by+Flora+Zhao
New Ingenious ? China Graduate Fashion Week 2015 kicked off in 751D ? PARK in Beijing on May 15th. This fashion creative feast attracted nearly 900 graduates from 32 institutions. Focusing on connecting the new talents with the market and spreading offline platform to online, this years fashion week further strengthened the atmosphere of commerce and innovation.
China Graduate Fashion Week was jointly organized by China Fashion Association, China Garment Association as well as China Textile and Apparel Education Society. From 2015, Shanghai New Ingenious Investment and Holding Co., Ltd. became the exclusive title sponsor of China Graduate Fashion Week.
China Graduate Fashion Week, firstly launched in 2013, welcomed an unprecedented number of college and university participants this year, from the first years 22 to the second years 24 and jumped to this years 32. From May 15th to 20th, there were 30 graduate shows, as well as nearly 40 activities, including forums, lectures, recruitment, contests and award ceremony. “The high engagement of home and abroad institutions suggests the achievements China Graduate Fashion Week has made in building a communication platform among colleges and universities, facilitating the improvement of the quality of talents training and making colleges and universities accept the tests of society and enterprise (employers),” said Mr. Li Dangqi, the chairman of China Fashion Association and committee of China Graduate Fashion Week.
Mr. Li believes the platform needs to break new ground in facilitating the employment of graduates and providing channels and opportunities for enterprise selecting talents and graduates selecting employers. “I hope, through the graduate fashion week, the participated institutions can sort out their own directions and objectives of schooling, work hard to improve faculty resources and focus on specialty,” added Mr. Li.
30 graduates shows, setting up the international day
Of the 32 institutions participating in the New Ingenious ? China Graduate Fashion Week 2015, 29 domestic colleges, which include artistic, comprehensive and specialized colleges, were from 12 provinces and municipalities, covering the main gathering area of Chinas textile and apparel industry. Among them, 12 had presented their works in the graduate fashion week for three years consecutively, and eight gave their debut shows this year. The three foreign colleges and universities were from the UK, Italy and Australia respectively.
China Graduate Fashion Week lasted for six days, with a total of 30 graduate shows, whose scale was far beyond that of the graduate fashion week in UK. At the same time, China Graduate Fashion Week has set up the international day for the first time, on which foreign colleges and universities along with domestic colleges with international cooperation background were to show their talents.
New Ingenious sponsors the building of the creative platform
Shanghai New Ingenious Investment and Holding Co., Ltd. became the strategic partner of China Graduate Fashion Week. As the exclusive title sponsor, Shanghai New Ingenious Investment and Holding Co. Ltd. spared no effort to sponsor this creative social activity from 2015.
Shanghai New Ingenious Investment and Holding Co., Ltd. operates business in multiple industry fields, including self-developed five-star hotels, civil residence, intelligent office buildings and other commercial real estate projects. It also acts as an agent of sales, modification and design research and development business of international high-end brand car in China, and introduces the worlds top Michelin food culture theme restaurant.
China Fashion Association collaborates with Shanghai New Ingenious Investment and Holding Co., Ltd. to build a higher, broader, and more influential platform for the cultural creative industry on the basis of complementary advantages. They will jointly plan and hold a series of fashion culture activities to promote the development of the fashion industry and improve the level of Chinese fashion art education, create healthy growth space for Chinas new generation of fashion designers and increase the innovative ability of Chinese fashion designers.
Forum + Showroom, focusing on commerce and innovation
Besides the graduate shows, there were many other activities, including forums, lectures, talent recruitment, etc. In the fashion week, which helped to create a thick atmosphere of commerce and innovation and further facilitate the connection of post-90 new talents with the market.
Beijing Fashion Forum was held from May 19th to 20th. The two symposiums of the forum, “The expression of cultural confidence in terms of design”and “Cloud customization: the new mode of the fashion industry” were closely related to the current hot issues. Experts, scholars, designers in the field of fashion education and industry delivered speeches with discussions around the two themes. This years forum was jointly organized by China Fashion Association, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and Guangdong International Fashion Research Institute.
The Job Fair of Design Professional, held on May 18th, was larger in scale than the last session, attracting nearly 40 enterprises.
D+Y Showroom was open during the graduate fashion week, where the latest series of young independent designers at home and abroad were presented.
751 Fashion Classes invited designers at home and abroad and senior buyers to give lectures. They shared their experience in innovation and starting a business from aspects of design philosophy and originality as well as the commercial practice and channel building of independent brand. Besides, China Fashion Association training center invited the French draping expert to give a lecture on creative fashion style design.
The 20th Excellent Fashion Graduates Award showing new look
On the evening of May 20th, the most spectacular sessions of the week, New Ingenious ? China Graduate Fashion Week Annual Award 2015 and JOEONE the 20th China Excellent Fashion Graduates Award were held in the Workshop 751D ? PARK. This year marked the twentieth anniversary of the award, and the committee invited representatives of previous winners of the award attend the ceremony.
A total of 49 excellent graduates from 44 institutions in China competed in JOEONE the 20th China Excellent Fashion Graduates Award contest. As the nations only appraisal and selection activity for excellent fashion design graduates, the Excellent Fashion Graduates Award contest set up “Brilliant tailoring ? Dream” as its activity theme for the first time.
This years fashion week also launched online show – “my idea, my dream”micro video prize. The solicitation show, lasting from April 20th to May 28th, welcomeed works from all graduates of the participant colleges, enabling more post-90s young talents to show their design talent and dreams through another stage.