Chinese fashion designers coming under global spotlight

When Rihanna wore a fur-trimmed yellow satin gown by the Chinese-born designer Guo Pei to the Met Gala on Monday night, it became the talk of Twitter, which erupted with jokey comparisons to omelets and pizzas. Memes using cartoon characters like SpongeBob SquarePants were rampant. “The fashion world pretty much came to a standstill,” Glamour magazine wrote of the “jaw-dropping” cloak, while Time magazine declared that the singer stole the show.

蕾哈娜周一晚在纽约大都会艺术博物馆慈善舞会上穿的一件由中国本土设计师郭培设计的黄色皮草滚边长礼服在推特上引发热议，许多人开玩笑地把这件礼服比作煎蛋饼和比萨饼。借用卡通角色如海绵宝宝的模仿图在网上疯传。《魅力》杂志在谈及这件令人瞠目结舌的斗篷时写道：“时尚世界几乎陷入瘫痪状态”，而《时代》杂志则声称这名歌手出尽了风头。

Yet Ms. Guo isn’t the first Chinese-born designer to create a media meltdown with a spectacular design. The “X-Men” star Fan Bingbing wore a bright yellow dragon dress by Laurence Xu to the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it “launched her into the style stratosphere.” “Sensational!” the website Red Carpet Awards proclaimed.

然而，郭培女士并不是第一位借助令人惊叹的设计令媒体轰动的中国本土设计师。参演《x战警》的明星范冰冰曾身穿一件由许建树设计的亮黄色花袍亮相戛纳国际电影节红地毯，当时《好莱坞报道》写道,这件礼服“推动她进入时尚界的最上层”，而红地毯颁奖网站则称赞道：“太棒了！”

The dress got so much attention, in fact, that the actress Qin Hailu complained publicly that Ms. Fan was using the dress to cast herself as China’s leading lady (a charge that Ms. Fan denied), and London’s Victoria & Albert Museum ultimately snapped it up for its permanent collection. Now, that dress and two Guo Pei designs are part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Costume Institute exhibition, “China: Through the Looking Glass.”

事实上，这件龙袍吸引了太多目光，伦敦维多利亚与艾伯特博物馆最终永久收藏了这件礼服。如今，这件礼服和郭培设计的两件作品成为大都会艺术博物馆时装学院新展览“中国：镜花水月”的展品。

Juxtaposed against a dragon dress made by Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent, Mr. Xu’s gown highlights the different ways contemporary Chinese designers interpret their aesthetic history, and reflects the approach of a new wave of Asian creators who are drawing attention and acclaim for work that is defined by a modern balance between East and West.

许建树的作品和汤姆·福特为圣罗兰—伊夫·圣洛朗品牌设计的龙袍礼服并列放置在一起。许建树的龙袍凸显出当代中国设计师对美学历史的不同解读方式，反映了新一波亚洲设计师吸引人们关注和赞扬现代东西方平衡作品的方式。

Last year, for example, Yiqing Yin, the Chinese-born, Paris-based couturier who won the fashion designer of the year award at France’s prestigious Globes de Cristal in April, was named artistic director of the French fashion house Léonard. And in 2008, Qiu Hao won the International Woolmark Prize, thanks to the hand-woven fabrics he uses in his minimalist, architectural looks.

例如，出生于中国、现居巴黎的服装设计师殷亦睛去年出任法国高档时尚品牌莱昂纳多的艺术总监。今年4月，殷亦睛赢得了法国著名的晶球奖年度时装设计师。2008年，由于在其极简主义、建筑学风格的作品中采用手工编织面料，邱昊赢得了国际羊毛标志大奖。

“With so many brands doing so many different things, and a country of 1.3 billion people, the Chinese designers don’t have to adapt to us in the West, and we’ll see this develop,” said Gemma A. Williams, the author of “Fashion China.” “They will learn from what we’ve done and put their own spin on it.”

《时尚中国》作者杰玛·A·威廉斯说：“这么多的品牌，这么多的设计，在—个拥有13亿人口的国家，中国的设计师并不一定要迎合我们西方人，我们会见证这样的进展。他们会向我们学习，然后加入他们自己的元素。”

Angelica Cheung, the editor in chief of Vogue China, wrote in an email. When the magazine started, in 2005, she struggled to find local designers to fill her pages, but is now, according to her, completely overwhelmed.

当 2005 年《时装》杂志中国版起步的时候，主编张宇很难找到本土设计师来填充版面，但据她说，现在已经是应接不暇了。

Chinese street-style stars like Leaf Greener, a stylist and former senior fashion editor of Elle China, are helping bring these Chinese designers to a broader audience, whether on Facebook and Instagram or on Chinese microblogging sites like Weibo and WeChat.

中国街头风格的明星、前《ELLE>杂志中国版资深时装编辑叶子正在帮助把这些中国设计师推荐给更多观众，无论是通过脸书、Insragram图片分享网站，还是中国的微博和微信。

Christopher Bu, a former stylist who became a designer in 2010, attributes the fast success of his label to Weibo feeds that have showcased celebrities in his clothes, like Xu Fan and Fan Bingbing, who modeled his gold gown and geometric cape at the Met.

前造型师、2010 年成为设计师的卜柯文把他的品牌快速走红归功于微博上流传的名人造型图片。范冰冰在今年的大都会艺术博物馆慈善舞会上穿的礼服正是来自卜柯文的设计。

For Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute show, this is a reflection of the future. “As the Chinese designers are so sophisticated in technology, and the future of fashion is technology, Chinese designers are well placed to take advantage of this, opening up the market and the parameters of fashion,” he said.

对大都会艺术博物馆时装学院展览策展人安德鲁·博尔顿来说，这反映了未来趋势。他说：“中国设计师在利用科技方面如此老到，而时装的未来正在于科技，所以中国设计师完全可以利用这一优势，开辟市场，突破时尚的界限。”