National wind + digital technology traditional silk industry to open the development of new “silk” road

Shirt with horse face skirt, graduation dress with cloud shoulder, modified cheongsam with knee-high boots, Song Jin jacket with wide-legged pants.

Shirt with horse-faced skirt, graduation dress with cloud shoulder, modified cheongsam with over-knee boots, Songjin jacket with wide-leg pants. Nowadays, new Chinese style outfits are frequently popular, and silky is integrated into the daily life of the public. Looking deeper into the industry, the national style craze has not only boosted the clothing market, but also driven a traditional industry from history-silk.

Silk woven by a silkworm is a "specialty" of China's "export" to the world. Since the opening of the "Silk Road" more than 2,000 years ago, this "specialty" has gained batches of fans from east to west, from ancient times to the present. But at the same time, as the "noble" in textiles, silk is also regarded as a symbol of nobility and elegance. Many people's impression of it remains on "high-end", and the demand market range is relatively narrow.

Facing the new situation, how can the traditional silk industry, which has come from thousands of years ago, be "woven" into modern life and regain new vitality? In Zhejiang, starting from the application of silk and technological innovation and upgrading, the reporter tried to get a glimpse of the "code" of its industrial growth.

From admission notices to clothing, silk is "woven" into daily life

In July, as the college entrance examination came to an end, many universities began to "make it up" and release new admission notices. This year, in Zhejiang, the new version of the admission notice released by Zhejiang University of Technology attracted the attention of many netizens.

The name of the notice is "Splendid Future", which integrates the three intangible cultural heritage skills of "Song Brocade, Suzhou Embroidery, and Painting and Calligraphy Mounting". The Song Brocade woven by digital technology is used as the base, and the names of the new students are embroidered by the inheritors of the intangible cultural heritage. At the same time, it is mounted using the "painting and calligraphy silk mounting" process, which is conducive to students' collection.

"This intangible cultural heritage admission notice is not only a certificate of admission, but also an artistic masterpiece that carries history and culture." Liang Lin, director of the Admissions and Employment Guidance Office of Zhejiang University of Technology, introduced.

"I want to take the exam again, just for this certificate", "Local characteristics, such a notice is worth collecting for a lifetime", "The combination of inheritance and craftsmanship is of extraordinary significance"... Under the display video of the new version of the admission notice of Zhejiang University of Technology, many netizens commented like this.

Not only Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, this year, the admission letter for undergraduates of Fudan University also uses the national intangible cultural heritage Lu silk weaving craft fabric as the cover, integrating campus characteristics with intangible cultural heritage and showing classical aesthetics.

A letter of admission is not only a good blessing from the school to freshmen, but also one of the scenes of the integration of traditional silk industry into modern life. In recent years, from admission letters to clothing and cultural and creative products, silk, which was once regarded as the "aristocratic" of textiles, is appearing in the lives of the public in various forms.

"My impression of silk used to stay on my mother's scarves and pajamas, which I thought was a bit old-fashioned. I didn't expect that I'm "really fragrant" now." This year, driven by the "new Chinese style" dressing, 26-year-old office worker Ms. Shen has become fascinated by various silk-woven clothing.

From the new Chinese style Song brocade jacket, national style satin wide-leg pants to mulberry silk dresses, Ms. Shen has added many items to her wardrobe. "Every one is very beautiful. When I put it on, I feel that my temperament has come up all of a sudden. It is fashionable and noble." Ms. Shen told reporters.

The reporter noticed that in addition to clothing, silk coasters, embroidered bookmarks, brocade notebooks and other silk cultural and creative products have also emerged in an endless stream in the past two years. The exquisite appearance and cross-border fresh matching have successfully attracted a group of "appearance fans".

The "cultural flavor" is getting stronger and stronger, and the national style is heating up the traditional industry

For consumers, this is an aesthetic feast, and for people in the industry, this is a signal that the silk industry is heading for spring.

"The silk industry is on fire!" Yao Chen, a professor at the School of Fashion, Zhejiang University of Technology, who has been engaged in silk industry research for more than 30 years, has sensed the new trend of the industry. Taking the clothing market as an example, from the previously popular Xiangyunsha single product to the Songjin that is hard to find by the end of 2023, the popularity of the national style is "heating" this market.

"In clothing markets such as Shenzhen Nanyou and Hangzhou Sijiqing, whether it is national style silk or silk interwoven stalls, many buyers gathered in 2023. National style has driven a new wave of silk, and the market has recovered significantly." Yao Chen said frankly, and behind this phenomenon, there is not only the promotion of trends, but also the efforts of silk enterprises to transform and upgrade for many years.

Located on the coast of the East China Sea, Zhejiang is not only one of the export channels for silk, but also one of its important production areas. It is known as the "Silk House" and its silk industry has a history and cultural heritage of about 5,000 years. The Qianshanyang site in Huzhou has unearthed the earliest domestic silk fabrics discovered in the world so far. In Hangzhou, the reputation of "half of the West Lake and half of the silk" has made it another business card of the city.

Zhejiang attaches great importance to the development of the silk industry. In 2015, Zhejiang proposed for the first time to inherit and develop historical classic industries, integrating silk with tea, rice wine and other industries, and issued corresponding development guidelines. Among Zhejiang's historical classic industries, silk revenue accounts for half of the country. However, looking back at its development history, silk has actually experienced a long period of downturn due to the influence of modern industries such as imitation silk.

"In the past, silk categories were relatively single, basically pajamas, silk quilts, bedding and other household products or silk scarves, and the fabrics were easy to wrinkle and difficult to take care of, and were not competitive compared with chemical fiber imitation silk products." In Yao Chen's view, solving the problem of silk being easy to wrinkle and difficult to take care of, and making it machine washable, is one of the keys to promoting the integration of silk products into the lives of the public.

Another "code" is to take advantage of the trend and launch diversified products to broaden the consumer group. "In the past, silk was often used as gifts and home clothes. With the advent of national style, it slowly radiated into the daily lives of the public in the form of trendy clothing, cultural creation, etc." Yao Chen explained that there are more and more style choices and the "cultural flavor" is getting stronger. In her opinion, this is one of the reasons for the recovery of the silk industry.

The surge of national style has driven the younger generation of consumer groups, and the consumer groups are clearly segmented, and the category design of silk has never stopped. "From the perspective of the new Chinese trend, more than 10 styles can be decomposed, such as the Chinese old money style and the Qianjin style." Yao Chen said that the subdivided styles meet the diverse needs of consumers.

At the same time, because of cultural empowerment, silk is also welcoming a group of "two-way" consumers. "The national style has driven the consumer's enthusiasm for intangible cultural heritage and traditional Chinese arts and crafts culture. Many young groups are willing to pay for the price, breaking the price bottleneck of silk luxury."

How to tap cultural elements? Digital empowerment solves industry pain points

With the formula of "historical classics + national style life + trendy culture", Zhejiang's silk industry is breaking traditional barriers and better rushing to consumers.

But from the results, when digital empowerment becomes one of the driving forces for the development of the entire industry, this industry is also facing new challenges: How to tap traditional culture? How to integrate cultural connotations into products?

At the Zhejiang Historical Classic Industry Boutique Exhibition held earlier, a touch of sky blue attracted many visitors to stop and appreciate. This Hanfu named "Tianqing Chenglu" not only shows the oriental charm of silk as a historical classic industry, but also contains the charm of the era of digital empowerment. Its author is Yao Chen.

"Tianqing Chenglu" is a typical product that integrates digitalization and physical objects. To some extent, it is also a typical case of digital technology empowering the silk industry. "We selected Song Dynasty painting patterns and integrated AIGC and STYLE 3D high-simulation digital sample technology to solve the "bottleneck" problem faced by Zhejiang silk companies." Yao Chen told reporters.

At present, the national style is hot, and the excavation of cultural elements is the focus of silk company product development. Among them, the efficiency of product development determines whether the company can quickly grasp the market trend.

But in contact with companies, Yao Chen found that the ability of talents to interpret and excavate culture is the "shortcoming" of many small and medium-sized companies. For current traditional silk companies, even a designer with many years of design experience may not have enough energy or deep excavation of culture in the work of cultural interpretation and design transformation.

Take the production of a silk fashion as an example. In addition to design, a company also needs a sample garment combination of "pattern maker + pattern assistant + sample garment worker". It takes about 5-7 days from making the first set of patterns to finalizing them. Among them, multiple labor costs, multiple pattern revisions and sample garment adjustments, plus wear and tear are all costs that the company needs to bear.

The AIGC and STYLE 3D technologies used in "Tianqing Chenglu" are exactly the problems of cultural material design and high-efficiency pattern making. "In production, we use AIGC to capture and input past patterns, and by inputting relevant elements of Song Dynasty paintings such as "Listening to the Qin" and "Eighteen Scholars", we generate graphic patterns that integrate ancient and modern times according to design instructions." Yao Chen explained that after the company generates digital pattern materials from AIGC, STYLE 3D performs digital simulation of fabrics and digital pattern making, and generates digital samples. Users can intuitively view the details of patterns, craftsmanship, fabrics and styles, and designers can also optimize and adjust the above items directly on the computer as needed, greatly improving efficiency and effectiveness.

"Enterprises are very convinced of the effect of digital empowerment. A piece of casual clothing can basically reduce time and financial resources by 50% or more." She revealed that with the help of digital empowerment, a digital art designer can basically develop 5-7 ultimate single products such as new Chinese vests in a day.

Whether it is digitalization that helps enterprises accurately match industry supply and demand, or using big data to judge hot elements, etc., digital empowerment is currently injecting vitality into the traditional silk industry.

It is worth noting that in promoting the inheritance and development of the traditional silk industry, the Zhejiang government, universities, and enterprises are working together. Taking the Huzhou Research Institute of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University as an example, at present, Huzhou's traditional silk enterprises are mainly engaged in silk fabric processing and production, and the brand effect needs to be strengthened.

In view of the current situation of the local silk industry, Yao Chen, as the concurrent dean of the research institute, insists on promoting the extension of the industrial chain with the new quality productivity model of "silk + culture, technology, digital, and talent" with local governments, associations, and leading enterprises, and combines Huzhou's profound silk cultural heritage to build a new silk smart and beautiful lifestyle.

"This year, we and Huzhou are planning to build a sample silk cultural industrial park that brings together hundreds of silk companies. From primary to tertiary industry, from culture, creativity, production to live streaming e-commerce, we hope to work together through industrial integrated bases to form a closed-loop full industrial chain." Yao Chen revealed that government support, university assistance, corporate response, and the cultural confidence demonstrated by the national style craze make her feel that a new round of spring for the silk industry has begun again, "We as silk people are full of confidence."