Bold fashion grad: Newborn calves unafraid of tigers
By Emily Ford |
April 13, 2012, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IT is five minutes before the start of the graduates show at China Fashion Week and the tension backstage is as thick as the cloud of hairspray that fills the air. In dressing rooms improbably shaped garments are being hastily pinned to models, collars ruffled, hairstyles smoothed and spiked. The students from the Bejing Institute of Fashion Technology chatter nervously to one another. You can hear the hum of the audience waiting expectantly outside.
Amid the big commercial brands showing at fashion week, the imaginative, playful young designer contests stand as something apart. With no commercial constraints - these clothes are not made to be sold, or even to be worn - the clothes are outlandish and colorful, from gravity-defying dresses that extend into the air to moustachioed, gender-ambiguous models, giant insects and angel-winged goddesses.
The prizes at stake are great. Students aspiring to make it in this savagely competitive industry are allowed just four models, four designs, and two minutes to capture the affections of the audience - and any buyers that might be among them - amid tens of tightly choreographed routines to take the stage.
Winning could be a career-defining moment. Zhang Xiaotian, 22, a student at BIFT, took the Gold Prize - winning a week studying fashion design in Copenhagen - and says it was the realization of a long-held dream. "When I was a kid I was really, really interested in dressing myself, dressing other people. I made dolls - I've always found these things really fascinating," she says.
Zhang is one of a new breed of aspirational young designers with big dreams of making it on the international stage. Her collection, elegant silk dresses in blues, whites and pinks, was inspired by melting icebergs after she saw a television documentary. "I was really moved by it. I thought these beautiful things are disappearing right now and so I thought my designs could lead a lot of people to notice that." She dreams of being a famous designer. "I really want to let the whole world know what Chinese design looks like."
Zhou Juyan, from Beijing and also a student at BIFT, won the Gold Prize at the 20th Hempel Award China International Young Fashion Designers Contest, run by the China Fashion Association and Hempel International, a women's clothing brand, taking home a prize of 30,000 yuan (US$4,753).
Even to win a spot on the catwalk is an achievement: this year's competition received 1,121 entries from young fashion designers from 20 countries. Zhou, who is originally from Suzhou in Jiangsu Province but studies in Beijing, says that she thinks "clothes are the art in people".
The Hempel contest requires contestants to design evening dresses for movie stars who attend the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Zhou's clothes are meant to represent London's buildings, using synthetic fabric to represent man-made edifices. She made her designs over and over again, she says, but still was only happy with one. "The first dress was very beautiful. The others were OK, I think."
Zhou would like to go abroad to study in London or Paris "for maybe five years" to learn more about European fashion design. "I want to take the China element and make it international. I think it is very important for China to take our traditions to the world," she says.
Zhang Lei, a fashion student from Shanghai, has never seen the fog in London in the morning. But that didn't stop it from inspiring her collection. "I've never been to London, but I've seen it on television," she says.
She is studying fashion at Donghua University in Shanghai and plans to stay in the city after she graduates next year, when she hopes to find work as a fashion designer.
"Shanghai is a very open and fashionable modern city. It gives more opportunities to the young designers than Beijing." She loves the clothes of Hussein Chalayan and Chinese designer Masha Ma.
Zhang didn't win anything but says the experience of seeing her designs on the catwalk was enough. "I wasn't afraid, because it was the first time. Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers."
Zhao Chenchi
How did you become a model?
When I was a child all I dreamed of was being a model when I was older. As a teenager I went to a modeling school in Harbin to learn how to walk. I traveled to Beijing to enter the China Professional Model Contest, a national competition to look for models, when I was 17. I won first prize.
What happened next?
After I won the competition I signed with China Bentley Culture Development Company, one of the best modeling agencies in the country. I was named one of China's Top 10 Models by the China Fashion Association in 2007 and 2008.
What are you doing now?
I am studying fashion and cultural management at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. I graduate this year. I'm learning how to be a better model and skills about design so I can know more about fashion.
What is your favorite type of modeling work?
I do magazine photographs and catwalk shows. I don't have a preference - I like both for different reasons.
Best modeling experience?
My best experience was a show I did for Liu Wei, a very famous Chinese designer. She always designs very long dresses and they were difficult to walk in. Once I suggested to the designer to change how she showed the dress to present it in a different way and she went with that. After that she always asked me to be her top model, opening and closing the shows. I was very happy about that.
What do you like about modeling?
Modeling is not just about coming and going on stage - you need to be able to put more understanding or expression into the design and you need to present it in your own way. I also get to travel.
Who would you like to work with?
My dream would be to work with the Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei. I love her dresses.
(Emily Ford)
Amid the big commercial brands showing at fashion week, the imaginative, playful young designer contests stand as something apart. With no commercial constraints - these clothes are not made to be sold, or even to be worn - the clothes are outlandish and colorful, from gravity-defying dresses that extend into the air to moustachioed, gender-ambiguous models, giant insects and angel-winged goddesses.
The prizes at stake are great. Students aspiring to make it in this savagely competitive industry are allowed just four models, four designs, and two minutes to capture the affections of the audience - and any buyers that might be among them - amid tens of tightly choreographed routines to take the stage.
Winning could be a career-defining moment. Zhang Xiaotian, 22, a student at BIFT, took the Gold Prize - winning a week studying fashion design in Copenhagen - and says it was the realization of a long-held dream. "When I was a kid I was really, really interested in dressing myself, dressing other people. I made dolls - I've always found these things really fascinating," she says.
Zhang is one of a new breed of aspirational young designers with big dreams of making it on the international stage. Her collection, elegant silk dresses in blues, whites and pinks, was inspired by melting icebergs after she saw a television documentary. "I was really moved by it. I thought these beautiful things are disappearing right now and so I thought my designs could lead a lot of people to notice that." She dreams of being a famous designer. "I really want to let the whole world know what Chinese design looks like."
Zhou Juyan, from Beijing and also a student at BIFT, won the Gold Prize at the 20th Hempel Award China International Young Fashion Designers Contest, run by the China Fashion Association and Hempel International, a women's clothing brand, taking home a prize of 30,000 yuan (US$4,753).
Even to win a spot on the catwalk is an achievement: this year's competition received 1,121 entries from young fashion designers from 20 countries. Zhou, who is originally from Suzhou in Jiangsu Province but studies in Beijing, says that she thinks "clothes are the art in people".
The Hempel contest requires contestants to design evening dresses for movie stars who attend the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Zhou's clothes are meant to represent London's buildings, using synthetic fabric to represent man-made edifices. She made her designs over and over again, she says, but still was only happy with one. "The first dress was very beautiful. The others were OK, I think."
Zhou would like to go abroad to study in London or Paris "for maybe five years" to learn more about European fashion design. "I want to take the China element and make it international. I think it is very important for China to take our traditions to the world," she says.
Zhang Lei, a fashion student from Shanghai, has never seen the fog in London in the morning. But that didn't stop it from inspiring her collection. "I've never been to London, but I've seen it on television," she says.
She is studying fashion at Donghua University in Shanghai and plans to stay in the city after she graduates next year, when she hopes to find work as a fashion designer.
"Shanghai is a very open and fashionable modern city. It gives more opportunities to the young designers than Beijing." She loves the clothes of Hussein Chalayan and Chinese designer Masha Ma.
Zhang didn't win anything but says the experience of seeing her designs on the catwalk was enough. "I wasn't afraid, because it was the first time. Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers."
Zhao Chenchi
How did you become a model?
When I was a child all I dreamed of was being a model when I was older. As a teenager I went to a modeling school in Harbin to learn how to walk. I traveled to Beijing to enter the China Professional Model Contest, a national competition to look for models, when I was 17. I won first prize.
What happened next?
After I won the competition I signed with China Bentley Culture Development Company, one of the best modeling agencies in the country. I was named one of China's Top 10 Models by the China Fashion Association in 2007 and 2008.
What are you doing now?
I am studying fashion and cultural management at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. I graduate this year. I'm learning how to be a better model and skills about design so I can know more about fashion.
What is your favorite type of modeling work?
I do magazine photographs and catwalk shows. I don't have a preference - I like both for different reasons.
Best modeling experience?
My best experience was a show I did for Liu Wei, a very famous Chinese designer. She always designs very long dresses and they were difficult to walk in. Once I suggested to the designer to change how she showed the dress to present it in a different way and she went with that. After that she always asked me to be her top model, opening and closing the shows. I was very happy about that.
What do you like about modeling?
Modeling is not just about coming and going on stage - you need to be able to put more understanding or expression into the design and you need to present it in your own way. I also get to travel.
Who would you like to work with?
My dream would be to work with the Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei. I love her dresses.
(Emily Ford)
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