Refresh the concept of modern Chinese style
Chen Wen simplifies the traditional Chinese style, using high-quality silk prints, and applies the shapes of Chinese characters to collar types, pocket openings, plackets, and other elements of clothing layout. He also combines traditional Chinese flat cutting with European three-dimensional cutting, which is a major innovation in modern menswear design and a key feature of this release. In this way, he expresses a sense of fashion within the classics, incorporating both Chinese traditional elements and adapting to modern lifestyles.
At this year's Fashion Week, "Saint & Vega" by Chen Wen's 2012 Spring/Summer Menswear Trend Release presented a completely new posture, overturning the conventional style, and refreshed the concept of modern Chinese menswear.
Reported by Ying Shan for China Apparel Network: At this year's Fashion Week, "Saint & Vega" by Chen Wen's 2012 Spring/Summer Menswear Trend Release showcased a brand-new posture, drastically changing the perception of modern Chinese menswear. The designer's bold innovative concepts have once again brought surprises to the design world, marking a turning point and new positioning for the Saint & Vega brand. Saint & Vega displayed the explosive accumulation of years of experience, showcasing the belief of Chinese original brands stepping onto the global stage.
Chen Wen adopted a natural three-dimensional structural cutting method, overcoming the rigidity of traditional Chinese stillness with a dynamic feel, truly conveying the elegance and spirit of Chinese calligraphy and painting in motion.
If someone feels the cultural upheaval and aims to incorporate a touch of cultural essence into a fashion industry, it undoubtedly requires a certain amount of courage. For a company that creates fashion, cultural construction is the mechanism, atmosphere, and relationship of breathing. This time, Saint & Vega did not play by the rules; when they revealed their cards, you would be amazed at how smartly Saint & Vega redefined itself, undoubtedly pushing the brand to a higher level.
"From having methods to being methodless" comes from a classic Chinese philosophical quote, meaning not to be confined by methods, achieving the highest artistic realm where the methodless becomes the method and the infinite becomes the finite. The "Saint & Vega" brand, after accumulating wisdom and elevating its realm over a long period, has stepped out of the traditional Chinese concept, interpreting modern Chinese fashion through Chinese cultural elements. It is a classic fashion, a humanistic form, taking an international route that modernizes and overturns the classical, using ecological fabrics, simple designs, and elegant colors to create Chinese-characteristic, naturally harmonious, and humanistic clothing qualities, abstractly representing the beauty of traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting in a purified and abstract manner, blending with modern fashion trends, transcending formalities, and finding fun beyond them.
Interpreting the "Methodless" Design Theme
In previous collections, Saint & Vega’s clothing identity always centered around Chinese traditional culture, supplemented by modern aesthetic concepts.
For the "Saint & Vega" by Chen Wen 2012 Spring/Summer Menswear Trend Release, the entire collection uses natural cotton, linen, and silk fabrics along with their printed patterns, revealing a natural texture through excellent drape and tranquility. By integrating traditional Chinese elements with contemporary fashionable techniques, it showcases an international design language, inheriting traditions while innovating, presenting both Eastern and Western forms. In books there are paintings, and in paintings there are books, with varying densities and balanced blocks, soft points and lines, all revealing the designer's meticulous planning, displaying the abstract beauty and ink strokes of Chinese calligraphy and painting. Chinese landscape painting is no longer just about landscapes, and calligraphy is no longer just about inscriptions. In every stroke and splash of ink, one can feel the charm and grandeur of flowing clouds and running water.
The "Saint & Vega" by Chen Wen 2012 Spring/Summer Menswear Trend Release reflects summer coolness and the intelligence and cultural taste of Saint & Vega men in this season, whether in fabric or color.
Repositioning the Saint & Vega Brand
Chinese painting and calligraphy art were fully showcased in this release. Design Director Chen Wen interpreted the "methodless" design theme by modernizing Chinese elements. Whether it's the strokes in Chinese characters or the ink tones in traditional Chinese landscape paintings, he deconstructs these elements into design components for clothing. Starting the design process from the fabric is his commitment. Having studied dyeing and weaving art in university, Chen Wen has a special admiration for fabrics, and this expertise is evident in his designs, ensuring their originality. He combines partial strokes from ancient masterpieces with the light and heavy touches of landscape paintings, creating a unique rhythm of ink tones in his calligraphy and landscapes. The fabric itself resembles modern conceptual ink paintings, bearing the imprints of traditional culture while serving as a carrier for modern Chinese-style clothing, showing Chen Wen's exceptional artistic cultivation.
Modernizing with Fashionable Techniques
This release uses elements of traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting, unifying them to develop into fashionable, era-defining Chinese menswear, pursuing the perfect unity of clothing and art. According to the "Saint & Vega" brand's positioning, the 2012 Spring/Summer release is divided into two major series: classic and trendy. The classic series mainly features earthy brown, gray, and white colors, utilizing classic techniques from traditional Chinese clothing such as plackets, frog buttons, handmade Xiangyunsha fabric, and combinations with hemp. It combines printed patterns with plain colors, using elements like connected sleeves, stand collars, set-in shoulders, and slanted fronts from flat cutting to achieve a streamlined, fitted, and smooth silhouette. The trendy series targets modern young people's fashion preferences, featuring three-dimensional structural cuts, subtle styles and structural changes, a summery mysterious blue tone, popular low-rise pants, combined East-West outerwear patterns, and interactions between knitted and woven fabrics, forming a mixed modern Chinese and trendy fashion wearing style. Both fabric and color choices reflect the coolness of summer and the intelligence and cultural taste of Saint & Vega men during this season.