Qin Xu found the flowers she had been searching for in a farmhouse in Hami in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

In 2016, while researching local em­broidery techniques for design inspiration, Qin, a fashion designer working out of Shanghai and Paris, stumbled upon these flowers.

The flowers were part of an embroidery piece that was created by an elderly Uygur woman over 50 years ago. Although the pattern was simple and unadorned, Qin felt an immediate connection to the embroidery piece.

“The colors, weathered by time, conveyed a pro­found sense of simplicity, which deeply moved me,” she reflected.

Motivated by the discovery, Qin endeavored to present Hami Uygur embroidery on the runways of Paris and Shanghai, with the objective of il­lustrating the aesthetic of Chinese culture and art through her needlework.

Let the Hami flower bloom

“The Uygur embroidery from Hami is passionate and bold, featuring strong color contrasts that are reminiscent of the scorching sun and dazzling snowfields in Hami,” Qin told Shanghai Daily. “It is incredibly beautiful.”

Designated as a national intangible cultural heri­tage in 2008, Hami Uygur embroidery is a craft that has been passed down through generations of the Uygur people in Hami, influenced by the city’s unique landscape and rich history.

Located in eastern Xinjiang, Hami is a city di­vided by the Tianshan Mountains, featuring lush grasslands on the north side and the contrasting Gobi Desert on the south. The city is known for its delicious Hami melons and its historical sig­nificance as a key point on the ancient Silk Road, where diverse cultures from both the East and West converged. This cultural blend is evident in the local embroidery.

According to Hao Changli, deputy director of the Hami Culture and History Research Committee’s Document Collation Room, nearly 100 embroider­ers from Beijing visited Hami at the end of the 17th century, sharing their refined stitching techniques with local artisans.

Contemporary Hami Uygur embroidery also in­corporates designs such as peonies, lotus flowers, cranes, and dragons — patterns favored by people from the Central Plains, as noted in an introduction at the Hami Traditional Handicraft Workstation.

For the locals, it represents a way of life. They stitch scenes and objects that hold personal signifi­cance, such as Hami melons and flowers, into their clothing and home decor. However, it was only after meeting Qin that they realized their craft could reach an international audience.

In March 2016, Hami set up China’s first tradi­tional crafts workstation to protect and carry on the art of Uygur embroidery. To help promote the craft, the Ministry of Culture invited Qin and other designers to Hami.

These designers developed more than 1,300 products, using Hami Uygur embroidery on high fashion clothes, outdoor sportswear, headphones, and more, according to Uryet Hupur, deputy curator of the Hami Cultural Center, who has been engaged in the protection of Hami embroidery for years.

Qin’s “The Flowers Bloomed,” a white dress featuring green embroidery at the waist, is one of the products. She drew inspiration for the work from an embroidered flower piece she discov­ered in the farmhouse in 2016.

Qin invited 71-year-old Zylikam Saur, the original creator of the flow­er piece, and her daughter Renagul Supi, then 34, to work together on the dress’s embroidered details. Zylikam and Renagul represent the third and fourth generations of their family’s embroidery tradition.

By that time, Renagul had already earned a reputation as one of the lead­ing embroiderers in Hami, but the collaboration with Qin still amazed her.

“Before, our embroidery was just for home items like mattresses, quilts, and pillows. Then they (the designers) came along, and our work started showing up on their clothes,” said Renagul. “It was wonderful.”

“The Flowers Bloomed” made its debut at the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week in July 2016, marking the first global showcase of Hami Uygur embroidery.

Following this dress, Qin launched a series of clothing collections themed “flower,” combining French tailoring with the Uygur embroidery craft of Hami. She also took the embroiderers to Shanghai Fashion Week, proudly walking them down the runway.

“I want the world to truly appreci­ate their skills,” explained Qin, “and I want them to know how valuable they are.”

Designers acting as a bridge

“We designers should act as a bridge,” Qin said. “I’ve always wanted to share the beauty of Chinese art and culture with the world in a way everyone can understand.”

Qin’s passion for traditional Chi­nese embroidery stems from her childhood. Born into a Sichuan opera family in 1981, she grew up watch­ing her father perform on stage and fell in love with the embroidery on the costumes. As a designer, she had integrated two other regional embroi­dery techniques from China, Shu and Qiang embroidery, into haute couture garments before her encounter with Hami Uygur embroidery.

With the latter, Qin has bigger plans — to bring about a cognitive upgrade for the embroiderers and to make them part of the society’s pro­duction process, just as craftsmen in France do.

“If they were in France, they would work for big fashion brands,” said Chaka Pierre Motley, Qin’s husband, a French designer, and Qin’s partner at work.

He told Shanghai Daily that he could see culture and value embed­ded in the embroiderers’ handiwork. France highly respects the skills of these artisans, who add a feminine touch to the design.

“The key challenge is finding ways to boost the value of their work by en­gaging them in creating luxury items. This will not only help in recogniz­ing their artistry but also improving their living standards,” Motley said.

Over the years, Qin and her team have collaborated with Hami em­broiderers by placing orders for her designs. She shares with them the ideas underlying each item and the appropriate stitching techniques.

She brought Renagul and other em­broiderers to Shanghai to work with her designers, involving them in prod­uct development and improvement. This hands-on experience helps them understand what the market wants and how to address those needs.

Initially, the collaboration was hard. Qin recalls that the original needlework pieces collected from Hami embroiderers smelled of milk tea and mutton. They also had issues with symmetry.

However, after Qin’s intervention, they have strengthened their sewing skills, learned new embroidery styles, and learned how to select stylish col­ors. Uryet, who has been organizing training for the embroiderers, noticed that their dresses had become more fashionable.

It has also boosted their income. Their monthly pay varies between 1,000 yuan (US$138) and 8,000 yuan, depending on the level of skill and quantity produced.

“Once these people become integral to the societal production chain, their lives are bound to improve, and they will find fulfillment in realizing their worth,” Qin said.

As China’s fashion sector becomes more sophisticated and the market’s taste for Chinese aesthetics rises, Hami embroiderers profit.

Hao, a long-time practitioner committed to preserving the craft, emphasized that Qin and other de­signers had a key role in taking risks with the embroiderers.

The marketing of handmade goods inevitably entails expenses. If sales falter, it can lead to financial difficulties, which is especially dif­ficult for local artisans with limited resources.

“Designers like Qin are willing to take market risks. They act as a bridge between embroiderers and the marketplace,” Hao said.

From Qin’s perspective, the chal­lenge the Hami embroiderers currently face is to slow down and strengthen their skills. “If you fail to meet the market’s precision and quality standards, you will be out of the game,” said Qin.

“The opportunity is there, but it must be earned.”