From Ink to Apparel: A Crossover between Calligraphy Art and Fashion Design
At World Design Capital Taipei 2016, International Design House Exhibition curators have proposed, and laid out a blueprint for the integration of design thinking with urban development on the theme of Sisheng: Quality of Life and Health, Ecological Sustainability, Smart Living, and Urban Regeneration.
We take a look at the art and fashion design collaboration exhibition.
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Taipei is this years World Design Capital. What is a World Design Capital? Every two years, a city is is designated by Icsid (definition at the end) – recognising that city's innovative use of design for economic, social and cultural development and to showcase effective design-led urban revitalization strategies that other cities can benefit from. In 2016, that city is Taipei in Taiwan, but their work started already several years in advance.
A few weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to catch the last day of the World Design Capital Taipei International Design House Exhibition in the capital, which showcased some of the best design and design thinking Taiwan has to offer at the moment.
The entry to the exhibition "From Ink to Apparel-A Crossover between Calligraphy Art and Fashion Design". Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
In this article we take a look at the pavilion and exhibition "From Ink to Apparel: A Crossover between Calligraphy Art and Fashion Design.", presented by renowned Taiwanese contemporary calligraphic artist Tong Yang-Tze. This collaborative exhibition featured the works of six up and coming Taiwanese fashion designers: Apu Jan, Shao-yen Chen (founder of Shao Yen), Yu-ying Chou (Just In Case), Kilin Chen (Homme Van Lab), Pei-chieh Chen (Chiehms), and Shun-min Wang (Fu Yue).
Recipient of the 31st Executive Yuan Culture Awards, Tong Yang-Tze is well known for her bold brushwork and unique calligraphic style. Her art finds its roots in the written word to which she brings her personal artistic vision and interpretation. From Taipei Main Station, to the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, to the arrival/departure stamps used by immigration officials in passports, her calligraphy is seen everywhere. Although her work has its roots in the calligraphic tradition and classical texts, in recent years, Tong has gone beyond the calligraphic form in what has been a fruitful interdisciplinary cooperation with artists from a variety of fields.
Material Laboratory. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Calligraphy Artist Tong Yang-Tze. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Committed to the popularization of the art of calligraphy, Tong has continually emphasized the possibility of calligraphy as living art—one very much within the public domain. With her deep appreciation of the Chinese cultural tradition, Tong hopes more people can embrace the art of calligraphy by picking up a brush and starting their own creative process.
Tong Yang-Tze's creative process has been an on-going experimentation with the melding of the calligraphic tradition with other art forms. To that end, her calligraphy has mimicked musical scores, been transformed into sculptures, and found a fruitful crossover among the fields of jazz, dance, and multimedia. Through this interdisciplinary dialogue, Tong has managed to transform traditional calligraphy into an art form that appeals to understanding and enjoyment of our modern world—thereby successfully imbuing her calligraphic form with unlimited potential.
For this exhibition, Tong chose 20 pieces from her Silent Music series and has worked closely together with the fashion designers in translating the language of the written calligraphy into modern works of fashion design.
All the designers, with Tong Yang-Tze. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Through dialogue and interdisciplinary cooperation, every story has a chance to grow into something wonderful. This is in many ways similar to the potential of the ink in the ink stone, which awaits our brushes to spread outward, unconstrained and unceasing.
Through this exhibition, Tong is determined to remind people of the artistic expressiveness and cultural significance of handwritten Chinese characters and to breathe new life into traditional calligraphy. See how they did it below!
陳姵潔 Pei-chieh Chen
A graduate of the Department of Female Design: Womenswear at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, in 2013 Pei-chieh Chen founded her design label chiehms in Taiwan. Revisiting a minimalist and contemporary blend of cultures, the label has become well known for its emphasis on detail and the finer points of tailoring. Chen is adapt at approaching her work from a female perspective and in using simple cuts to highlight the flow of change between the cloth and the body, thereby creating a detailed form that is both soft and subtle in its contrast.
Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Pei-chieh Chen Exhibition Area. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Thick/Curved/Coiled/Morphed/Pleated – Using differences in fabric thickness and varying melting points, Pei Chieh Chen heats and reforms gauze and netting with tearing and fusing techniques in creative reinterpretation of calligraphy’s many shades of ink. Her clothing offers a combination of silk, netting, weaving, and pleated techniques and takes advantage of a variety of rope, gauze, and stripes, and the soft fall of fabric to design apparel that naturally captures the flow of calligraphy’s strokes and lines.
陳劭彥 Shao-yen Chen
Founder of womenswear label SHAO YEN, in 2010 Shao-yen Chen graduated from the Institute of Textiles and Clothing at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, after which he spent time at the prestigious design houses of Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan. In 2009, Chen won first place in the Brussels-based Fashion Weekend design contest for upcoming new designers. The same year, he was named in fashion concept magazine Wallpaper annual Graduate Directory, which lists each year’s hottest new talents. A year later, he was chosen as one of the world’s six most promising new designers by leading English fashion magazine AnOther. In 2011, Chen was invited to assist with the design of Bjork’s new album and was the only Taiwanese invited to participate in the 2014 The Future of Fashion is Now exhibition curated by one of Holland’s largest museums—the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen—with other such luminaries as Rei Kawakubo and Viktor & Rolf. Chen’s work has also been shown many times at the annual International Fashion Week and at other major international fashion exhibitions.
Creation by Shao-yen Chen. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Shao-yen Chen Exhibition Area. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Metamorphosis – Designer Shao-yen Chen deconstructed and magnified sections of the Chinese characters written by Tong Yang-Tze. Observing his works from a spatial perceptive, he used various techniques to represent the two-dimensional strokes on three-dimensional garments, concurrently expressing both calligraphic and apparel elements—i.e. surreal structures being constructed through practical details. Pleats of varying widths and textures were used to depict different levels of ink density and smoothness. As a whole, the collection conveys both the vigor of thick ink and the grace of thin ink.
詹朴 Apu Jan
London-based fashion designer Apu Jan was trained by Royal College of Art in UK and Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan. He has been showcasing his collections at London Fashion Week for 8 consecutive seasons. Apu Jan is best known for integrating fiction-inspired designs with unique knitwear techniques. The literary themes enable their clothes to appear both real and surreal, while the precise usage of knitwear techniques allow every item to emphasize the wearer’s femininity. The combination of traditional and oriental elements with a contemporary twist, as well as the blend bold elements with a touch of casualness are at the heart of Apu Jan’s unique style, and have become the main hallmarks of Apu Jan.
Apu Jan has earned great positive attention and credits from the international media, and its collections have been featured in many major fashion publications such as WALLPAPER, Vogue UK and Vogue Italy. As well as showcasing at London Fashion week, Apu Jan also participates in Paris Fashion Week, Licensing International in New York, and Fashionclash in Maastricht, Amsterdam. Apu Jan now owns his fashion brand APUJAN. And it's designs can be found in concession shops in Shin Kong Place Suzhou, as well as selected shops in both London and Taipei.
Creation by Apu Jan. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Apu Jan Exhibition Area. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
The Dialogue Between The Lines – Using a variety textile techniques including knitting, printing, and dying, Apu Jan worked to interpret the abstract beauty of Tong’s calligraphic work. With white garments as his canvas, Jan has taken the lines and shades of color that stand at the heart of calligraphy and moved them to a three-dimensional medium in which the calligraphic script now flows around human body. He uses modern design technologies such as dyeing, automatic knitting, and digital printing in his work, as well as the traditional techniques of hand knitting and sewing. His style is one of combining modern techniques with the silhouettes and details of traditional Oriental dress, for example the qi-pau collar or ma-ti sleeves. The free cuts of his garments represent the flow of breath and the possibilities of a blank slate. This collection’s five sets of clothing each offer different medleys of technique and art, but nevertheless connect to form a continuous picture in which the calligraphic lines stretch and expand, thus leaving room for continued creative input.
周裕穎 Yu-ying Chou
Yu-ying Chou is a well-known Taiwanese fashion designer. He pursued a MA in fashion design at Domus Academy in Milan—a period during which he was also the recipient of several major design awards. Upon graduation, Chou worked as a design director in several well-known fashion and advertising companies, while also establishing his menswear label Just In Case. Chou was the winner of the 2014 Fashion in Taipei and 2015 Taiwan ELLE New Talent Awards and chosen to represent Taiwan in Men’s Uno magazine’s 2016 “Next Asian Top 5 Designer.” In September 2016, Chou’s Just In Case was featured in multiple exhibitions held in the fashion capital of Paris, while his SS17 collection was honored at NYFW. The original and breathtaking designs of SS17 caught the attention of the almost 30 international media outlets covering the event and received leading press coverage from WWD, New York Magazine and other top tier publications.
Chou’s design philosophy incorporates humor and is a reflection on the often conflicting elements of Western and Chinese culture. Not surprisingly, “yesterday meets today” and “east meets west” are the main concepts that run through each season’s designs.“Just In Case is a label that does not need too much explaining,” Chou says. “Whether you are Chinese or Western, you will understand the symbolism in the clothing I’ve designed and will smile and listen accordingly.”
Creation by Yu-ying Chou. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Yu-ying Chou Exhibition Area. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Five shades of ink – Yu-ying Chou's main design concept is to use a technique originating from Chinese calligraphy: the five shades of ink. This refers to adjusting the ink with water to bring forth five different shades: charred, thick, dry, pale and wet. This is derived from Chang Yan-Yuan’s "Famous Paintings Through the Ages" where it says: “Work the ink to create the five shades.” This shows the rich malleability and diversity that ink holds. The purpose of this design is to bring the heavily-emphasized brushstrokes and lines in Tong Yang-Tze’s calligraphy into a three-dimensional reality in combination with the layers of light reflecting off the five shades of ink. From Ink to Apparel will resonate with all and its impression will stay with viewers in the days to come. It is if one is seeing calligraphy in action along with the unrestrained attitude and free spirit that is being expressed.
張暘 Kilin Chen
Design label HOMME VAN LAB was founded in 2012 by Kilin Chen while studying at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture in Paris. His brand concept is romantic realization based on scientific spirit; a merging of the precise calculation of human engineering with French cuts and storybook floral creations. Every seasonal collection is an experiment in the philosophies and the arts, a bestowing of fashion with literary cultural depth. Starting in September 2014, HOMME VAN LAB has been a regular exhibitor at Paris Fashion Week and the only Taiwanese fashion brand to be listed in the fashion week’s official catalogue. In April 2015, Kilin Chen’s HOMME VAN LAB was invited by the Shanghai International Fashion Federation to attend Shanghai New Couture Week—one of only two Taiwanese fashion design brands to receive this honor. That same year, Kilin Chen formed a partnership with Elite’s Spectrums Songyan store AXES. At the end of 2015, along with Taiwanese cutting edge dance brand, Allure, Kilin Chen held a fashion/dance crossover exhibition. His 2016 spring/summer women’s fashion line was selected from over 40 of Asia’s top fashion brands to receive the China Good Design's Media Attention Award. In June of 2016, Kilin Chen was invited by Milan’s VIA Showroom in what was a debut for his at Milan’s Fashion Week. For its design philosophy, HOMME VAN LAB looks to find a unique personal expression for every spirit.
Creation by Kilin Chen. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Kilin Chen Exhibition Area. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Galaxy Suite no.1 :Silence Nocturne – A weaving of the most beautiful type of imagination for the art of calligraphy, every stroke and line represents the moving orbit of a planet. Ink shades the whole universe and like the world of Silent Music, it shines revealing a breathtaking view of the human world. Before we were endowed with desire, we were no different from one another. Together we visualize the existence of the larger universe and hear the whispering of the galaxy’s stars. Kilin Chen had combined the haute couture techniques of bias cut and winding with handmade beaded embroidery to transform Tong Yang-Tze’s calligraphy into a map of the stars, while weaving a new musical chapter in the midsummer’s night starry sky.
王舜民 Shun-min Wang
A graduate of the University of the Arts in London, Shun-min Wang worked as a designer for various fashion houses based in Taiwan and Shanghai during which he accumulated abundant industry experience. After working for many years with design and apparel, in 2012, Wang established his own fashion brand fu yue with “culture”, “emotion” and “introspection” as his core design philosophy. Wang is known for using minimalist forms and cuts to create three-dimensional spaces, as well as in the use of asymmetrical details to bring a sense of individuality to his creations.
Shun-min Wang. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Shun-min Wang Exhibition Area. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
Real and Imaginary – Here Tong Yang-Tze’s calligraphy has been divided into two parts: real and imaginary. “Real” transforms into design patterns and “imaginary” becomes the calligraphy’s proportional use and configuration. The characteristics of calligraphy’s practice paper reveal to us the strokes and process of calligraphy. Nylon fabric is light but strong, by re-shaping it, we are able to convey the concepts that inform Tong’s work.
Some of the garments, and a few other items were produced and could be bought in a small pop up store in the back – enabling you to bring home and wear a piece of art, always reminding you of the WDC Taipei 2016!
Limited Edition Souvenirs for sale at the exhibition. Photo Courtesy WDC Taipei 2016.
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About WDC Taipei 2016
"Adaptive City — Design in Motion" was Taipei City's core concept in its 2015 application to host World Design Capital 2016. How can we apply innovative "design thinking" practices to overcome the constraints that limited resources place on our city's development, pursue continual change in our urban governance, create happiness in the lives of our citizens — providing them with a better quality of life in a more livable, forward-looking city? These are the go als for Taipei City. 2016 marks the beginning of an evolution for Taipei, taking advantage of the potential in change by "Engaging Communities," "Connecting Information," an
d "Revitalizing the City." For more information on WDC Taipei 2016, visit the official website http://wdc2016.taipei/en
About World Design Capital
World Design Capital® (WDC) is designated by Icsid every two years to recognize a city's innovative use of design for economic, social and cultural development and to showcase effective design-led urban revitalization strategies that other cities can benefit from. Past cities to hold the WDC title include Torino (Italy) in 2008, Seoul (South Korea) in 2010, Helsinki (Finland) in 2012, and Cape Town (South Africa) 2014. Taipei (Taiwan) is this year's WDC, and Mexico City has just been named WDC 2018. For more information, please visit www.worlddesigncapital.com
