Shiatzy Chen’s Autumn Winter ’25 assortment at Paris Style Week was an exploring of the ten varieties of Miao Embroidery
Courtesy Shiatzy Chen
China’s intangible cultural heritage has been making its presence felt within the trend trade at residence. Now, it’s leaped to Paris Style Week.
On March 10, Shiatzy Chen’s Autumn Winter ‘25 assortment featured 10 varieties of Miao Embroidery produced in collaboration with 7 intangible heritage artisans.
Miao embroidery is acknowledged as a registered observe and dates again over 1,000 years. Historically, it’s handcrafted by Miao ethnic ladies who use advanced methods to create elaborate motifs in vibrant colours impressed by nature, mythology, and every day life. It’s not only a ornamental artwork type, it’s a medium for recording historical past, presenting beliefs, and telling cultural tales which can be handed intergenerationally.
China has quite a lot of purposes that fall below the heading of intangible cultural heritage (ICH): music and sure stringed devices; performing arts akin to opera; festivals just like the Dragon Boat Competition; even culinary methods and medical methods. The time period additionally covers conventional crafts like spinning and weaving to dying and embroidery which have been making their mark on the home trend trade and, of late, the wonder sector. Even worldwide luxurious manufacturers akin to Loewe, Dior, and Louis Vuitton have all leaned into ICH of their campaigns and merchandise.
Fashions within the showspace at Shiatzy Chen’s Paris Style Week runway
Courtesy Shiatzy Chen
Shiatzy Chen’s collaboration shouldn’t be a brand new endeavor. Relatively, it’s a part of the model’s long-standing dedication to exploring and preserving conventional craftsmanship and its wider cultural dedication. The Taipei-based model’s love affair with IC started over a decade in the past throughout a visit to Guizhou the place Wang met 12 Miao embroidery artisans.
“Translating tradition into type lies on the core of our imaginative and prescient,” explains Wang, framed by towering authentic prints—every echoing a unique Miao legend—that adorn the venue. “In right now’s globalized world, many of those crafts are vulnerable to fading away. We are attempting not solely to protect these traditions however to reimagine them in modern kinds.”
After a chance arose to collaborate with the Guizhou authorities, a singular partnership was born. Nonetheless, in Guizhou, these expert in Miao embroidery are extremely valued making it a sophisticated course of to convey artisans out of the area, a fancy endeavor. Ultimately, the 12 artisans had been invited to the model’s embroidery atelier in Shanghai for an change with Su embroidery. Greater than a technical dialogue—it was a cultural change the place traditions met and imaginations sparked.
A gown that includes tin embroidery on the Shiatzy Chen runway at Paris Style Week
Domlnique MAITRE
This season, the outcomes had been delivered to life by a various solid of fashions who strode furiously down the runway to The Remedy’s A Forest. Right here’s a information to a few of the methods proven within the assortment on the Palais de Tokyo.
Tin embroidery
Tin Embroidery is an ICH method that makes use of tin sheets, every 2 mm extensive, to sew on the material. Miao folks would, historically, solely apply tin embroidery on materials and routinely in geomatics and linear designs. This season, the model had some vital breakthroughs on this method. “We reimagined it to create intricate, delicate motifs which had been utilized on leather-based for the primary time,” Madame Wang defined after the present. On the runway, tin stitches might be seen on coat collars and the hems of night put on attire.
Element of Horsetail sew in Shiatzy Chen’s Autumn Winter ’25.
Courtesy Shiatzy Chen
Horsetail Sew
That is an ICH method that makes use of horsehair strands as threads and was a selected spotlight within the assortment. “In Miao tradition, this craft carries deep symbolic which means, representing blessings, resilience, and continuity,” Wang shared. It was utilized in delicate butterflies on blazers and on quilted outerwear.
Pilling Sew
This very advanced and time consuming method makes use of silk material as an alternative of thread. The silk is reduce into small triangular items, folded and layered outward, making a wealthy and three-dimensional texture with vibrant colours.
Element of pilling stitches from Shiatzy Chen’s Autumn Winter ’25 assortment.
Courtesy Shiatzy Chen
Reduction Sew
Reduction Sew options reducing and layering methods which create raised sculptural results. Totally different material layers are embroidered collectively to create depth. It might often be seen on the collar or hem of Miao clothes.
Break up line
Break up line sew is the place threads are cut up and re-stitched to create easy colour gradients, enhancing the delicacy of embroidery. It’s typically utilized in motifs like florals or feathers to create a tender, elegant look. It was seen on the runway in a vibrant blue cape.
A coat that includes cut up line stitching on the runway at Shiatzy Chen’s Paris Style Week present
Domlnique MAITRE
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