New power of home textiles more than beauty 2021 Haining Home Textile Cup Competition

By Xiao Ying, Chen Yubei

In the first year of the 14th Five—Year Plan, China’s textile industry emphasized the importance of the in—dustry’s fashion development. It has become an impor—tant development direction of the home textile design industry to occupy the fashion discourse power, improve the original ability of fashion design, and cultivate and explore excellent original design talents. Recently, “Hain—ing Home Textile Cup” 2021 China International Home Textile Creative Design Competition, with the theme of symbiosis and harmony, has been successfully con—cluded.

Enhance fashion discourse power

Wang Yi, executive director of the evaluation com—mittee, said in an interview that this year is the first year of the 14th Five—Year Plan, and the “Guiding Opinions on Technology, Fashion and Green Development” released at the same time of the 14th Five—Year Plan of China’s textile industry has given more explicit guidance to the fashion development of the home textile industry. To continue to promote the development of fashion indus—try, design talent is also a very important part. Through the competition, we can continuously discover excellent original design talents every year, and continuously send fresh blood to the industry.

Build a high—quality design resource platform

Zhu Lijiang, secretary of the Party Committee of Xucun Town, Haining City, said that Xucun Town has hosted the “Haining Home Textile Cup” competition for more than ten years. Through activities, it has further promoted the “Haining Home Textile” brand, and also established exchanges and cooperation for local en—terprises in Xucun and the national fashion industry. It introduces creative design concepts to promote the innovation of enterprises and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of Haining’s home textile industry.

The judges’ view: New generation’s creative ideas are exciting

“We are pleased to see that the contestants have a lot of unique inter—pretation of the theme, the combination of creativity and industry; young designers have applied crossover elements to home textiles, forming the concept of big fashion home furnishing, and showing the yearning of home textiles industry for a better life. More and more participating designers are able to keenly capture the consumption preferences of the young generation,especially in the fields of printing and embroidery, and there is a lot of room for commercial transformation of creative works.” Cao Yaoqiang, president of Haining Home Textile Association, said.

Liu Xiaoping, a Chinese—American fashion expert expressed that, “What impressed me most about this competition was the large proportion of Guo—chao works, which is closely related to the confidence of Chinese culture and the people’s emphasis on traditional culture. More and more young designers use modern means to integrate traditional culture and art with digital pro—cessing, which has become a highlight of this competition. Another feature is the overall variety of colors in the entries, which is thanks to the digital age,which gives designers wider and more timely access to information. Design—ers are very high to colorific acuity, also more accord with popular trend, they are a marked improvement over the past.”

“For a mature home textile enterprise, we need not only a creative, ar—tistic artwork, but also a set of creative and bright design directions provided by the designer. It will have a great impact on the future trend of enterprises’products and the interaction mode between brands and consumers, it is also a conscious shift for young designers from colleges to the market.” Qiang Ji—anchun, chairman of Shanghai Hengyuanxiang Home Textile Co., Ltd., said.

Associate Professor Su Miao, deputy dean and master’s supervisor of School of Textile Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Sci—Tech University hoped that young designers can think more about the process of the product from the beginning of the idea. Zhejiang’s textiles have unique industrial advantag—es, through the competition, professional colleges can further think about how to establish a closer cooperation mechanism with industries and enterprises in the future teaching. Through the dual—teaching system inside and outside the school, as well as the continuous optimization of the corporate practice training model, more outstanding reserve talents will be sent to the Chinese home textile industry.

“The competition works are mainly from college students.” Sun Haidong,vice president of Shandong Arts and Crafts Association and senior artist of arts and crafts said. “They combine traditional culture with modern ideas and create many excellent works. There are many traditional Chinese patterns such as the Forbidden City and Dunhuang in this competition. While show—ing the traditional patterns, how to integrate these patterns into modern life design and combine with the current trend of innovation and development to create more and better products is the direction that the new generation of designers need to study hard.”

Professor Zu Xiuxia, dean of Textile and Clothing Department, Liaoning Vocational College of Light Industry also expressed her own opinions. “In the past, many designers’ cognition of home textile products only stayed at the level of pattern design. Through the presentation of the competition works, we were surprised to find that more and more new generation of home textile designers, in addition to improving the creativity and popularity, but also integrate scientific and technological elements into their works. Through the interpretation of their design themes and creative ideas, we can also see that there are indeed a number of very excellent designers in China,which also indicates that China’s home textile industry will do better and better under the promotion of the new generation.”

In addition, Gao Jisheng, chairman of Zhejiang Miju—meng Home Textile Co., Ltd, Guan Beili, leader of Product Art Design, School of Art and Design, Jiangsu College of Engineering and Technology, Dr. Li Wanjun, dean and professor of Birmingham Institute of Fashion & Creative Art, Wuhan Textile University, Ma Huan, dean and as—sociate professor of Department of Art and Technology,Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts and Qian Gaofeng, general manager of Zhejiang Alno Textile Technology Co., Ltd.also shared their valuable comments on the works and topics.

In the post—pandemic era, many of the entries can provide people with spiritual comfort and healing through the design of atmosphere. On the other hand, for the promotion and integration of the application of traditional culture, this year's entries accounted for a larger propor—tion of the past. From the perspective of colleges and universities, the evaluation of the overall soft decoration design team is a test of students' ability to transform creative business and implement the R&D plan of actual products.