Song Brocade Clothing Appears At China International Fashion Week

Song brocade dress appeared in China International Fashion Week. Information photos

Song brocade with gorgeous colors and exquisite patterns. Photographed by Yang Lei

Song brocade dress participated in fashion show. Information photos

Song brocade, as its name implies, is a kind of brocade developed in the Song Dynasty. Because of its gorgeous color, exquisite pattern, and firm and soft texture, it is known as the "crown of beauty", and is called the three famous brocades in China together with Nanjing Cloud Brocade and Sichuan Sichuan Brocade.

Song brocade weaving techniques were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects in 2006. In 2009, Song brocade weaving technology, as an important part of Chinese silk weaving technology, was included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

As an outstanding masterpiece of traditional Chinese silk techniques, Song brocade has a high historical and cultural value, but similar to many intangible cultural heritage, Song brocade also experienced ups and downs, and the traditional weaving techniques were once on the verge of extinction. Fortunately, under the insistence of a group of visionaries and promising enterprises, Songjin miraculously "revived" and embarked on the road of living inheritance of industrial development.

At present, as the national tide of integrating traditional culture and modern aesthetics is surging, Song brocade is ushering in new opportunities for development. Full orders and rush to work have become a common portrayal of some Song brocade production enterprises. However, under the prosperity, fake products and difficult rights protection have become new challenges that the whole industry has to face.

Survive from a desperate situation

The ancient city of Suzhou is full of flowers and beautiful scenery in spring. Opposite the North Temple Pagoda, the highest point of the ancient city, lies a modern white building, which is the first silk museum in China - Suzhou Silk Museum.

A winding path leads to seclusion. Enter Qian Xiaoping Silk Culture and Art Museum located in the backyard of Suzhou Silk Museum, and the works of Song brocade restored by Qian Xiaoping, a national inheritor of Song brocade weaving skills, are displayed in order, amazing and refined. In the exhibition hall, weavers demonstrated Song Jinchun's hand weaving process on the ancient brocade loom. A weaver sits on a two meter high rack and carefully weaves flowers. The weaver agrees with her, steps on a bamboo pole, and quickly throws the shuttle across the warp, like an ice skater crossing the ice. The sound of the loom seems to tell the past and present life of Song brocade.

Suzhou is a famous silk industry cluster in China, known as the town of beauty and silk. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, Suzhou became China's silk production center; During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as the seat of Suzhou Weaving Department, its production and sales of court weaving and folk silk weaving were booming, known as "the sound of thousands of households weaving in the half city of the northeast".

Song brocade, also known as Suzhou Song brocade, is mainly produced in Suzhou. Its origin can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period, when the nobility of the State of Wu used brocade extensively in their lives. Suzhou's brocade skills were comprehensively improved in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Suzhou Academy of Painting was established, and Song brocade came into being as a new variety of brocade with exquisite texture and unique skills.

Shen Hui, a disciple of Qian Xiaoping and provincial inheritor of Song brocade weaving skills, said that Song brocade was "beautiful but not dazzling, expensive but not obvious", which was loved by ancient royal families because of its unique patterns of exquisite beauty, simple and elegant colors. In addition to clothing, it was also widely used for mounting calligraphy and painting scrolls. According to legend, Song Gaozong set up the Song Brocade Weaving Department in Suzhou in order to meet the needs of the court for clothing and painting and calligraphy mounting. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the use of Song brocade fabrics expanded, and reached a prosperous period in history during the reign of Kangxi and Qianlong. Today, the "Blissful World Weaving Brocade Map Axis" collected by the Palace Museum is the heavy brocade produced in Suzhou during the Qianlong period, which can be called a rare treasure.

In modern times, under the impact of modern industry and successive wars, the traditional Song brocade once declined, and the production skills were almost lost. "There are many processes in the production of traditional Song brocade. From silk reeling and dyeing to weaving into products, it takes more than 20 processes, which is extremely complicated." Qian Xiaoping said that manual Song brocade weaving can only be about 10 cm a day.

In 1989, Qian Xiaoping created the first silk themed museum in China, the Suzhou Silk Museum, to rescue, protect, display and promote traditional Chinese silk culture and skills. At that time, she designed the museum as a multi-functional museum integrating collection, exhibition, display, research, reproduction, loom operation and publicity, shopping, catering. She said: "My idea is very simple. The Silk Museum should develop by itself and pay for the research of traditional techniques such as Song brocade."

In the years to come, Qian Xiaoping's life path is connected with the blood of Song Jin. She led the students to restore and create a number of works, such as the Song brocade with the Sihe Ruyi pattern and the Song brocade with the painting of Xuan Ji; The lost loom of the Song brocade flower building was restored; He wrote a professional book "Chinese Song Brocade" to comprehensively and systematically describe the history and culture, fabric structure, texture and color, and production techniques of Song brocade. In 2006, the weaving techniques of Song brocade were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects. In 2007, Qian Xiaoping was awarded the title of "National Representative Inheritor of Song Brocade Weaving Skills", and Song brocade was "revived" and began to be better protected and inherited.

Industrialization empowerment

Although museums can promote the protection of endangered technologies, only through industrial empowerment can Song brocade and its products be quietly integrated into the production and life of the masses, can the ultimate goal of intangible cultural heritage protection - living inheritance be truly achieved.

In 2012, Wu Jianhua, who opened a silk factory in Shengze, Suzhou, the "millennium silk capital", decided to revive the process of Song brocade after reading Qian Xiaoping's article calling for protection of Song brocade in the newspaper. At the risk of failure, he led the team to invest a huge amount of money to transform the digital jacquard rapier machine. A few months later, Song brocade was reborn from the roaring loom for the first time, with an average daily weaving capacity of 25 meters, marking the realization of modern production of Song brocade.

In order to inherit and innovate the art of Song brocade, Wu Jianhua recruited talents, established a research and development and design team, enriched the flower shape of Song brocade through the decoration of "artificial craftsmanship" and weaving of "digital technology", and made the pattern of Song brocade beautiful and fashionable. "We invested a lot of time and money to collect seven or eight hundred kinds of traditional patterns of Song brocade, study the weaving process, and on this basis, make innovations to make it more in line with modern people's aesthetic." Wu Jianhua told reporters that he created the "Shangjiukai" Song brocade brand, combining the millennium craft with modern needs, and launched products such as bags, home textiles, scarves, etc, Try to let Song Jin fly into ordinary people's homes.

In 2014, the brand-new Song brocade ushered in a highlight moment. At the welcome dinner of the APEC leaders' informal meeting that year, the "new Chinese dress" worn by the participants was amazing, and its core fabric was Song brocade. In the same year, the scroll of Song brocade "Western Paradise" completed by Qian Xiaoping in six years was released, causing a sensation in the industry. The map axis is 3.86 meters long and 1.72 meters wide. It uses dozens of silk threads to create 278 people, pavilions, strange flowers and birds with different expressions.

Since then, Song brocade has repeatedly become a national gift and a gorgeous card for the external display of Chinese culture. Wu Jianhua is making unremitting efforts to promote the "Shangjiukai" Songjin brand to the world.

In order to combine Chinese tradition with European fashion, Shangjiukai set up a design studio in Italy, hired an international first-class design team to participate in product design, skillfully combined fashion elements with the cultural heritage of Song brocade, and promoted Song brocade to become a high-grade and high-end terminal product with exquisite colors and perceptual design.

Wu Jianhua also invested 20 million yuan to build the first Chinese Song Brocade Cultural Park with Song Brocade as the theme, integrating popular science education, ecological leisure, tourism and shopping. "In this way, we hope to let the public understand the past and present of Song brocade and help the intangible cultural heritage culture move towards a better tomorrow." Wu Jianhua said that the core of the inheritance and development of traditional skills is innovation. Only when Song brocade is applied to areas closely related to life and recognized by consumers can this precious silk variety be protected and usher in new development glory.

Order explosion

At the China International Textile Fabrics and Accessories (Spring and Summer) Expo held in March this year, some women carried Hermes, Prada, Chanel bags and wore Jiukai Song brocade fabrics, showing elegance and calm.

In recent years, the new national trend has become popular. Traditional clothes such as horse face skirt, Song brocade coat, and fragrant cloud gauze shirt have been loved by fashion people. Young consumer groups have returned to oriental aesthetics, and new Chinese style clothes have quietly taken the lead.

The 24/25 Report on the Fashion Trend of Intangible Cultural Heritage Song Brocade was released during the 2024 China Textile Federation Spring Exhibition, which mentioned that, through the ingenious interpretation and innovation of modern designers, the new Chinese style occupies an important position in the fashion trend, and the total value of related clothing products has increased by more than 100% in the past three years. According to the 2024 Data Report on Women's Consumption Trends of Dithering E-commerce released in March, the orders of women consumers on this platform to buy new Chinese style clothes increased by 195% year on year in the past year, including 841% for horse face skirts and 336% for Han style clothes.

As a prophet of spring river water heating, Song brocade industry is keenly aware of the hot market. Entering the workshop of Suzhou Shangjiukai Silk Science, Technology and Culture Co., Ltd., an intangible cultural heritage Song brocade demonstration enterprise, I saw that the workers on the production line were busy but not disorderly, and the beautiful Song brocade with gorgeous color and beautiful patterns was gradually off the production line. The relevant person in charge of the enterprise said: "Since the second half of 2022, the first Jiukai Song Brocade has been extremely popular, and the platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Diaoyin are competing for sales, and the orders are scheduled for next year. In less than two years, we have developed from the original 12 looms to more than 100 looms now, and the production capacity has fully expanded 10 times."

On the Little Red Book platform, Wu Jianhua's corporate account released many popular science related to Song brocade, with more than 20000 fans and 7 fans of Song brocade. "We should organically combine the millennium craftsmanship with the original design concept to shape the various forms of Song brocade, so that intangible cultural heritage can be integrated into people's life in a younger and more grounded manner while integrating and leading the fashion trend." Wu Jianhua is full of confidence.

With the arrival of the national tide, the underlying logic is the confidence of consumers and businesses in Chinese culture. Qian Xiaoping, an octogenarian, was deeply gratified by the popularity of Song brocade. She believes that as the protector and inheritor of Song brocade, only by deeply exploring the traditional culture related to the industry, continuously integrating new elements, injecting new blood, and launching more high-quality products to meet consumer needs, can we seize real development opportunities and lead the industry to sustainable and healthy development.

Wu Jianhua's thinking coincides with Qian Xiaoping's. He said: "We plan to cooperate with Suzhou Museum, the Palace Museum and other units to launch joint funds, and use the site of Suzhou Weaving Department to explore historical and cultural resources, create a silk cultural tourism IP, enhance the reputation of Suzhou silk, and expand the city's influence."

The channel is blocked and long

Song brocade creates a new legend of national fashion. At the same time, the endless infringing products on the market make the original manufacturers miserable. On some network platforms, counterfeits are titled with Song brocade, intangible cultural heritage and other titles, making it difficult for consumers to distinguish between the true and the false. Industry insiders and experts said that infringement not only has an impact on formal enterprises, but also has a bad impact on the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, which is a new challenge that needs to be addressed urgently in the live inheritance of Song brocade intangible cultural heritage.

"We need a group of raw silk and a group of cooked silk for brocade, so that we can realize the 'hard and soft' characteristics of Song brocade." Bao Qiaomei, general manager of Wujiang Dingsheng Silk Co., Ltd., said that although the imitations on the market have identical flower shapes in appearance, the production process, fabric materials, etc. are different from the authentic ones.

"In order to protect original resources and safeguard our legitimate rights and interests, we have sent three lawyer letters and filed seven infringement lawsuits against infringement." Wang Han, the legal adviser of Shangjiukai, said that at present, many enterprises have taken off the shelves of infringing products and proposed a settlement plan. "Since April, seven infringement lawsuits will be held in succession, and we will also update the litigation results on the Internet in a timely manner."

The reporter learned that after the industrialization of intangible cultural heritage, infringement often occurs, but it is not easy to safeguard rights. Dong Yin, vice president of Suzhou Intellectual Property Research Institute of Suzhou University, said that compared with other commodities, Song Jin's copyright infringement is difficult to obtain evidence, calculate the amount of losses and profits, and judge. Therefore, it is a big challenge to protect rights.

"For example, many of the patterns of Song brocade originate from ancient traditional patterns, can they be regarded as the copyright of enterprises?" Dong Yin said, taking Jiukai Song brocade as an example, enterprises are making innovations on the basis of traditional patterns to obtain new patterns, so enterprises have original copyright. However, compared with patents and trademarks, copyright infringement is more difficult to identify in the judicial field.

How to cope with challenges and make the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage move forward steadily?

Yao Jianping, the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project (Suzhou embroidery), believes that it is necessary to strengthen the standardization of the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, establish an expert database for the standardization of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, develop a standard system for the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism, and establish the responsibility and code of conduct for the protection of intangible cultural heritage of stakeholders related to the integration of intangible cultural heritage and tourism.

As a member of Suzhou CPPCC, Wu Jianhua submitted the proposal of "Suggestions on Improving Relevant Laws and Strengthening Copyright Protection in Creative Industries" at the Suzhou Two Sessions in 2024. He suggested that a national copyright networking system should be established to realize nationwide copyright management, and a copyright duplication checking system should be introduced to avoid duplication or malicious registration of the same idea in multiple places and reduce cross regional copyright disputes.

In order to better protect, inherit and develop Song brocade, Shangjiukai started the copyright registration work in 2012 and was awarded the "National Copyright Demonstration Unit" in 2020. "Now, all the Song brocade products we developed have copyright registration tags, and each piece of fabric will be woven with a logo that has been printed for a long time to resist counterfeiting, piracy, infringement and other bad behaviors, and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises." Wu Jianhua said that the path of inheritance of intangible cultural heritage is bound to be long and hard, and the only way is to continue to work hard to build brands, enrich connotation Only by following the fashion and other links for a long time can we make greater contributions to the inheritance of Song brocade skills, the promotion of Song brocade culture, and the promotion of the innovative development of intangible cultural heritage. (Reporter Liu Weiwei)

(Source: Economic Information Daily)