On a fashion 'hai
- Source: Global Times
- [03:37 April 16 2011]
- Comments
Noir&Blanc Photo: Cai Xiamin
By Mao Jiayu
After being awarded the 7th City of Design by UNESCO last May, the Shanghai Municipality has put a great deal of emphasis on building the city's creative industry, of which fashion design is undoubtedly a cornerstone. At the 17th Shanghai Fashion Week Fall/Winter that just wrapped up on April 12, it became obvious that the organizers are trying to popularize an entire culture of fashion, especially local fashion brands and designers, rather than merely fancy dresses and nice couture.
Novel concepts
Two brands in particular stood out for presenting interesting and novel concepts on the runways as a way to convey the idea of a culture of fashion brands.
The opening show presented a local fashion brand, Content. The theme of their 2011 fall/winter collection was entitled Watching and Watched and was inspired by a number of factors: the idea of voyeuristic security monitors installed throughout Shanghai, the concept architect/artist Li Juchuan's video production Peeping Shanghai, and sound artist Yao Dajun's sound-effect piece "Listen to Shanghai."
The collection is in fact a group design work involving the combined expertise of architects, contemporary artists, graphic designers, photographers and musicians. Peeping Shanghai was broadcast on the big screen and also on the ground while "Listen to Shanghai" played in the background a combination that didn't sit well with the audience, which quickly expressed its distaste for the harsh, grating noises that characterized the musical accompaniment.
"It just felt like a cacophony of white noise," said show observer Liu Ming. "It was awkward to watch the models try to walk in step with such a soundtrack."
The video monitors were effective in the way they captured the complex garments' numerous angles, giving rise to an interesting tension both within and between garments. Lamb skin was cut and combined with velvet, while the richness and warmth of wool alongside sparkling silk created a deep, sensual feel.
Various pictures from the video monitors were printed on the fabrics used to make dresses, jackets, pants and even leggings. Coats were cool and masculine; jump suit-hoodie hybrids were clean and unembellished. At the end of the show, four wildly over-the-top transparent plastic dresses thrust both the models and the audience out of the reality of the more practical outfits that had been presented earlier, and directly into the realm of fantasy.
WHERE WHAT WHO's show on the afternoon of day two also generated a great deal of buzz, as it is the local fashion brand's second time to present at fashion week, with their debut on 2009's fall/winter runway having been regarded as something of a black horse by a number of local media. That show was themed Freak Planet while the show this year was called Mad Mars.
"Our 2009 show forecast what the world might be like after the apocalypse in 2012," joked lead designer Bono Zhang. "This year, we're moving to an entirely different planet."
