The 2009 NE•TIGER Hua Fu Collection Fashion Show
* China’s ‘National Beauty’ – In Chinese literature and poetry, the peony flower is often referred to as China’s ‘national beauty’
On the evening of Nov. 5th, 2008, in the Golden Hall of Beijing Hotel, NE·TIGER raised the curtain on CHINA FASHION WEEK for the seventh successive year. As the architect of Chinese-inspired Fashion, NE·TIGER continued on last year’s theme of “The National Beauty in China’s national dress”. The 2009 collection took as its theme “The National Beauty captured in Hua Fu”, presenting an embodiment of the quest for renaissance and innovation of Chinese luxury expressed by the words of NE·TIGER founder Mr. Zhang Zhifeng: “infused by a single source, integrating a world of styles…”
Throughout the evolution of the fashion industry that has accompanied the period of reform and opening up, NE·TIGER has always been in the forefront of innovation and original thinking on China’s fashion stage. From the first conception of its principle of Hua Fu, NE·TIGER has been the beacon that casts its light on Chinese dress as an expression of the Chinese spirit.
Take a tour around the oriental world of traditional dress and you will find the Kimono in Japan, the Ao Dai in Vietnam, the Sari in India, and the Hanbok in Korea. China today is a new and prosperous society, but in Hua Fu NE·TIGER has successfully captured the spirit of thousands of years of civilization. Hua Fu combines four distinct but complimentary elements of China’s spirit: “courtesy” as the soul, “brocade” as the material, “embroidery” as the skill, and the “national beauty” as the expression of this most Chinese of garments.
With a deep and genuine commitment to China’s proud heritage, NE·TIGER has always sought to explore and balance a synthesis between Chinese culture and contemporary fashion, endeavoring to fuse ancient civilization with modern culture, and integrate Orient and Occident. NE·TIGER’s founder and chief designer Zhang Zhifeng explains his concept of “infused by a single source, integrating a world of styles…” thus:
“China is the source, the only one of the ancient civilizations that did not fall; however, the history of its clothing, as of its culture, is a story of many ruptures and historical partings of the way. NE·TIGER’s Hua Fu is no simplistic copy of some individual dynastic period, but an attempt to bridge historical gaps and reunite divergent currents, an attempt to build links between the essences of costume and fashion from the unfolding sequence of dynasties and periods. At the same time, the aim is to gather together the finest of dressmaking artistry from around the world, creating a union from a diversity of ethnic skills and integrating them within a single entity…”
On the occasion of the 2009 NE·TIGER Hua Fu Collection Fashion Show, a most touching scene took place at curtain call: chief designer Zhang Zhifeng smiled as he joined hands with two of dressmaking’s elder statesmen; one, Wang Jialiang, the fifth generation of a dynasty of Kesi practitioners whose family made clothes for royalty in history, the other, Wang Yuxiang, the master who is above all responsible for the survival of the Kesi skills that were on the brink of extinction. Under the leadership and guidance of these two figures of national repute, the most splendid Kesi elements of the 2009 NE·TIGER Hua Fu series were designed and completed.
Kesi has a history that goes back more than 4,000 years, but few of its masterpieces have been handed-down to posterity, and few alive artisans assure the continuity of its work. This skill has an incontestable right to its place on the list of the World’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Its distinctive techniques have earned it such titles as ‘carving in silk’ and ‘the deity of weaving’ - its products were long monopolized by the royal families of China’s ancient dynasties. NE·TIGER’s commitment to the preservation and promotion of these splendid skills involves not only careful analysis and understanding, but also creative use in the three-dimensional sculptures of Hua Fu. To have the privilege of re-introducing these superb traditional skills to the modern world through its contemporary fashions is a source of pride and great satisfaction to NE·TIGER.
From the first creation and assembly of Hua Fu by NE·TIGER, the truth of the old saying was already apparent: “An inch of Jin is an inch of gold”. Yun brocade, recognized for centuries as the masterwork of the “God of brocades”, is the unique feature that popularized forms of Chinese Dress throughout China. NE·TIGER Hua Fu recognizes and makes full use of Suzhou silk work, renowned as “the finest of embroidery” owing to its wonderful workmanship, of paper-cut technology praised as the “master of all crafts” owing to its simplicity and perfection of execution, and of hand-painting hailed as “soul of decoration” owing to its beauty and elegance. In its 2009 Hua Fu series NE·TIGER will once more delight an international audience with this combination of traditional techniques and unforgettable weaving skills. Need it be added that theses gowns are a joy to the touch?
The Peony has always been one of China’s national symbols. In this season’s Hua Fu designs it is given full expression through a range of styles – realism, freehand brushwork, and abstract pattern. Each finely-crafted item of Hua Fu presents its own image of this symbol of the wealth of Chinese civilization.
The setting of this year’s show offers a harmonious blend of modern art and fashion, while retaining all the original exquisite charm of the Golden Hall. The play of light over the thousand-square-meter stage gives freedom and space to aesthetic expression. The stage-setting breaks away from conventional thinking, involving the audience and the environment together with the models. The musical accompaniment too breaks the rules, abandoning conventional background music in favour of the pure and natural strains of sweetly sung Kun opera, the sound of an old Kesi machine, rhythmical footsteps on the T stage, and the natural sound of falling water droplets. Like a sea of flowers, the eighty gowns flow with a whispered tale of beauty, legend, and ancient civilization.
Speaking of the “National Beauty” 2009 designer series, Zhang Zhifeng spills over with unconcealed emotion: “The source of inspiration in this collection takes from the essence of peony decorations and patterns from all of China’s dynasties and its 56 ethnic groups. At the same time, we integrate contemporary Western three-dimensional cutting techniques in the design, and use our own unique cutting technology to draw out the genius and delicacy of the Eastern frame, so as to achieve the ultimate luxury of Chinese luxuries. Luxury goods have been a feature of Chinese culture since the earliest times, and we will play our part in what is at once a revival, but also a fresh blossoming, of the art of luxury in China. We hope that as the inheritors of Chinese civilization, we can pass on the classical wealth of luxury through our brand.”
NE·TIGER, the light-bearer of traditional Chinese dress culture, has striven to capture five thousand years of Chinese tradition and civilization, in the hope and expectation that through its efforts the flame of this heritage can be rekindled.
The mysteries of Kesi
Kesi is a rarity owing to the fact that it was a preserve of hidden palaces. As a special royal treasure, surviving Kesi masterpieces are kept in the National Palace Museum. In the history of China’s textiles, Kesi can lay claim to a heritage of more than 4,000 years; unquestionably it forms part of the World’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. At the flowering of Chinese civilization, Kesi was praised as “silk-work carved by the knife”. In fact, this mysterious and ancient Chinese fabric is not really carved by knife. The cloth is formed by taking the raw silk as the warp and the dyed silk as the weft, and adopting the wonderful weaving technique of “going through the warp and across the weft”. Thus Kesi not only presents the effect of fine carving-work, it also has double-sided and three-dimensional qualities, hence its descriptions as “carving in silk”, and “the deity of weaving”.
The scarcity of Kesi in contemporary China places it in need of rescue and protection. Therefore its use in NE·TIGER’s designs this season is an ideal opportunity to draw the attention of a new modern audience to a tradition that has endured for thousands of years. Through NE·TIGER Hua Fu, the world can once more sense the breath of Chinese civilization and the pulse of Chinese etiquette. Tailoring and sewing are the basic skills for a dressmaker. After thousands of years of twists and turns, generations of Chinese tradition seem to have become lost in the divisions of history, but the seamless hand of NE·TIGER can draw the strands back together again, no more or less than ‘history’s tailor’.
The Poetry of the Peony
The Peony is valued and respected as China's national flower. In China, the planting, appreciation and enjoyment of peonies has a history that dates back more than 1,600 years. In the collection known as the Complete Tang Poems there are over 100 poems in praise of peonies. Liu Yuxi sang in its praise that: “The peony alone truly embodies our national beauty; its flowering season delights the Capital”. “Striving to outdo each other in praise of incomparable beauty, unique among humanity’s treasured fragrances" wrote Pi Rixiu.
As well as works of literature, there are many architectural edifices that pay homage to the peony: the Peony Pavilion, Peony River, Peony Square, and Peony Garden. Throughout the world there are gardens of blooming peonies whose beauty drifts like rosy clouds – within each one of these flows the sap of their Chinese ancestors. In horticulture the peony is known as ‘The fairy flower of heaven’ and ‘China’s flower’ – a bright pearl that the nation has taken delight in offering to the rest of the world to enjoy.
A tastefully-coloured peony is elegant and stately, an appropriate symbol for the renaissance of China and its culture. With the peony as its shared theme, the 2009 Hua Fu collection gives eloquent expression to the ‘national beauty’ in all its moods. Each of the eighty individual garments on show captures in its own way the essence of bright peony flowers in full bloom, gorgeous, elegant, luxurious and tasteful. The blending of rich colours by the designers allied to the consummate cutting and sewing skills of the dressmakers all bear witness to contemporary fashion’s rich heritage. A single Hua Fu garment, a culmination of centuries of weaving skills and of Kesi artistry that has all but disappeared, combined with that most elegant of national symbols, the peony, allows NE • TIGER to re-present the treasures of Chinese culture at their very finest.
The Hua Fu aspiration tonight – to give form to the words of Tang Dynasty poet Li Zhengfeng: “Intoxicated each morning by the national beauty… dyeing my clothes by her heavenly fragrance. That Spring herself drinks deep draughts of peony scent… then pray the twelve moons return once more her precious gift.”
Click here to see more pictures.
