China International Fashion Week has gone through 24 years since it was held in 1997, and a large number of Chinese designers have grown up on the stage of fashion week, and Liu Wei is one of them.
In 2007, the China Fashion Designers Association relocated to 751D· At the time of park, Liu Wei was one of the first designers to settle in, "I remember very clearly, when we first came, the road outside was a foot of mud, the park was a very empty large factory building, there are a lot of machines inside, and then we slowly went to transform such a space." ”
Liu Wei is the founder of rose Daiwei custom brand, who has won the 3rd and 9th China Top Ten Fashion Designers at the China Fashion Awards, the Best Women's Fashion Designer of the Year in 2012, and the Designer of the 17th China Fashion Design "Golden Top Award". In the corner of her studio, there are many trophies, in addition to the series of trophies of the China Fashion Awards, there are certificates such as "China Textile Intangible Cultural Heritage Promotion Ambassador", the Forbidden City Design Award, etc. Despite receiving many honors, Liu Wei still does not forget her original intention, "In fact, these awards are just a process for designers, I hope to be able to always engage in such a passionate profession, whether it is awarded or not, it is a profession of mine, I will always insist on doing it." ”
Rose Daiwei custom brand was founded in the hope of being as natural and romantic as roses, showing women's elegant and aesthetic styles, "It is not haute couture, but it must be a brand with its own unique personality and style." ”
In the process of brand growth, Fashion Week has played an irreplaceable role in promoting, "In fact, the creation of our brand and the maturity of the brand and being known by more people have expanded their influence through the last press conference of Fashion Week." ”
Liu Wei's works were released
Focusing on fashion design for more than 20 years, Liu Wei has personally experienced many major projects, such as participating in national design projects such as the Beijing Olympic Games, Shanghai World Expo, APEC Meeting, SCO Summit, Qingdao International Beer Festival Costume General Design, Chinese People's Liberation Army Command Uniform General Design and other national design projects. In addition to the Rose Daiwei custom brand, she also has a professional wear design research institute, which has research in art design, inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, as well as advocating scientific and technological fashion, green environmental protection, and tirelessly seeks innovation and breakthroughs.
Liu Wei
Environmental installation artwork
"Give You a Piece of the Sea"
The protagonist of this issue of "Dialogue Designer" is Liu Wei, who listens to her talk about the process of growing up with China International Fashion Week, the development of China's fashion industry, contemporary young designers, and related topics such as intangible cultural heritage and sustainability.
Q
You have walked through more than 20 years of history with China International Fashion Week, how do you see Fashion Week as a platform?
Liu Wei: In 1997, when it was the first Designers' Fair, everyone didn't pay so much attention to design, but because of the platform of Fashion Week, designers can display their works on it, and suddenly many people in China know the title of Chinese fashion designer. Fashion Week is very important for the establishment of the brand and for the growth of the designer.
You have witnessed the development process of China's fashion industry, how do you view the current Chinese fashion industry?
Liu Wei: China's fashion can see a huge change in the past 40 years, we should be the first generation of designers who professionally study fashion design, for now, China's fashion has more and more say in the world, and Chinese designers have also shown their talents on the international stage. We can see a large number of young designers after graduation to study abroad, and then work in foreign companies, this group of designers grow up, I think it is a very important force in the future of the entire Chinese fashion industry. Because fashion and culture are intertwined, Chinese and Western, there is such a fusion, the future of China's fashion industry must have great staying power.
What do you think you need to do to become a fashion designer?
Liu Wei: Designers should be all-encompassing, to understand a lot, design is a comprehensive discipline, it not only requires us to understand the fabric, can draw, but also a comprehensive category that needs to understand history, literature, music, art. With such knowledge, we must pay more attention to the humanities and pay attention to the current general trend, so that we can keenly capture the trend. I think that's the quality you should have as a good designer.
In your opinion, what are the inspirations for designers?
Liu Wei: Designers have a lot of inspiration sources, and I just talked about it as a comprehensive category, which may be inspired in a moment, such as in the process of traveling or communicating with friends, in the process of reading and learning. I think it will not be produced out of thin air, must be accumulated to a certain extent, suddenly a certain event can trigger you to have such inspiration, for example, I have been doing research on intangible cultural heritage fashion for so many years, in fact, it will have a lot to do with my own experience, I prefer to travel, to do research on national costumes, to investigate, I think these things are slowly accumulated in their hearts, and when I need to use, I may suddenly burst out such an inspiration, Sources of inspiration should be multifaceted.
How do you pass on the Intangible Cultural Heritage?
Liu Wei: Over the years, I have been studying Traditional Chinese Culture, for example, I should be the first to put Chinese ink painting on the stage of Fashion Week, and then I will do the process of piling embroidery, paper cutting, and hollow carving. You can see the back of this set of clothes (see the video for details), it is actually the use of traditional Chinese paper-cutting art, Chinese paper-cutting is also included in the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List, is a very valuable folk traditional treasure. In fact, at the Winter Olympics in the near future, you should be able to see some of the works of paper-cut and hollow art that I designed. Through such large-scale activities, Through the press conference, China's intangible cultural heritage will be pushed to a larger stage. For example, I have participated in Sino-French cultural exchanges and exchanges around the world, bringing out traditional Chinese culture for more people to understand, integrate and apply.
What are the business models of brands?
Liu Wei: There are many different types of designers, some designers do their own brands, do e-commerce, in fact, I am a little different from everyone's model, the art industry has a specialty, I may have more time to do design and development for brands and enterprises. Everyone thinks that designer Liu Wei is a fashion designer, because I can see a lot of my fashion shows on the Internet, but in fact, I spend more time, probably at least 80% of my time is used to do some functional, smart clothing research and development, I think this is a trend in the future.
What do you expect from young contemporary designers?
Liu Wei: Now designers are in the best era, contemporary information is very developed, and to give designers a broader stage, they will grow faster, but also hope that young designers can really love design, can stick to this industry. In fact, persistence is very important, talent is one aspect, and then we must continue to insist, continue to work hard, do not think about being a master, flowers and applause behind must be very hard, after continuous progress, there will be gains.
How do you see and promote sustainability?
Liu Wei: As the second largest source of pollution after petrochemicals, the textile and garment industry will produce a large number of pollution such as waste gas and wastewater that are harmful to the environment every year. When it comes to sustainability, many people will think that everyone is not talking about such a concept, but the concept of sustainability is about each of us, and every detail of our lives will involve the concept of sustainability, such as when we do fashion design, we will use environmentally friendly, recyclable, renewable and degradable materials. The role of designers in this regard is very important, and only by using these materials in products can we build a bridge between consumers and the source of production.
▲Liu Wei environmental protection installation art: "Collapse! Nowhere to live
I've also been trying to explore sustainable creativity over the years, including using art installations that use scrap materials from the process of cutting clothing, and that allow more people to appreciate the concept of sustainability.
Liu Wei has been cooperating with some fabric giants for many years, such as Toray Group, COTTON USA, etc., and on the catwalk of the 2022 Spring/Summer China International Fashion Week, which will open in September this year, she will display the design works cooperated with Fujian Xinlianhe Group. Traditional plant dyeing, intangible cultural embroidery, and scientific and environmentally friendly knitted lace materials will be presented in this series, opening a collision of tradition and modernity, environmental protection and technology.
Talking about the preparation of the current release show, Liu Wei said: "I think for designers, every conference is very tense, and many sleepless nights are for the final presentation of creativity, and it may be possible to really complete the design the day before the conference. ”
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