Ethnic art gets designer boost

Chinese fashion brand Eve takes inspiration from theMiao group to add a rare touch to its products. This, in turn, is helping an old tradition survive. Sun Yuanqing reports.

Tucked away in the mountains, Jidao village is a threehour drive from Guiyang, the provincial capital of Guizhou province. Here, the ethnic Miao people maintain their traditional lifestyle. They live in wooden houses, preserve meat in early winter and hold gatherings at the riverside to remember their ancestors every year.

On the face of it, all this mightseemto havenoconnection with high fashion, but the community has been a source of inspiration for many designers and fashion houses, including fashion brand Eve.

The Chinese brand recently made a trip to the village to make an advertising campaign for its 2017 spring/summer collection, which features Miao embroidery.

Inspired by the sea, the collection features shades of blue on its suits, sweaters and coats. A smattering of embroidery adornstheclassicsuitsilhouette.

The women’s collection includes sleek qipao (traditional Chinese women’s dress) and dresses that highlight nature-inspired embroidery.

While traditional Miao embroideryis intricate, WuChaohui, creative director of Eve’s menswear line, says the brand has simplified it to cater to customers’ modern-day needs.

“Traditional Miao embroidery is usually very rich and exaggerated, while modern menswear is understated. So we try to use it (the embroidery) in a selective, moderated way,” he says.

“We want to revive this heritage by offering it to an urban clientele, and we hope this tradition will live on.”

Eve has been working on a project to preserve Miao embroidery over the past 15 years with a dedicated team that documents the traditional craftsmanship.

It has established a network of craftspeople and their work, and this has been used extensively in their collections and shown at exhibitions and runway shows in Milan, London and Paris in recent years.

Separately, Eve has also formed an alliance with local brands, so that all its members can make use of the database.

In a related development, it has also helped build a museum in Guizhou to exhibit the works of the embroiderers.

XiaHua, founder and chairwomanof theEve Group, says: “These people are preserving their heritage with their hands. I want to share their craftsmanship with the world,