China is known as the "Kingdom of Clothing", and its clothing culture has a long history. However, the development of clothing in the past 100 years has ups and downs, exchanges and fashions. Historically, the change of clothing is mainly driven by two motives, one is regime change, and the other is fashion exchange. Looking at the history of clothing development in China, if we read a history of China culture, the changes of social culture, artistic thoughts and aesthetic concepts are all revealed through clothing. Since the abolition of the feudal system in the Revolution of 1911, the dress system and dress regulations that lasted for thousands of years have also been abandoned, and China's clothing has changed from the two main lines of development in the past, the palace and the people, to the development stage of folk fashion exchange.

The development of clothing tells us that the fashion communication of clothing is multi-angle and all-round, both between local cultures and between Chinese and foreign cultures; It is both horizontal and vertical. The fashion exchange of clothing culture in the true sense of this century can be said to have started in the 1920s, mainly due to two reasons. First, a large number of international students brought overseas dress concepts and methods when they returned to China, so that some progressives took off their robes and jackets and put on western-style dresses; Secondly, influenced by Hollywood film culture and Shanghai-style clothing from the United States, women in Shanghai metropolis dress up as "modern girls" one after another, pursuing authentic Shanghai-style westernization, wearing long and narrow skirts, oval glasses, watches, purses and umbrellas, which are very popular in Shanghai and fashionable women are eager to follow suit. At the same time, cheongsam is also favored by women. At this time, cheongsam also changed the traditional style. Its shape is waist line, long hem, revealing body curve, slit improvement and lace inlay, and the collar type is low before and high after. Especially when worn on some female movie stars and celebrities, it shows a delicate and elegant demeanor and immediately becomes the representative dress of new women of all ages. Later, cheongsam appeared in the form of sleeves, placket and pipa placket. According to different seasons and requirements, it is divided into single, clip and coat, and the sleeves are also long, medium, short, loose and tight. It can be seen that the development of clothing is based on fashion culture, the replacement of the times, the expansion of culture and art, the deepening of people's understanding and emotion, and the aesthetic needs constantly put forward new requirements for clothing. Therefore, the shape of clothing is constantly being renovated to reproduce the new look of fashion culture. The same clothing modeling will be endowed with new elements and different connotations in each period.

Food, clothing, housing and transportation are the necessities of international people's livelihood, and fashion communication is the necessity of clothing. During this period, Sun Yat-sen, as a marshal, attached great importance to people's livelihood and regarded "people's livelihood" as the core of his Three People's Principles. He even personally participated in the reform of clothing. The first tunic suit was born in Rongchangxiang woolen suit shop in Nanjing Road, Shanghai. The owner of this shop, Wang, has made clothes for Dr. Sun Yat-sen many times. At that time, Dr. Sun Yat-sen gave the students' clothes brought back from Japan to Boss Wang for restructuring. On the basis of referring to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's ideas, Boss Wang combined the styles and cutting methods of student clothes with suits. Its modeling features are: folding collar, single row of 7 buttons, upper and lower patch pocket, the upper patch pocket structure is folded in half with two decorative lines, and the upper patch pocket cover is an inverted mountain-shaped pen holder, which means that the victory of the China revolution must rely on intellectuals, and the lower patch pocket structure is a hidden seam three-dimensional structure. The appearance of Chinese tunic suit is especially respected by progressives and intellectuals, and it lasts for a long time. However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, under the influence of fashion culture, especially Lenin's clothes, there have been new changes in style, such as lapel and pointed collar, single row of 7 buttons changed to 5 buttons, and upper and lower patch pocket were simplified on the original basis. In 1950s, Tian Atong, a special craftsman of Beijing Hongdu Fashion Company, made clothes for Mao Zedong, the leader, on the basis of the Zhongshan suit. In order to reflect Chairman Mao's tall and mighty figure and extraordinary bearing, the generals, sleeves, pockets and front and rear boards were revised and adjusted again, making them more atmospheric and noble, and strengthening the new characteristics of its oriental culture. Therefore, major central governments, such as Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, etc. , are wearing this kind of clothing which is called Mao Zedong style by overseas media. And this kind of wool clothing also influenced the later marshal clothing modeling.

In the clothing development of China in the past hundred years, the last 20 years have been the most prosperous period in terms of fashion communication. With the reform and opening up and the revival of economy and culture, the rigid nerves of people who just came from the turmoil of 10 began to sprout. People have no choice but to find that the dress of 10 that was submerged in the "green ocean" was really forced to do it in a very special political environment, because it is human nature to love beauty. With the opening of the door of reform and opening up, people's aesthetic consciousness and vision are also opened. At this time, the national leaders once again acted as pioneers in the reform of clothing culture. When General Secretary Hu Yaobang and five The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) collective suits and ties appeared at the press conference of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, people were shocked and felt that another spring of China clothing culture had arrived. As a result, suits, jeans, skirts and other clothes with global colors are worn on people through time and space.

1985 is a landmark year for the development of China's clothing, and the substantial fashion and communication between China and foreign countries in the new period began. In May this year, three international fashion designers came to Beijing, the capital of China, for fashion exhibition and display. Yves Saint Laurent held a "25-year retrospective exhibition of his personal works" in China Art Museum, which showed us the classic works in his 25-year artistic career and explored the development track of world fashion art. Saint Laurent wrote in the preface of the exhibition: "China has always attracted me, and what attracted me was the culture, art, costumes and legends of China ... Our western art was endowed by China, and its influence was various and obvious. Without China, our civilization will never reach its present state. " Saint Laurent's sincere language allows us to truly see the exchange of Chinese and western cultures in his three series of Chinese clothing works. Pierre Pierre Cardin first came to Beijing to hold a large-scale personal fashion exhibition in June 1983, and then held another personal fashion exhibition in Beijing Workers Gymnasium in May 1985. In 100 sets of his unique works, we have witnessed Cardin's artistic talent and management. Junko Koshino also held a fashion exhibition named "JK" in Beijing Hotel in May 1985, which made us admire the economic development of Japan and impressed the prosperity of Japanese clothing. Wearing the cheongsam presented by Ms. Li Zhao, President of China Garment Association, and looking at the state-owned garment enterprises and a few new garment enterprises in Beijing, Jun Kokoshino said, "I am full of hope for the future of China". Then her clothing branch opened in Qianmen zhushikou 1986.

Obviously, 1985 has shocked clothing enterprises and designers in Beijing since the reform and opening up, and also broadened their artistic horizons. Inspired by the international exchange of clothing culture in the new era, they began to face the diversified development of clothing culture and think about the new direction of China's clothing development. A large number of clothing enterprises and designers started the road of clothing entrepreneurship with this as the driving force. While struggling clothing enterprises and designers have not gained a firm foothold, some well-known foreign clothing brands have entered the China market one after another to seize a place in the corresponding clothing culture field, which makes the already fragile clothing culture and the operation of the clothing market lose discipline, and also makes unprepared clothing enterprises and designers confused and at a loss. The harsh facts sober up the emerging clothing enterprises and designers. The overall prosperity of clothing culture is based on an all-round and multi-directional clothing development system, which includes the maturity and perfection of clothing culture, clothing theory, clothing design, clothing technology, clothing market, clothing management, clothing education, clothing media and clothing information network.

1April, 1993, the Beijing International Fashion Expo opened, and the project of famous teachers and famous products in China started. Later, Dalian Fashion Festival and Shanghai Fashion Culture Festival were held, and various national fashion design competitions were held. 1993 fashion designers' association was established, and fashion designers' associations in various places were also established one after another. All kinds of measures and means make the national fashion designers spring up like mushrooms after rain, and on this basis, through the annual "top ten fashion designers selection" to choose the best. Therefore, Zhang Zhaoda, Wang Xinyuan, Wu Haiyan, Liu Yang and Wu Xuewei are at the forefront of fashion designers. At the same time, a large number of famous clothing brands have attracted the attention of the society.

We advocate famous brands with accurate market positioning and call for famous teachers with distinctive personality and unique style.

It should be pointed out that because our clothing culture system is not perfect enough, positive factors and negative influences coexist in the multi-directional fast-paced fashion communication. Accurately speaking, since the reform and opening up, we have been in a passive state when western clothing culture has penetrated into us. Clothing enterprises and designers have lost their own cultural values while pursuing western clothing culture and fashion. This kind of master-slave relationship, the order from beginning to end, was established inadvertently. Obviously, western clothing developed countries, mainly France and Italy, with their strong cultural advantages and industrial strength, quickly launched an impact on our clothing culture and became the dominant clothing culture everywhere. We say that the fashion and dissemination of clothing culture should be carried out on the basis of freedom, equality and harmony, rather than blindly following and passively accepting. This tendency is revealed in the trend of casual wear that has just cooled down. Fundamentally speaking, the enthusiasm for casual wear is a countermeasure based on the rebellious psychology of long-term formal dress. As we all know, what we call the international clothing culture system is developed with the western clothing culture as the main line. It is precisely because of this that westerners have extremely strict rules on dress in various cultural places. Over time, people gradually have a rebellious attitude towards long-term formal attire. In addition, the alienation brought by the high mechanization of society makes people tired of the tense and monotonous lifestyle and yearn for a relaxed and natural life in their hearts. This cultural mentality is reflected in the dress, which leads to the craze of casual wear. Loose modeling, natural fiber materials and pastoral colors make people enjoy a natural, warm and distant feeling. Our present situation is that the clothing culture is still in the development stage, the aesthetic system of clothing is not perfect, and even some people don't even have the basic knowledge of formal dress, and the real connotation of casual wear has not been understood. In this state, a leisure trend is ushered in. Therefore, our leisure trend is not pure enough, so some people wear shorts to go in and out of concert halls and art galleries to seek the enjoyment of beauty, which is obviously a misunderstanding of the cultural exchange of clothing.

In the process of clothing development, it is often a tendency to cover up another tendency. Fashion wave followed, clothing sales channels were unimpeded, and consumers' purchasing power was increasing. However, this superficial prosperity does not mean the real prosperity of clothing culture, in fact, it is often a reflection of cultural nothingness. In our clothing market, we can see that the works of some famous brands and famous designers have been copied into cheap and low-grade products, a large number of mid-range clothing are sold at a discount, and various clothing promotion methods have cast a sad shadow on the seemingly fiery clothing market.

Clothing culture should not become the fuel of arty and flashy atmosphere, after all, it can avoid vulgarity, maintain its due elegance and cultural taste, and return to the aesthetic and practical functions of clothing itself.

In addition, we don't have to exchange clothing culture at the expense of our own national culture. Especially since the reform and opening up, China's costume culture has indeed made great progress, but we have to admit that while blindly pursuing western trends, traditional cultural factors have been diluted, and in the process of blindly aligning with international costumes, national costume culture has gradually been replaced. This tendency to pretend to be the master is by no means what we call the cultural exchange of clothing. At the same time, the successful experience of Japanese clothing culture in this respect also needs us to study and learn from it.

Fortunately, the upsurge of oriental culture in the international fashion industry is getting stronger and stronger recently. With the improvement of China's political status and the development of social economy, science and technology, more and more western artists and designers look to the East. China's national culture and minority culture are regarded as the new birthplace of fashion art, especially the classic costumes such as Chinese tunic suit, cheongsam, Tibetan, Dai and Yi costumes have become the main content of clothing cultural exchange, which has made the neglected tradition and national culture find its due value again. At the same time, the exchange and infiltration of Chinese and foreign costume culture at the turn of the century will undoubtedly be a good opportunity to revitalize Chinese national culture.

After a hundred years of ups and downs, China's clothing culture is about to enter the 2 1 century with a brand-new look, and will surely get greater development in the exchange of various cultural forms and artistic styles in the new century.