“Edinburgh Art Festival · Shanghai Season IV - From Shanghai With Love” was unveiled at the Edinburgh Art Festival from August 23 to 24 (local time). Designed and developed by Donghua teachers and students joining hands with a team specialized in technology, and supported by multiple Shanghai brands, the custom-made Technology Qipao 3.0 released at the exhibition features the design incorporating elements of technology, beauty, and clothing, and demonstrates the Shanghai fashion technology combining Shanghai Design, Shanghai Brand and Shanghai Culture. The exhibition was jointly guided by the Leading Group Office of Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry promotion, the Coordination Group office of Shanghai Culture and Education and the Shanghai Promotion Center for City of Fashion, organized by Donghua University and Confucius Institute for Scotland, and undertaken by Donghua-Edinburgh Center for Creative Industries. On August 15, the whole series of the works was released at the preview in Shanghai.
(Donghua Design appears at Edinburgh Art Festival)
(Luminous Qipao series)
(Shape-changing Qipao series)
(3D-printing Qipao series)
With the support of “2019 Shanghai Culture and Education Project”, the Luminous Qipao series was designed by the interdisciplinary student team of Donghua University under the guidance of Hanne-Louise, Michel, a Danish intelligent wearable expert. The ingenious combination of the new carbon nanotube yarn with coil button, a traditional element of Qipao, makes the Qipao soft and wearable. With the unique 3D printing button cover, the LED light depicts a hazy, gentle Scottish plaid pattern. Attributed to the support of PLLC, a Shanghai local Qipao brand, the traditional Qipao structure and luminous elements supplement each other, presenting a rich Scottish style.
The shape-changing Qipao series adopts a new material that becomes refreshing and curly after encountering nourishing dew. The new material is derived from the deformed nanofiber membrane developed by Professor Wang Hongzhi’s team. The well-designed laser cutting and fabric composite process endows the Qipao with time dimension, in which the magnolia grows from buds to blooms, and then withers and gets reborn. This series is also supported by the “2019 Shanghai Culture and Education Project” and PLLC.
Jointly developed by SCF and COVESTRO, the world’s first flexible and environment-friendly 3D-printing Qipao is made from COVESTRO’s fully recyclable and flexible TPU material in the technology of “3D-printing garment piece + traditional sewing process”. With the “sustainable, industrialized and customized” concept, it implies the future “recovery” of the new fashion industry in the context of new technological revolution, and the affectionate encounter between Scottish plaid and white magnolia, the flower of Shanghai.
(Shanghai-style Business Qipao)
(Excellent graduation work of SCF)
The Shanghai Fashion Accessories Society also brought the new Shanghai-style Business Qipao that blends tradition and fashion into the exhibition, which features contemporary art texture, high quality and practicality. Outstanding graduate works of SCF were also staged at the exhibition. They reflect the graduates’ concern and thinking on society and culture, city development and technology.
(Collection of Shanghai Museum of Textile and Costume)
The Shanghai Museum of Textile and Costume also presented “Children and Parents – Hundred-Year Chinese Family Fashion Show” at the exhibition. The show is divided into two parts: history and modernity. The historical part mainly shows children’s wear in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, while the modern part shows Chen Wen’s parent-child dresses and waterless dyeing and printing Qipao.
(Waterless dyeing and printing Qipao designed by Chen Wen, winner of Jinding Award and adjunct professor of SCF)
(Media reports)
Hou Danna, Consul General of Chinese Consulate-General in Edinburgh, Qiu Gao, Vice President of Donghua University, Dorothy Meill, Vice President of the University of Edinburgh, and heads of institutions and enterprises attended the exhibition. Jackie Killeen, Director of British Council Scotland, said what impressed her most during the festival was the “From Shanghai with Love” exhibition, and the technology Qipao co-designed by the University of Edinburgh and Donghua University is strikingly elegant and amazing. The visitor Frances Barbour left a message, “Thanks for such wonderful performances. Shanghai designers are talented! Some designs are great and worth watching!”
According to Professor Bian Xiangyang, Director of the Shanghai Promotion Center for City of Fashion and Curator of Shanghai Museum of Textile and Costume, the “Edinburgh Art Festival·Shanghai Season” serves as an international platform for exchanges and dialogue in fashion, technology and art. The exhibition not only injects Chinese elements into the Edinburgh Art Festival, but also reflects the overall development direction of China’s contemporary fashion industry, as well as the achievements made in the construction of fashion industry and fashion capital in Shanghai.
