In a close-by octagonal pavilion, a man wields his calligraphy brush on paper.

Underneath the bridge, an ancient beauty sits in a boat and gracefully plucks the strings of her zheng, a Chinese instrument.

The setting sun casts a golden glow over the beautiful scene, and light music fills the air.

...

Every detail of this seemingly natural and effortless scene has in fact been labouriously styled by Chinese designer Wu Haiyan.

Sponsored by the China Academy of Arts, Wu designed the scene in the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) style for the staging of her fashion show last weekend.

According to Wu, Hangzhou's West Lake incorporates grace and intelligence. Its sumptuousness of nature is filled with legends, making it the ideal location for her show.

As the easy drum beats of Persian music filled the air, models appeared on the bridge, behind the willows and from the pleasure boats, creating an intoxicating atmosphere reminiscent of a past age.

The theme of the show focused on "oriental silk," the pride of the city and the nation.

The fabric has been Wu's inspiration for years. For this show, Wu designed a collection of 150 silk costumes.

"The collection is about traditional Chinese silk culture and fashion," Wu said backstage after her first West Lake show.

The collection embraced the idioms from both the East and the West, the past and the present. The gently flowing diaphanous silk nightgowns, mainly in black, yellow and the odd leaf green, featured shades of red, white and violet. The decorations were colourful embroideries.

Chinese elements were subtly featured throughout the show, yet did not completely dominate it.

Using the traditional material of silk, Wu fashioned the modern outfits which had turned-up collars, missing sleeves, huge folded flowers and the entire sections of the back cut away to reveal the skin underneath.

As a college student, Wu visited the Dunhuang Grottoes in Northwest China's Gansu Province in 1983. The colourful ancient statues inspired Wu to create a collection focused completely on silk.

"It must be silk. It is something that we Chinese used to be proud of and should continue to be proud of," she said.

As early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), silk was introduced to Europe from China through the ancient silk road. Regarded as the "soft gold" by Europeans, Chinese silk enjoyed its highest position at the time as an oriental treasure.

Hangzhou, the capital of the country during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), has been the main silk producing area in China ever since then and has gradually shaped its own rich silk culture.

During the late 1980s, the West became interested in Chinese silk again. But this time, silk garments were sold at unbelievably low prices because of out-dated designs.

"As a designer, I feel terrible," said the designer.

She said that 100 per cent of the silk materials used for the show were made in Zhejiang, one of the biggest silk producing provinces in China.

"The national spirit plus fashion is a true characteristic fashion of China," she added.

Embroidery, for instance, is one of the most valuable traditional crafts that have been handed down generation after generation from ancient times.

"In every period in history, embroidery varied in techniques, designs and characteristics. As a modern designer, I do not want to lose this traditional craftsmanship," Wu said.

According to Wu, "manual operation plus techniques" and "technology plus art" were the two major elements that she wanted to achieve in the show.

The China Academy of Arts, which sponsored Wu's show, echoed with her vision.

"We have poured much more effort into this show than expected and hope to produce high-graded art to the public, which I think is the top responsibility of our academy," Xu Jiang, planner of the show and president of the China Academy of Arts, said.

According to Xu, Wu's oriental silk-land fashion show is only one of the academy's gifts to the public this year. The academy plans to display a large-scale international sculpture exhibition in a nearby park in Hangzhou early next month. Again, it will be a blend of art and nature.

"For me, the success of a show can only be seen as a new beginning. There is much more to be done in my designing, teaching, researching and marketing," the designer said.

(China Daily October 31, 2001)