This is part of our China's 2015 Year in Review series. For more on 2015 Fashion in review, read our interview with prominent fashion designer and professor Luo Jingjie here.
There is no doubt that 2015 was a very, very fashionable year for China. The country’s fashion industry may have experienced sustained growth for two decades, but this was the year that the world took notice. The smash hit exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, China: Through the Looking Glass, might have had something to do with that (see opposite page), but the rising spending power of Chinese consumers – and their increasingly discerning tastes – played a major role too. This is no longer just the land of cheap counterfeits and shoddy manufacturing. Don’t get us wrong though – we still love a good ‘Channel’ branded bag and hope to see plenty of ‘Berberry’ and ‘Verzace’ tees in 2016 too. Some things should never change.
Just who was hot on China's planet fashion in 2015? And what were the trendiest trends and events that trended? Here's the skinny on the country's most stylish names and trends — some dope, some random, some downright bizarre. That's fashion, we suppose.
1. Angelababy
Hong Kong actress, singer, model and it girl Angelababy broke the Chinese Internet this October when she married actor Huang Xiaoming in a ceremony that could be best described as batshit-crazy expensive. Perhaps looking to upstage her American counterpart Kim Kardashian (the two are often compared for their impressive lack of talent), Angelababy is said to have spent USD31 million on the nuptials – nearly three times as much as Kim and Kanye.
2. Zhang Xinyu
Up-and-coming Chinese actress Zhang Xinyu turned international fashion heads on the red carpet of the 68th Cannes Film Festival this year when she wore a floral cotton quilt reminiscent of the folk-style padded jacket favored by countryside workers in Dongbei. Designed by Hohhot-born designer Sheguang Hu, the gown went viral and its pattern was soon adopted by the meme world.
3. Hu Bing
Hu Bing, aka China’s (the world’s?) hottest man, was no doubt our crush of the year. The country’s top male model is also a part-time singer and actor who just happens to be a former Olympic rower. In spring, Hu was appointed international ambassador for London Collections of Men (the male equivalent of London Fashion Week) by the British Fashion Council, which saw him promoting British style across the world (but mostly in China, really). Man is so hot.
4. The Met digs China (and so does everybody else)
Paying homage to the influence of Chinese culture on Western fashion through a combination of music, film, photography and clothes, China: Through the Looking Glass became the New York museum’s most successful exhibition to date. Its opening night, the famed Met Ball, saw celebs (from China and Hollywood alike) walk the red carpet in China-influenced dresses. Given the risk of cultural misappropriation, it could have been a major taste snafu. But actually, it was ok.
5. That Guo Pei dress
A well-established name in China, haute couturiere Guo Pei made international headlines when Rihanna wore one of her creations to the Met Ball. The gown – which featured an imperial yellow, fur-trimmed cape embroidered with scrolls of flora – took two years to make and weighed 25 kilos. It was compared to a gigantic pizza, a jianbing and SpongeBob, but it put the Chinese designer firmly on the radar of the global fashion industry (which had been somewhat behind).
6. Vogue China turns 10
The glossy magazine turned 10 in September and celebrated with a glitzy 1920s-inspired cover shoot featuring 10 A-list Chinese celebs and captured by fashion photographer Mario Testino. Birthday parties in Milan and Shanghai soon followed, bringing together all the A-listers you’d expect. The publication has established itself as one of Condé Nast’s most commercially successful titles – an impressive feat in a country that, until two decades ago, had no fashion scene to speak of.
7. Sprouts, flowers and other stories
Grassy fashion became all the rage in China this summer, when people around the country (starting in Chengdu) began wearing hairpins in the shape of sprouts, grass, mushrooms and flowers. No one is quite sure why. But unlike most other hair-accessory trends (or specifically, barrette trends), these bean sprout clips were spotted not only on women and kids, but also on men. Taobao sold more than 1 million hairpins, with the fad evolving to include flags, food items and insects.
0 User Comments