FROM APRIL 16TH TO 21, AT THE 2024 MILANO DESIGN WEEK (MILANO DESIGN WEEK), THERE WAS A STUNNING APPEARANCE OF "DENIM BLUE" FROM CHINA, WHICH IS THE FIRST TIME THAT "JUN'AN DENIM" FROM FOSHAN, GUANGDONG 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.
Denim kung fu suits.
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.
"Beyond the Blue" exhibition.
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, realizing the transformation of Jun'an denim from "product" to "brand", which is the epitome of the transformation and upgrading of the denim textile and garment industry empowered by the development of new quality productivity in Foshan, Guangdong.
Profound accumulation:
Over the past 40 years, Kwan An Denim has always been renewed
Jun'an Town 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.
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.
Denim garment processing equipment.
In 2002, Junan Fu'an International Cowboy City was completed, and the first industry association of Jun'an was established, "Jun'an Textile and Garment Chamber of Commerce". After four years of development, Jun'an Town has become one of the first four "Chinese Denim Clothing Towns" in the country. Subsequently, by 2006, Jun'an Denim Industrial Base completed the three major infrastructure facilities of sewage treatment, water supply and steam supply. Realize the "four ones" of a chimney, a sewage pipe, a water supply pipe and a steam pipe, so that the sewage, steam supply and water supply are integrated.
With the establishment of China's first denim apparel research institute in Jun'an in 2021, six years later, Jun'an denim garment industry has integrated digital optical engraving technology into the traditional denim washing process, revolutionized the water washing technology into the era of environmental protection, and gradually built an efficient, clean, low-carbon and circular "green denim" manufacturing system.
It was not until 2018 that Junan An introduced capital to build the "Zhongyilian" platform, and successfully registered the collective trademark of "Junan Denim" in 2020, opening the road to brand development.
Gorgeous Transformation:
Create an innovative highland and accelerate the construction of independent brands
Over the years, Junan Denim has become the preferred denim production base for internationally renowned brands such as Levi's, EVISU, Armani, Valentino and other international brands with excellent production technology, leading design capabilities and perfect industrial infrastructure, and enjoys a high reputation in the European and American markets.
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.
Junan Denim Design City opened.
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, Jun'an Denim Design City, which took three years to build, was officially opened, attracting a number of design master studios, international design platforms, and industry-university-research bases to sign contracts to settle in, and successfully applied for the "Shunde District Industrial Design Theme Park" in December of the same year, striving to build a highland for the innovation and development of "Chinese Denim".
Not long ago, the final of the 7th "Jun'an Denim Cup" National Denim Innovation Design Competition has just come to a successful conclusion, introducing the concept of "cross-border activation" to encourage the integration of denim elements into different industrial fields such as home appliances, furniture, home furnishing, cultural and creative industries, and 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 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.
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.
Jun'an denim clothing is also constantly "transforming".
Jun'an further improved the "three major supporting facilities" and further promoted 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 denim industry supporting service system. 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, it also accelerated the preparation of the garment development plan of Jun'an Town, continued to promote the reduction of energy consumption per unit output value of the denim industry and the improvement of sewage reuse rate, and the green development background of Jun'an denim was more distinct.
In addition, combined with the opportunity of large-scale equipment renewal, Jun'an introduced high-end technology and equipment, accelerated the digital and intelligent transformation of the denim industry, and explored more than 3,000 looms, printing machines, industrial washing machines and other machinery and equipment in the town, and promoted the renewal and transformation of key energy-using product equipment and technological processes. It is worth noting that this year, the Italian Webma intelligent digital board house signed a contract to land in Jun'an Denim Design City, the project will be built through the introduction of computer-aided design (CAD) technology, automatic cutting, the latest digital printing and other high-tech equipment, to build an international, 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 with points and areas.
A wide range of denim products are also being updated.
In addition, Jun'an is also guided by the creation of its own brand with collective trademarks, and explores a new path for the 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". At the same time, it fully relies on the local traditional cultural resources and strong manufacturing foundation advantages of the Greater Bay Area, combines advantageous industrial resources such as home appliances and furniture, links traditional culture, cultural and creative products, etc., and creates more "denim + N" cross-border integration and innovative products.
In the future, Junan An 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, break the dilemma of homogeneous competition, and walk out of the new road of "fashion Jun'an" development.
Leading the way:
Promote development through 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. Foshan Shunde Ligao Garment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lego Garment"), as one of the leading enterprises of Jun'an denim, has already applied and promoted automation technology, not only enabled the ERP system since 2000, but also installed an automated hanging system and computer cutting machine in the production workshop, updated the energy-saving industrial washing machine, so as to optimize and improve the manufacturing process, and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of green and digital intelligence.
Representatives of Junan Denim Design City visited Milan University.
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. In 2024, the new Chinese casual denim designed by Redco Clothing will be 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. ”
A piece of denim products full of scientific and technological creativity continue to stack up.
There is no "sunset" industry, only "sunset" factories. Junan Denim has gone through an extraordinary 40 years from the initial OEM production to today's independent brand to the world. 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. To be restarted and renewed, Junan Denim, as a Chinese brand, will bring more surprises and touches to the world.
Editor: Liu Yuanxiong
Correspondent: Jun Xuan