduction mechanism, and jointly build a "youth development city demonstration space" with the Foshan Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, and implement platforms such as "Shunde District Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Youth Cultural Exchange Base" and "Shunde Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao-Taiwan and Overseas Youth Entrepreneurship Exchange Base", and prepare to build the first science and technology business incubation carrier in Jun'an, providing an exchange and practice platform for young talents in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to implement design concepts.
Innovation Pilot: Cultivate new quality productivity and empower the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries
At present, the new quality of productivity is the call of the times to build a strong country and improve international competitiveness, and Guangdong Foshan is playing a new industrial "kung fu", Jun'an denim industry in the revitalization relay to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productivity, and gradually to green, digital intelligence, brand transformation and development.
The first is to improve the "three major supporting facilities" and further promote the green development of the denim industry. Today's denim industry has changed the backward appearance of high pollution and high water consumption in the past, and has achieved green and sustainable development through a complete supporting service system for the denim industry. At present, the denim industry cluster in Jun'an Town has three public facilities: centralized supply of industrial steam, centralized transportation of industrial water, and centralized treatment of industrial sewage, of which the daily supply of steam can reach up to 150 tons, and the energy consumption and water intake per unit of clothing are in line with national environmental protection standards. In addition, the garment development plan of Jun'an Town is also being accelerated, and the energy consumption per unit output value of the denim industry will continue to be reduced and the sewage reuse rate will be improved, and the green development of Jun'an denim will be more distinct.
The second is to combine the opportunity of large-scale equipment renewal, introduce high-end technology and equipment, and accelerate the digital and intelligent transformation of the denim industry. More than 3,000 looms, printing machines, industrial washing machines, dryers, laser machines, pulp and dyeing production lines and other machinery and equipment in the town have been surveyed to promote the upgrading and transformation of key energy-using product equipment and technological processes. The project will introduce computer-aided design (CAD) technology, automatic tailoring, the latest digital printing and other high-tech equipment, and plan to build an international and professional top intelligent digital board house in South China, encourage leading enterprises to drive the transformation and upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises, and promote the digital and intelligent development of the denim industry from point to area.
The third is to take the collective trademark to build its own brand as the guide, and explore a new path of fashionable and cross-border development of "Jun'an Denim". Through the construction of the "Junan Denim" regional brand alliance and collective trademark, Junan An has developed a number of high-quality leading brand enterprises and established its own brand of "Junan Denim". Relying on the local traditional cultural resources and strong manufacturing foundation advantages of the Greater Bay Area, combined with advantageous industrial resources such as home appliances and furniture, and linking traditional culture and cultural and creative products, it has designed denim sofas, denim cribs, denim lighting, denim cheongsam, denim pillows, denim handbags, denim slippers, denim notebooks and other products to create more "denim+N" cross-border integration and innovative products. In the future, we will gather global fashion creative talents in Jun'an Denim Design City, build a world-class denim textile and apparel creative design center through cooperation with fashion design masters and arts and crafts masters, develop personalized, customized and functional clothing, explore "small and beautiful" "light luxury" clothing, and walk out of the new road of "fashion Jun'an" development.
Leading the way: Promote development with technological transformation and activate new momentum for high-quality development
Jun'an Town actively encourages and guides denim production enterprises to increase technological transformation, energy conservation and consumption reduction, vigorously promotes denim production and washing enterprises to update equipment, and fully mobilizes the enthusiasm of enterprises to improve quality and efficiency.
Kwan An Cowboy Design City
As one of the leading enterprises of Jun'an denim, Foshan Shunde Ligao Garment Co., Ltd. has already applied and promoted automation technology, not only enabled the ERP system since 2000, but also installed automatic hanging systems, computer cutting beds, etc. in the production workshop, updated energy-saving industrial washing machines, so as to optimize and improve the manufacturing process, and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of green and digital intelligence. In recent years, through technological transformation, the level of denim garment production technology has been continuously improved, and it has been gradually transformed into the current automated and standardized production process, realizing refined design, lean manufacturing and high-quality products.
At the beginning of the new year of 2024, the new Chinese casual denim designed and launched by Redco Clothing is grandly launched as the first work of the concept of "Kung Fu Jun'an, Art Denim".
Wang Desheng, general manager of Lego, talked about the innovative ideas and applications of denim fabrics in Chinese-style clothing design, saying, "Junan is the ancestral hometown of kung fu superstar Bruce Lee, and we will give our products cultural value, and Junan denim will have more possibilities." This also requires us to dig deep and inherit the excellent traditional culture. We have high-quality denim products ourselves, and we must deeply cultivate the fine traditional culture of the local area to create our own characteristic design and independent brand. ”
There is no "sunset" industry, only "sunset" factories. From the initial OEM production to today's independent brand to the world, Junan Denim has gone through an extraordinary 40 years. This is not only the gorgeous turn of Junan Cowboy, but also the epitome of the transformation and upgrading of China's traditional manufacturing industry. Looking forward to the future, Junan On Denim will continue to cultivate and develop new quality productivity, drive development with innovation, gather advantages with design, lead the future with brands, and create more apparel masterpieces and cross-border integration products. We look forward to Jun'an denim, as a Chinese brand, to continue to bring more excitement to the world.
Text/Correspondent: Yang Ting, reporter of Foshan News and Media Center
Photo/Courtesy of Jun An Denim Design City (except for the signature)