Xin Li said: "Since the early days of liberation, China's clothing has always been a relatively single style, and women's clothes are basically lapel shirts with buttons. Later, work skirts developed from shirts. At that time, tailors could travel all over the world as long as they mastered the basic styles such as lapel shirts, Chinese tops, student dresses, dresses and tunics. This situation continued until the reform and opening up. "
All the changes started with 1978. With the advent of reform and opening up, foreign films have entered China one after another, knocking on the closed fashion door of Chinese people. The two films that impressed Xin Li the most were the North Korean film When Picking Apples, in which the hero wore a khaki jacket with a diagonal pocket on each side. This style, which now seems too ordinary, set off a wave of imitation at that time; The other is the Japanese film "Blood Suspicion", in which Xing Zi, the heroine, wore a flounced white shirt and skirt, which made China women who had experienced the Cultural Revolution at that time feel very fresh except military uniforms and tooling. Some sensitive tailors realized these changes and quickly imitated the design of "Xing Zi Shirt". At that time, the streets were full of women in ruffled white shirts.
"At that time, people were suddenly liberated from a relatively closed state, and the herd mentality controlled the public's wearing habits. As long as one style is good, thousands of the same model can be mass-produced. So walking in the street, the phenomenon of hitting the shirt is extremely common. But people don't feel embarrassed. On the contrary, they think that if everyone likes to wear it, this style will definitely be popular, so they are more at ease. " Xin Li recalled that it was a bit helpless to follow suit. "Polyester and nylon are uncomfortable to wear, but they have a freshness. I hope everyone has one. " Frog glasses and jeans smuggled in from abroad also entered China in the 1980s. "There is a trademark on the frog mirror, and no one wants to take it off because it is a sign of foreign goods."
Later, everyone gradually evolved from conformity to personalized dressing. In department stores, mass-produced clothes began to sell, and many varieties and small batches of clothes began to adapt to the needs of society. "The boat turned around", and individual garment factories began to flourish.
Clothing began to develop from "national shirt collision" to personalization. Dress styles suitable for occasions are gradually adopted by China people. Xin Li said, "In the past, most people wore the same clothes for a long time. It is very common to change one thing a day now. When suits first entered China, many people wore suits to travel and climb the Great Wall, and even those who carried burdens and sold vegetables wore suits. " When the material is not very rich, everyone puts fresh clothes to the extreme.
Xin Li said, "These 30 years have changed a lot. For example, people didn't pay attention to underwear before. Many people have holes in their vests, and even many people don't wear underwear. Now everyone is concerned about the quality of underwear and the fashion trend of underwear. Even at home, I wear different clothes, except home clothes, walking casual clothes and sleeping pajamas. "
Fashion Competition: From Single Form to Multiple Changes
In the 1980s, China's fashion design only stayed in the primary tailor stage. The biennial "Golden Scissors" Fashion Design Competition was in full swing in that era. The competition only requires that the clothing works be practical and durable. Xin Li, who was working in China Fashion Research and Design Center at that time, was a judge of the contest. Careful, she found that many creative works were ignored in the contest. Xin Li thought it was a pity. She believes that creative works can break through the existing ideological shackles.
1993, Japanese brother company found China Fashion Research Center and wanted to co-host a fashion design competition. Xin Li was very excited and thought it was a good thing. When determining the positioning of the competition, she boldly put forward: "The purpose of the competition is to stimulate the creativity of the contestants." She believes that the competition should be different from the "Golden Scissors" design competition held for many years, highlighting the creativity of clothing; In addition, in China, which has just opened to the outside world, an international competition should be launched to invite foreign designers to compete with designers from China. In this position, players can not only choose ordinary cotton fabrics, but also use their imagination. Xin Li believes that only by making bold innovations can China's fashion designers make rapid progress.
At the scene of the first "Brothers Cup" competition, when a costume made of violin strings and mahogany furniture appeared in the contestants' works, the audience exclaimed, "Oh, the original costume can do this!" In order to ensure that creativity can emerge in an endless stream, Xin Li put forward such a request at that time: "All creative techniques used in the first competition, if there are similar works, will be eliminated in the second competition. If the works in the third session are similar, all the technologies used in the second session will be eliminated, and so on. " She believes that every competition needs to dig out different ideas. "Imitation is doomed to failure, and only innovation can make progress."
Wu Haiyan, Kyle, Zou You and Wu are all fashion designers who have experienced the "Brothers Cup" competition and won awards. Their designs can be verified by the market and recognized by consumers. They have brought infinite creativity to China's fashion industry, inspired the idea of diversified clothing brands and promoted the development of China's fashion design.
Later, Xin Li participated in the "Shanghai China Cup Fashion Design Competition", which emphasized the contestants' ability to integrate with the market. Since then, various subdivided fashion design competitions have appeared one after another, such as children's wear, casual wear, underwear swimwear and wedding design competitions.
With the passage of time, Xin Li was delighted but worried to see that all kinds of fashion design competitions were held in a hurry. She said: "For some people, holding a fashion design competition may be an opportunity to make money. But in fact, it takes a lot of thought and energy to hold a competition that is really helpful to the clothing industry. "
Clothing education: from running schools sporadically to blooming everywhere
Xin Li said: "Thirty years ago, there was almost no major in fashion design in China." At that time, young Xin Li studied stage art at Shanghai Theatre Academy. During his college years, Xin Li was highly valued by Professor Zhou Xibao, a fashion education expert, so he focused on studying fashion design and designing clothes for stage figures. His work during his graduation internship was also fashion design.
In the 1980s, the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (now Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts), a well-known old school in China, took the lead in setting up dyeing and weaving specialty, and the first fashion design class of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts 1985 started. Although there are few students, the destination after graduation is the technical department of the factory. However, the training of garment talents in colleges and universities in China has just begun.
Xin Li said: "At that time, the enrollment condition of fashion design major was that there must be an art foundation." After the establishment of the clothing major, many students signed up. Clothing majors in colleges and universities across the country have also begun to emerge.
"China's clothing education began to pay attention to the cutting method, because with the development of the times, the plane cutting method can't keep up with the needs of fashion development." Xin Li said, "So in the 1980s, the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts invited Sumitomo Sasaki to come to China and set up a three-dimensional cutting seminar." Three-dimensional cutting pays attention to three-dimensional methods, and makes the most perfect shape with fabrics, which can achieve the effect that plane cutting can't. Through the introduction of three-dimensional cutting, dresses and clothes with special shapes are widely involved. To this end, Xin Li China Fashion Design and Research Center has also held a number of three-dimensional cutting training courses, which has trained a number of garment technical talents for the garment industry in China.
With the vigorous development of China's clothing industry, in addition to Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Jiangxi Institute of Fashion Technology and other universities that mainly offer clothing majors, comprehensive universities such as Polytechnic University, various fine arts colleges and vocational and technical colleges also offer clothing majors. Clothing education is blooming everywhere in China.
Clothing talents: from rarely going abroad to frequent customs clearance.
Since the first "Brother Cup" design competition was held in cooperation with Japanese brother company, Xin Li has put forward the expectation that the winners should visit Japan as much as possible. Xin Li hopes that more and more China designers can go abroad and broaden their horizons in the difficult overseas environment at that time. Wu Haiyan was the gold medal winner in the first Brothers Cup. For various reasons, Wu Haiyan did not visit Japan as planned. Xin Li didn't give up, hoping to use every opportunity to promote the gold medal winner.
Many things happen, and here comes the opportunity. Japan asked Xin Li to recommend a China fashion designer to perform in Japan, and Xin Li immediately thought of Wu Haiyan. Wu Haiyan, who was informed of his release abroad, did not live up to Xin Li's concern. Her personal fashion show aroused strong repercussions in Japan, and also created Wu Haiyan's personal influence.
With the development of the times, convenient transportation and developed network, it is convenient for everyone to obtain information. Xin Li thinks that students are the happiest now, and they can learn about fashion design through various channels. However, the psychology of the younger generation of designers has also changed.
Xin Li, who has retired, still doesn't forget to give some advice to young designers. Xin Li said: "When I go to some schools to give lectures, I often tell students that they should not be too impetuous, but should be able to hold their breath. Now many designers are eager to succeed and hope to become famous designers as soon as they graduate. I think young designers should be steady and don't jump ship at will if a unit doesn't do well. Young designers need to constantly overcome difficulties in order to understand the truth of doing things. "
Having participated in many competitions, Xin Li knows the difference between young designers in China and foreign designers. She said: "Many foreign contestants sew their own clothes, while China contestants almost always pay small tailors to do it. Although the foreign entries are a little inferior in workmanship, they are more authentic. Successful fashion designers must ask themselves to pick up scissors and needles and sew them themselves. Our current designers have good learning and working conditions. I hope they can seize the opportunity and do more. Because to be an excellent fashion designer, strong hands-on ability is also necessary. "