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American singer Beyoncé wears a dress from Chinese fashion designer Yuan Qiqi. Photo: Courtesy of Yuan Qiqi
In February, less than two years after setting up his own design studio, 21-year-old Chinese fashion designer Yuan Qiqi (original name Yuan Junhao) received an unexpected email from across the ocean: the PR team for American singer Beyoncé told the singer. He wanted to wear a dress from his 2021 collection – a red dress with a striking shoulder strap inspired by the traditional clothing of the Chinese Yi ethnic group – for the musician’s next album project. Renaissance.
During his short career as a fashion designer, Yuan was inspired by a variety of traditional Chinese cultures, from the famous Song Dynasty (960-1279) painting to the turquoise painting. A thousand li rivers and mountains and black Chinese inkwash landscape paintings to large Yi people shoulder pads.
Speaking of how they were inspired by Yi, Yuan one day came across a popular short video on Duyin China’s Tik Tok, which featured a group of Yi men dressed in traditional clothing.
“I was surprised by their traditional style that was very modern at the same time,” Yuan recalled to the Global Times.
With that in mind, Yuan incorporated the shoulder pattern into the dress and used an impactful red as the base of the dress.
As a young designer, Yuan stuck first to suggest these elements in the design from time to time.
“Since I was a child, I thought that I was not qualified to bear this great responsibility, because it is a great system to support Chinese traditional culture. I grew up with modern and ancient art in the West. Yuan told the Global Times.
Touching trending topics
Before Yuan gained international recognition, he went viral after appearing on a Chinese talk show two years ago. He was invited as a junior representative on the famous debate show. I can BBThe 19-year-old voiced his opinion on an issue: Should boys be allowed to wear skirts to school?
Dressed in long colorful tulle himself, Yuan argued that boys should be able to choose for themselves.
From covid-19 to the concept of gender identity and cultural appropriation, this socially conscious designer pays close attention to leading and fresh, edgy yet obscure concepts and terms trending around the world.
At a young age, he believed that the visual representation of these social topics was “the most direct, convenient and fastest way” to convey his ideas to the public.
With this in mind, Yuan infuses his thoughts on social topics into his designs.
During Shanghai’s fight against the Omicron epidemic, a busy designer was forced to stay at home, where he was given the opportunity to reflect on and draw inspiration from the epidemic that had lasted for more than two years.
In his recently released Winter Autumn collection, Yuan finds surreal technology food to explain his unconscious inner confusion and escape from the plague-covered real world.
“This is a wearable spaceship,” Yuan explained to the Global Times, pointing to the suit with its bold red wing-like decorations.
“The last three years have been very strange for me. On the one hand, I felt that this was not the real world I lived in when I was little, and on the other hand, I wanted to escape into space.”
Design of Yuan Qiqi
Defense of Chinese culture
The recent controversy over luxury brand Dior being accused of culturally appropriating China’s traditional horse-face dress has sparked discussion and outrage on social media and in China’s professional fashion circles.
Unlike some Western designers who show a deep interest in Chinese culture and encourage their clients to learn more about it, according to experts speaking on social media, Dior “somehow ignores the host country’s recognition of its own culture.”
Among them is 21-year-old Yuan.
“I personally respect Mr. Christian Dior, but Dior, as a brand, seems to have mistaken their commercial value for a cultural authority. And Dior thinks that he can use Chinese culture to a great extent and transfer that culture to us,” Yuan told the Global Times.
The Dior controversy sparked a desire for the young fashion designer to actively defend traditional culture as a designer, often adding cultural elements to his designs rather than going sentimental.
“I thought I wasn’t qualified to promote what I wanted to preserve because I didn’t have a systematic knowledge of the subject. However, the Dior case made me realize the urgency of preserving and promoting my own culture,” he said.
“There are so many amazing designs in ancient people’s clothes, we as young designers should learn, understand, break down and introduce them.”
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