Fanning fashion's cultural flame
Plenty of homegrown fashion houses look to China's rich history for design inspiration, but a few, like Yaying, are finding ways to continue a cultural legacy.
Rooted in arts and culture
To keep pace with the market, in 2016, the group reinvented its main brand EP Yaying, launching a dual-brand development strategy, "The World's EP, China's Yaying".
EP, which focuses on producing ready-to-wear clothing, offers contemporary fashion styles that harmoniously integrate Oriental and Western aesthetics and artistic elements, reflecting both global fashion and contemporary Chinese lifestyle.
Yaying, meanwhile, is the company's haute couture line, tracing its Chinese roots and focusing on the deep exploration of China's traditional culture, aesthetics, fashion and craftsmanship－integrating contemporary aesthetic tastes into its designs for the modern women, but with a clear, exquisite Chinese cultural identity.
Yaying's 2017 Spring/Summer collection saw the debut of its imperial robe-themed series, which met with rave reviews, firmly establishing its "Eastern royal aesthetics" credentials. The brand continues to draw inspiration from Chinese culture, not only for creative inspiration but also in the hope that it can help connect the past with modern fashion, injecting new energy into the industry and enabling a new generation of fashion-conscious women to rediscover that culture.
"In the age when fashion designer is no longer an unusual occupation, Chinese fashion seems to be a concept that is getting confusing and contradictory. However, if I have to define Chinese fashion, Yaying is one of the first brands that jumps into my mind," says Xu Fengli, a Chinese fashion blogger.
To celebrate the company's 30th anniversary last year, EP Yaying premiered its dual-brand 2019 Spring/Summer collection at the closing ceremony of the China International Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2019. Themed "Convergence & Creation", the two collections displayed the balance between mankind and nature, art and culture, tradition and the contemporary. Both the show and collection received unanimous acclaim from the media and the public alike.
