While news headlines
report on trade and tech wars, rising tariffs and diplomatic discord
between the US and China, and American brands and retailers reel from the
additional import costs of apparel and footwear, one sector is busily
building bridges between both nations. Education knows no politics. The
transaction of knowledge and experience, a free-flowing exchange of talent
and a focus on common goals are the terms for writing the fashion
curriculum of the future.
Simon Collins, former dean of the Fashion School at Parson’s New School
for Design, recognized several years ago that the demand for fashion
education in China was surpassing supply which prompted him to found
WeDesign, an educational platform which makes educators from top global
institutions such as Central Saint Martins, Harvard, and Parsons, among
others, available to hungry Chinese design talent who couldn’t perhaps snag
a spot at Shanghai’s exclusive Tsinghua University. During his seven years
at Parsons he noted that students from China formed the biggest section of
international enrollment. However studying overseas for Chinese nationals
is not only a costly undertaking but involves the added complication of a
visa. But Chinese industry, Collins told Forbes, “has not yet
caught up to the quality of people that are available and they’re still
blinded by foreigners.”
China no longer emulating but educating
Certainly European and American senior-level designers with prestigious
international names––Giorgio Armani, Bottega Veneta, Ralph Lauren, Hugo
Boss–– on their resumes have been steadily courted for career stints in
China over the past decade, drafted in to imbue creditability on luxury
start-ups striving to compete with the allure of the overseas brands. But
Chinese government is now focusing and investing in the nourishment of
homegrown talent.
Said Collins of WeDesign,“We started with the premise that all of the
professors that we know working part-time could be connected with
individual students in China who wanted to learn from the world’s top
professors.” It launched with online teaching, then professors were sent to
China to conduct workshops and short intense courses, and next comes the
launch of WeDesign learning centers in vacant mall space. Collins expects
to open six of them this year, plus another ten in 2020 followed by an
agreement to open the first WeDesign college in China.
In April, Professor Yue Lyu of China Academy of Fine Art (CAFA)
delivered a presentation, via a translator, to the students of Kent State
University’s NYC campus which was also Skyped to its main campus in Ohio.
In it she detailed her career both as a fashion educator and visionary who
has created installations and gallery exhibits in major Chinese art spaces.
She had arrived in the US with a contingent of students for a tour of
fashion schools before concluding her visit at Kent State University’s main
campus to attend their graduate fashion show as guests. Featured in the
fashion show’s billing would be a selection of CAFA students’ outfits.
China/US partnerships in education
Chenjuan Chen, Assistant Professor at The Fashion School of Kent State
University, explained to FashionUnited how and why this came about: “The
conversation started back in October, 2018, when my colleague and I met
Professor Lyu at an exhibition in South Korea. When she explained she was
organizing a study tour to New York we invited her to give her research
presentation to our students, and discussed having some of her students
participate in our fashion show. The goal is for the Kent State
University’s Fashion School to showcase and enhance its global partnerships
with other prominent fashion institutions.”
It’s not the first time this type of talent exchange has happened. In
2016 KSU sent six graduating students to join four from Taiwan’s Shih Chien
University, and fifteen from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology to
show their collections during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Beijing.
Reports that China’s international schools are now introducing the study
of fashion at high school level and enticing instructors from top global
fashion schools to help devise the programs demonstrates China’s
seriousness about occupying the high end creative sphere. And global
institutions are reciprocating in kind as they recognize the speed of
growth and dynamism of the market. According to Bain consultancy, Chinese
spending accounted for one-third of the global luxury market in 2018.
Within this financial boom, a culture of creativity and innovation has
emerged from an industry that once thrived on emulating big European names
and relying on its manufacturing prowess.
Western schools enter China
Italy’s Istituto Marangoni just opened its second mainland school in
Shenzhen, having already established a presence in Shanghai where Parsons
has also operated since 2014; Esmod Paris has a branch in the textile
heartland of Guangzhou, Savannah College of Art and Design has a school in
Hong Kong, often referred to as the gateway to China––even the Conde Nast
School of Fashion and Design, which launched in London as recently as 2013
opened its Shanghai arm two years later.
In NYC the annual China Institute Fashion Competition selects the best
of the next generation of Chinese designers graduating from the top US
schools (including Parsons and Kent State University) and brings them to
NYC for a runway presentation after which the winner is awarded 10,000
dollars. Collins who judged at this year’s event told the audience, “New
York Fashion Week is practically 30 percent Chinese now.”
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View this post onChinese talent prized worldwide
This year the Business of Fashion created its first China Prize and the
inaugural winner of the 100,000 dollar award, Shenzhen-born Caroline Hu,
was a 2017 graduate of Parsons MFA Design & Society program, who previously
completed her undergrad at London’s Central Saint Martins. This week saw
her arrive in Paris where she hosted an intimate cocktail presentation of
her romantic hand-finished tulle dresses during Couture Week.“I see a huge potential for the US/China educational partnership,” says
Chen. “China is increasingly focusing on higher education and international
programs have flourished as a result. There are many opportunities for us
to work on collaborative research and teaching.
Rather than following or leading, I think the relationship between both our
industry and education should be about building partnerships to work
together and reach a common goal.”Fashion editor Jackie Mallon is also an educator and author of Silk
for the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion
industry.Photos: China Institute, FashionUnited.com
