【China Startup】Artisan apparel: China's youthful fashion market
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China's ancient novels and dramas have stirred the imaginations of millions. But don't worry if masterpieces such as the Peach Blossom Fan, Journey to the West or the Treasure Voyages have passed you by - there's now a new, and very special, way to learn more about them.
The classic tales are the inspiration for Mukzin, a start-up company from Hangzhou that has created a unique clothing line.
Feng Guang and Han Wen, a young couple of the post-80s generation, have brought a new concept to China's fashion aesthetic by mixing modern style with patterns, images and colors from ancient costume design.
Bright and buoyant, self-assured and self-expressive - just a few words that come to mind with only a glance at their Spring/Summer collections.
But where did the husband and wife team behind this concept get their inspiration?
The idea came to Feng and Han, a former Vivienne Westwood operative who is also Mukzin's design director, after they read A Study of Chinese Costume by Shen Congwen, one of the greatest modern Chinese writers. They soon realized that there were many miscomprehensions about ancient China's clothing style.
Take an advisor to the emperor during the Ming Dynasty as an example. For daily wear, there were seven to eight options depending on the occasion; for headwear, there were four to five choices.
“They were actually very gorgeously appareled, rather than the stereotype of being totally plain and simple, which was only one of many styles among early Chinese garments,” says Feng.
And that's when the couple – who studied and worked in the UK for eight years - undertook to redefine people's understanding of China's costume culture and create a modern, accessible version.
Established in 2014, Mukzin develops its own theme every season by working with China's young artists who have their own thoughts on contemporary society.
Papercut artist Wu Jianan's work with monkey imagery inspired Feng and Han's designs last year. Instead of the common dragon robes, they came up with a new series of monkey robes to welcome 2016, the year of the Monkey.
“We even brought the robes to New York for an international art and design fair,” says Feng. “The deputy mayor found them fascinating.”
And Journey to the West – one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature - inspired a special design on the sleeve. When turned over, a phrase from the story stitched into the surface in Chinese characters is revealed.
Rather than simply adding patterns with cultural elements to a garment without thought, Mukzin tries to fulfill, in Feng's words, an “internal fusion.” Designers first absorb relevant historical background information, and then commit to deeply understanding every detail of it, before finally delivering their own interpretation to the customers through their creations.
An admirer of The 10,000 Hours Rule - the principle that 10,000 hours of practice are needed to become world-class - Feng says: “We spend a great deal of time researching the cultural background, no less than the time spent on designing.”
When working on the Peach Blossom Fan collection last spring, each of the team members rehearsed the actual play together, experiencing and envisioning the character's state of mind. “That's how we got ideas when deciding the color and details of our design,” explains Han.
The company was founded on an artistic concept, but it is also proving a success in hard-headed business terms.
Sales are growing at around 200 percent per year, according to the founders. And the company brought in significant investment in Pre-A Round fundraising earlier this year.
As a finance major with experience working in an investment bank, Feng has strong ideas about how to best use funds. Instead of spending money on promotion or advertisements, he prefers to focus on quality products that meet the high artistic standards of the company.
And the young couple have wider, ambitious plans to reinvigorate China's lost arts, including through a modern take on traditional Hami Uygur embroidery.
“We would like to support the embroidery craft and spread it with the addition of modern style,” Feng says.
They hope to boost the quality of life for talented local embroiderers by building a handicraft workshop in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Feng and Han also intend to spread their vision abroad so that more people will appreciate both the elegance of China's costume culture and the talent of young Chinese designers.
Fashion is now led by the young. In a world full of fast, wild and showy styles of clothing, let's take a moment to ponder the aesthetical change and cultural importance introduced by the youth of Hangzhou.
STARTUPS