Wuyong HC F/W 08.09 Paris

[Ronchamp]

from WWD.com
For its couture debut, the conceptual Chinese brand Wuyong, designed by Ma Ke, opted for something that looked more like performance theater than fashion, transforming one alley of the city’s Palais Royal gardens into a fashion production chain straight out of rural China. The line went from boxes of cotton seed, greedily picked by Parisian pigeons, to weavers and dyers, and on and on until the final product, modeled by a group of tai chi dancers. The result, made up of naturally dyed and hand-woven pieces resembling functional garb worn by ancestral Chinese peasants, worked as a moment of far-flung fashion poetry.

wwd.com

 

[Ronchamp]

wwd.com

 

[Zazie]

Ronchamps, thanks for the images. Not as stunning as her debut last year, but the fabric looks interesting, like hand-made paper.

 

[Ronchamp]

Ma Ke's anti-fashion couture show
PARIS, July 3, 2008 (AFP) - Ma Ke, the first Chinese designer to be invited to show in haute couture week, used the opportunity to make an anti-fashion statement and stage performance art on the last day of the collections here.

To present her collection which she called "Wuyong" (which means 'useless') in the gardens of the Palais Royal on Thursday she mobilised an army of models, men and women, from youth to grizzled middle age.Wearing homespun loose fitting trousers, gathered skirts and big shirts, they moved slowly in unison to the soundtrack of a wailing voice for half an hour before departing in single file.

While Ma Ke's avowed aim to protect the environment and search for simplicity in clothes can only be applauded, she surely cannot have expected to find a sympathetic audience in the milieu of couture, noted for its extravagance and excess.

Nor did she offer a viable alternative to the mass-produced cheap Chinese clothes flooding world markets with her pseudo-peasant gear, which looked totally out of place in an urban environment.

The most fascinating part of the show was the decor demonstrating the process of cotton from seeds to clothes, with people actually spinning and working looms.

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Photo : Pierre Verdy/AFP
source

 

[Ronchamp]

source

and one more i missed from wwd:

 

[Lackuiew]

Remind me so much of her another brand "EXCEPTION" , and i doubt whether they deserve "Couture" or not , they look comfortable to wear , but toooooo simple , or maybe cheap as well . Anyway , I don't like them .

 

[4n98]

I'm glad to see Chinese designer's work here.
Ma Ke ,jia you!

 

[ysljunkie]

It would be all good unless they plan to charge Couture prices than that would be a total deal breaker.

 

[Bidwell]

The irony, peasant clothing for the rich!

 

[kitty87kat]

This is pleasant, but i prefer last season's presentation and aesthetic.

 

[DevonDevore]

these designs are a major snooze....whats couture about it?

 

[Gábor]

Horribe

 

[craiggy]

is that coutour? just a simple rtw!

 

[bluedolphin]

OMG!! what a show

 

[gius]

these designs are a major snooze....whats couture about it?

it says the clothes are hand-dyed and handwoven ..

i wonder why the designer did it this way
you can create interesting things if you do it by hand.. weave unique fabrics, but these could easily be done by machine imo
but maybe up close, especially with handspun yarn as the article wrote, it has that subtle texture you can't get with machine-made fabrics

The most fascinating part of the show was the decor demonstrating the process of cotton from seeds to clothes, with people actually spinning and working looms.

i wish there were pictures of this ^