School of Design, East China Normal University – ECNU

Municipality of Shanghai

Fashion Prism.
On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the friendship city relationship between Shanghai and Milan, the participation of East China Normal University and Shanghai University of Engineering Science in the “Talent to Talent 2024” event serves as a tribute to the profound friendship between the two cities, while looking forward to broader cooperation in the future.

The Shanghai fashion show, themed “Fashion Prism”, employs the multifaceted and refractive qualities of the prism to metaphorically represent the diverse fashion concepts showcased by the two institutions. These encompass the Chinese philosophical concept of “round sky and square earth” (Tian Yuan Di Fang), the mathematical aesthetics of the golden ratio, reflections on contemporary issues such as social distance. The show presents a prismatic expression filled with color and variety by ingenious combinations of various elements, colors, and materials while at the same time deeply intertwining fashion and culture. It also reflects the “Shanghai Spirit” of open-mindedness, inclusiveness, cultural diversity, and pursuit of excellence.

School of Design, East China Normal University – ECNU

School of Design, East China Normal University was established in 2004. It has advanced teaching concepts, first-class teaching faculty, hardware facilities, curriculum and teaching resources, social resources background such as industry enterprises, international university cooperation background, disciplinary reputation and social influence. Now it has 4 undergraduate majors: Public Art, Environmental Design, Visual Communication Design and Product Design, including 10 professional directions: Public Art Design, Image Communication Design, Fashion design, Landscape design, Space and interior Design, Visual Communication, Digital Art, Illustration Design, Animation Design and Product Design, among which Public Art, Environmental Design and Visual Communication Design are three national first-class undergraduate majors. School of Design offers English-taught programs for international students in both undergraduate and postgraduate program. All majors have a “2+2” double degree program for Chinese and foreign students. At present, there are 489 undergraduate students (including 24 students from Europe and America), 279 master students (including 25 international students), and all master majors have “2+1” double degree programs. School of Design has totally 55 faculty members, 21 foreign teachers and 17 corporate designer tutors.

School of Design takes humanistic design, which integrates nature, science and technology, humanities art and business model innovation, as its basic educational philosophy, and takes “1+1+1”, that is, curriculum teaching reform + international school running + practical project teaching system with integration of industry and education, as the starting point of teaching and talent training mode reform. It has formed the School’s characteristics and advantages represented by the results of international school running and the practical project teaching system reform with integration of industry and education. School of Design has won the first prize of Shanghai Education Commission for teaching achievements three times and the second national prize of teaching achievements. The students of the School have won more than 100 international design awards, including the German Red Dot Award, IF Award, and more than 500 domestic design awards, including the National Art Exhibition Design Gold Medal, and a total of more than 300 design patents, including invention patents. The students’ works have been selected for many times to international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale and the Milan Triennale, the Salone di Mobile, the Biennale Internationale du Design de Saint-Étienne, Milan fashion Show and other top exhibitions at home and abroad. School have also held student exhibitions in New York in the United States, Rome, Turin in Italy, Melbourne in Australia etc. Over the years, the employment rate of undergraduate and graduate students in every majors of the School of Design has always maintained 100%, and multiple graduated students have become the backbone of the industry and enterprises, with high evaluation from the employers.

Experimental, practical and requirements for aesthetic quality are the three main characteristics of the School’s teaching, and the integration of teaching, scientific research and social service is the basic framework of the School’s systematic construction. The research of the School mainly focuses on the basic theory research of design and design education and the application research of design. The Literature Research Center of Chinese Modern and Contemporary Design of School has published more than 20 academic research monographs and dozens of academic papers. The Research Center of urban and rural Renewal Planning and Design has completed more than 60 planning and design projects. The market conversion rate of R&D and design project results and the design patent output rate from the integration of industry and education of School have always been among the best in domestic universities. Scientific research and social services have a significant regurgitation effect on teaching, and students have gained real talent in the process of participating in scientific research and project practice.

Collections

Student Name: Yan Ruixuan

Capsule collection title: Only wrinkle can tell?

Concept collection:  The repetitive, craggly sculpture is called Huwawa, the guardian of the cedar forest, and was created by soothteller Varad Marduk. Legend has it that he saw this wrinkled face in the intestines of sheep more than 1800 BC. As a professional soothsayer, his job is to predict the future. In ancient Iraq, the most common method was to study the shape and color of the entrails of the sacrificed sheep. People believe that every feature of an organ has meaning and is a message from God. These features and their meanings have been codified in long academic reference books. It is known that the heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney correspond to the color red, green, yellow, white and black, and different parts of the face correspond to different internal organs. Can we also divine our own fate by the shape, color, undulation, and texture of every inch of our skin or internal organs?

Student Name: Sun Ming

Capsule collection title: golden ratio/1:0.618

Concept collection: Combining classical mathematical aesthetics with modern costume art forms, a series of costumes with the theme of “Golden Section and Fractal art” was created. The Golden Ratio, also known as the Golden Ratio, is a perfect ratio between nature and art that is believed to bring about visual harmony. Fractal art is an art form full of changes and infinite details, which shows the complexity and beauty of mathematics. By fusing these two elements together, experiments are carried out through the design of the plate and the change of the splicing. To break the boundaries between fashion and mathematics and art, to make clothing not only an object to wear, but also a medium of artistic expression. The harmonious aesthetics brought by the Golden Section and the infinite complexity in fractal art complement each other, creating a classic and avant -garde aesthetic. The entire collection is not only suitable for everyday wear, but also a tribute to aesthetics and art.

 

Student Name: He Chen

Capsule collection title: social dimension

Concept collection: The series incorporates reflections on the changing social distances of the present into the design, abstracting the discussion between society and individuals to specific forms in three and two dimensions through the process of dimensional elevation. In modern society, the social distance between people is gradually lengthening. Regarding the concept of social distance, the “class difference theory” and the “subjective psychological theory” proposed by French sociologist Gabriel Tarde and German sociologist Georg Simmel respectively tend to focus on the social and individual levels, arguing that changes in social distance between people depend on the social context or the emotional connections between different individuals. Under this theme, I transformed the invisible contradiction of point-line distances into a classic discussion of two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality in clothing. Using the classic silhouette of the corset that meets society’s expectations for body shape as a three-dimensional image at the social level, and through the use of unconventional materials and special techniques, I handcrafted the corset from a subjective perspective. The three-dimensional clothing covers and compresses the two-dimensional plane while simultaneously giving it a three-dimensional form. The two-dimensional plane shields the human body but provides it with a second layer of information, revealing the transformation between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality from different angles. In this series, the human body also becomes a part of the display, actively or passively forming folds to complete the balanced closed-loop of expression. This series integrates clothing with more artistic expressions, breaking through conventional forms, making the series not only a wearable conceptual performance but also involving the human body as a role to complete the secondary interpretation of the theme.