Shanghai Tang announces its spring/summer 2009 ready to wear collection

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-01-16 09:30

With the release of “Dian Fu”, the Spring/Summer 2009 “Inside/Out” Collection, Shanghai Tang takes iconic Chinese garments turns them on their head, and reinterprets them through a thoroughly modern lens.

The collection is replete with Chineseness, but, as opposed to collections past, the references are subtle and ironic, rather than hit-you-over-the-head statements.

The scholar’s robe, traditionally, a rather magisterial and forbidding garment, has been given a new lease on life in butter soft leather. Moreover, the classic side opening has been supplanted with a convenient front opening placket – a witty commentary on the time-honored cut of classical Chinese robes, which, for centuries, have always opened, asymmetrically, on one side.

The Mao Jacket, an emblem of China’s most tumultuous historical period, is the subject of manifold, new interpretations, appearing, in its entirety or referenced widely throughout the collection in camp pockets or Mao collars: some examples of New Mao are a double-knit jacket, a leather and crochet vest, and a linen blouse with side pockets and Mao collar.

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