Does China Have Fashion And Style?

When the founder of Opening Ceremony, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim and designer Chloe Sevigny arrived in Shanghai, they turned their attention to a 25 year old American who graduated from Harvard University.

In China's clothing market, Parent explains the latest trend of Shanghai, as well as the trend of fashion retailers and designers.

Of course, these are all things he should know, because Parent is the founder and chief executive officer of China Fashion Collective, and the group represents 25 famous brands of Chinese local designers.

At the same time, he is also the owner of the blog named Chinesepeoplehavenostyle.com (meaning "Chinese clothes are not style").

Parent explained to his blog's name, "many people feel offended when they first hear my blog name, but this is a sad reality."

What he and his two organizations are pursuing is to actively promote the Chinese designer's talent in the global scope, and to express the Chinese clothing culture in a modern way.

"Emerging Chinese clothing brands or other independent fashion institutions can bring about the global fashion market.

Unite Chinese designers to reshape Chinese style

Parent has joined a number of Chinese designers to lease the one peak square opened in the Bund, Shanghai at the end of this year.

In this historical and cultural building, there will be many international flagship stores and some Chinese local brand shops.

In addition, he also joined the young designer brands such as Decoster, Chen Ping (PariChen), catalogue (Content) and so on to create a multi brand e-commerce website called e products, which is expected to be put into operation at the end of this month.

Parent came to Shanghai to establish his company in 2009.

He firmly believes that fashion is fashionable in China, but the style of dress has just sprung up.

For international brands, it's hard to get information about independent Chinese designers, so Parent picked out the most talented designer from China Fashion Group's website and compiled a list.

He received financial support from an investor in New York to assist these designers in completing graphic design, procurement, e-commerce, photography, and anything else from design to production.

Most of the so-called "Chinese winds" in the West are

Technically, Parent is a consultant, but he prefers to call himself an agent or investigator.

When he was confronted with investors in New York (who did not want to disclose the names of investors), and cooperative brands like Opening Ceremony and Bergdorf Goodman, Parent reiterated his principles. "I am not willing to hand over the brand to those who can sell them to any businessman at any time, and I hope they can give the brand to those businesses that are strategically meaningful to both sides," he explained. "Many people in the financial industry are just interested in making profits from these pactions, and some even claim to be fashion experts.

They never understand that China has an incredible costume culture and history.

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"Non literal" interpretation of local style

At a meeting, Parent wore a pair of asymmetrical hoodies designed by Wang Zhi (Uma Wang), and then pulled out a 200 page list from a super luggage bag produced by Flying Scissors, designer brand, which was full of messages and full of photos.

This dress made him unable to fly his umbrella in Shanghai street in the afternoon.

Parent has promised him a commitment to help Chinese designer rookie to promote Chinese clothing culture. "Chinese style fashion does not emphasize individuality."

Nowadays, many people buy big brands because they can afford them.

On the contrary, they do not have much confidence in buying personalized designer works.

Many people belittle these little-known local designers, and my interest is to maintain and promote this kind of Chinese local clothing culture in the way of "non literal".

As for what is "non literal" way, he immediately took out a T photo, which is a Oriental Pearl costume designed by Wang Zhu.

He added, "the Oriental Pearl Tower in Pudong, Shanghai is like a neon filled Las Vegas. However, the interpretation of the Oriental Pearl is not written by Wang Jui."

In order to interpret the local style in a "non literal" way, Parent also invited designers and photographers Ma Liang (Meleonn Ma) to make preparations for the first year's photo.

Ma Liang will produce a series of special photo prints for Parent.

Does China have fashion and style?

The "non literal" approach also appeared in the fashion show Parent did in this autumn and winter fashion week in Shanghai.

The special feature of the fashion show called "Watching and Watched" is that the background screens on the show are not models and fashions, but rather familiar street videos.

"The ornament that looks like a bracelet on the wrist of a model is actually a camera. It is being photographed in front of the guests as the model walks on the T stage, and is synchronized on the screen."

Parent said.

In order to avoid a comment on Chinese clothing history from a Western perspective, Parent's blog has a collection of more than 500 photos, which has witnessed the vicissitudes of Chinese clothing culture since 1910.

Parent pointed out that Chinese style of street clothing is very similar to a large extent, because it is generally believed that the clothing that goes with the flow is more comfortable than unconventional.

He hopes to change this idea by highlighting the fashion of Chinese people.

"I think the most important thing is to let people have their own unique aesthetic standards," he said. "There are still many plagiarism and poor clothing designs in China at present. However, those designers who are cooperating with me are proving that this idea and prejudice are wrong."