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For fashion history lovers and style addicts, the Chinese
traditional clothes that you find in most of the Beijing markets
and shops can be a harsh disappointment: bad quality silk, sick
flashy colors, poor mechanical sewing, ugly
cuts… At some point, one may
think that during the past decades, the rich Chinese tradition of
luxury craftwork has been forgotten and lost, forever.
As for many things in China, a second look is necessary to
understand that things are not that simple: if
you methodically investigate among the hundreds of thousands of
shops in Beijing, you will realize that some proud craftsmen and
tailors are still there with their skills intact, ready to
perpetuate the tradition (actually, to find them, too often you’ll
have to rely on pure luck, this is not a world that opens itself
easily in full daylight, and guides, mixing everything up, are not
a great help).
Perpetuating the luxury silk weaving and Chinese embroidery
traditions
Mr. Wang Qi (王淇) is one of these people you are
looking for in China, truthful to the thousands of years of a
magnificent Chinese clothing history. Sixteen years ago, he
followed his father steps and specialized himself in Chinese
historical dresses. He owns a workshop where amazingly subtle silk
embroidery is hand-made under the authority of his wife and where
Ming and Qing dynasties weaving machines exact replicas are used to
produce cloths and fabrics.
You can meet Mr. Wang in his shop located inside Gaobeidian classic
furniture village. You could easily miss it, the place has one
storey but is not very large, and is bathed in a soft dim light to
prevent sunrays from damaging the precious
dresses. Do not be afraid and get inside.
Actually, it kind of looks like a Chinese shop as you would imagine
it in a novel about ancient China, with treasures piled at the
corners of the rooms in an apparent mess, an impression which
proves wrong since Mr. Wang can talk in details about every one of
the artifacts that are gathered there.
Qing dynasty nobility genuine collection
dresses
Mr. Wang is a collector of genuine ancient dresses, like his father
before him. Thanks to networks established
through familial tradition, he still can find some original
dresses, sometimes 200 years old and occasionally sells some of
them. Such items are very rare, and the prices are high, you need
at least 70,000 RMB to be able to buy one of those, and the prices
can go up to more than 100,000 RMB. For such prices, it would
probably be wise to have some knowledge about Chinese dress history
in order to precisely know what you are buying, to what extent the
dress is genuine and how it was preserved and restored.
Nevertheless, the least you can say is that the dresses are
magnificent; you can visit Mr. Wang’s shop as a kind of museum and
a rare opportunity to have a direct look on ancient Beijing
costumes.
Ming and Qing dynasties costumes exact
replicas
If your budget is more reasonable, you still can find great
costumes there. Mr Wang and his family craft truthful replicas of
the ancient clothes, most of them in Ming and Qing dynasties’
style. You can find these silk embroidered clothes at prices
beginning at 5,000 RMB, the upper limit depending on the amount of
work that was necessary to achieve it.
Special dresses and replicas can be ordered and tailor made with
the fabrics you wish. Mr. Wang is now more
familiar with Ming and Qing dresses, because these are the more
fashionable among his customers, but depending on your
requirements, he might be able to recreate dresses from other time
periods such as the Tang and Song dynasties.
The most beautiful replicas are processed on demand, because of the
amount of work needed. Mr. Wang
acknowledges that he is now a bit reluctant about producing
replicas of the Imperial family dresses, because of the time that
is necessary to achieve such a work and the unbelievable complexity
of the patterns and embroideries, but anyway, he has already
reproduced some of them, and if you want one, just ask him about
it!
Silk Panels embroidered on both sides
Another type of artifact produced in Mr. Wang’s shop is Chinese
traditional panels embroidered in such a way that they can be
looked at both sides indifferently. The weaving
technique requires very high craftsmanship mastery, and everything
is hand made. These panels can represent various subjects, such as
Chinese traditional patterns, classical paintings or Buddhist
pantheon characters. This is an amazing Chinese
tradition that Mr. Wang and his family perpetuate with pride,
knowing that every one of these panels amounts to months of
work.
A Chinese customer base
Advertisement is not Mr. Wang strong point; his customers come to
his shop because of hearsay and recommendations.
The majority of his clients are very rich Chinese
citizens interested in the revival of the Chinese traditional
culture. Besides, Mr. Wang sometimes works with Chinese museums
such as the Beijing Capital Museum. He seldom does dresses for
Chinese movies since his dresses standards are very high and are
unaffordable in large numbers for most productions, and there is no
Beijing opera dress here, for the same reason that nowadays they
tend to wear cheaper and simpler costumes.
If you are interested, it would be better to come with someone
speaking at least a little bit of Chinese since Mr. Wang English
skills are quite basic. In any case, his shop is really worth a
visit, all the more that it is in the core of Gaobeidian classical
furniture village which makes it a great opportunity to discover
the revival of Chinese luxury craftsmanship around.
耕織堂Gēng zhī tang
北京市朝阳区高碑店古典家具老街101号
Beijing, Chaoyang district, Gaobeidian Classical Furniture Old
Street, n. 101
Tel :
13366661199 (mobile) or 010-85760993
加载中…
(2013-08-06 15:16:30) 
