Fashion design contest revives traditional Chinese clothing

An international fashion design competition kicked off on May 10 in Jinan, east China's Shandong province. The event seeks to revive traditional Chinese clothing, help build high-end fashion brands, and foster industrial chains in the sector.

The competition is open to university faculties and students majoring in fashion design, as well as independent fashion designers and those working for major fashion brands around the world. Competition entries are required to embody the principles of Confucianism and represent design concepts found in traditional Chinese clothing.

A series of forums will also be held to discuss the design techniques used to make Lujin cloth, which is a traditional handmade floral cotton fabric found in Shandong province. Other forums will discuss the concept of Confucian clothing as well as how traditional Chinese clothing and how colors and styles indicate different levels of propriety.

In addition to the main venue in Jinan, the competition will include parallel sessions in Qufu and Shanghai, connecting Confucius' hometown with China's fashion hub. Combining these historical regions aims to give the world a taste of unique Chinese clothing and the cultural connotations behind them.

As one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization, Shandong is home to a fine Confucian tradition spanning everything from ancient ritual music to exquisite clothing. For this reason, it has long enjoyed advantages in the textile and garment industry.

As such, the competition has pooled resources to develop and support an outstanding and new generation of Chinese designers, help build fashion brands inspired by Chinese culture, and facilitate the industrial transformation and upgrading of the textile and garment industries in Shandong.

All designs for the competition should be submitted online. The final deadline for submissions is July 16 this year, and the winners will be unveiled at the awards ceremony in late September.