Fashion designer Angel Chen graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014 and gained the attention of the press when she was named one of the Top Five Graduates Designers of the Year by i-D magazine. Inspired by acupuncture, a traditional form of Chinese medicine, Chen has created a dress in which embroidered threads and Swarovski crystals represent the acupuncture points on fabric made from waxed paper.
Peng You, Hongchao Wang and Wei Ge, co-founders of New York and Shanghai-based Benwu Studio, have reinterpreted an ancient Chinese meditation technique to create an ingenious installation that lends physical form to sound. Applying the same principle of physics that “singing bowls” use to produce their tone, the installation uses acoustic vibrations to manipulate a swathe of Swarovski crystals, generating ripples and patterns like wind on the surface of calm water.
Selected by Wallpaper* magazine as one of the Best Graduate Talents 2014, Chinese designer Ejing Zhang is one of the most exciting names in textiles and accessories design. Taking inspiration from a host of different sources, including landscapes, tribalism and glass and ceramic art, she manipulates traditional fabrics with Swarovski crystals before casting them to instil the piece with a new form. The elements are then connected with hand-dyed ropes to form truly unique jewellery pieces.
Drawing inspiration from the humble Chinese herb star anise, Hong Kong artist Gloria Yu renders the distinctive ingredient in white and places a black Swarovski crystal at the centre of each one to create an intriguing headpiece. By juxtaposing these contrasting materials, Yu has crafted a piece of armour for the woman warrior that walks the line between East and West, light and dark, and what was and what is yet to be.
Inspired by the love of Chinese scholar stones and other natural rocks, Beijing-based artist and designer Naihan Li has created a wooden light installation in the shape of a quartz crystal rock. This distinctive piece embodies the futuristic floral aesthetic, with some surfaces opening up to reveal the Swarovski crystal lights and fiber-optic wires within.
Shanghai-based womenswear designers Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang, the co-founders of ShuShu/Tong, have created a one-of-a-kind wedding dress inspired by ubiquitous plastic bubble wrap. Using the technique of smocking, a traditional embroidery method practiced since the Middle Ages, the designers have weaved a constellation of glittering crystals through the fabric’s folds to add a subtle and delicate shimmer, giving the dress a contemporary yet futuristic look.
Hong Kong-based architecture design studio Sky Yutaka draws from one of the city’s enduring traditional art forms – paper craft – in this kinetic lighting installation. By challenging a local paper craft master to reinterpret traditional techniques and incorporate finely cut Swarovski crystals, the studio has produced an innovative work that responds to movement in its immediate environment to create dynamic and continually changing lighting effects.
London-based artist Vivien Zhang explores the geographical and social voids of the modern age with this new painting. Bringing together a variety of materials, methods and motifs – including illustrations of Swarovski crystals, abstract brush marks and crumpled aluminium foil – Zhang exposes a range of contradictions and collisions. These ambiguous forms are a reflection of the frictions and contradictions of 21st-century life, and ask questions about how we as humans can assimilate the new and the unfamiliar into our established world order.
Dubbed the “techno fairy” by Elle Decoration and winner of the Swarovski Designer of the Future Award 2015, Elaine Yan Ling Ng founder of The Fabrick Lab is renowned for merging nature, technology and traditional techniques in her work. With The Katoptron, the designer takes her cue from the ancient form of mirrors, combining handcrafted textiles from Guizhou's ethnic minority groups with hand-spun materials and Swarovski crystals. She then uses this newly engineered textile composite, which she calls “Crystal Rock's Lace”, to create a tabletop that changes according to how light travels through it, offering the spectator different views depending on their angle of vision.
Award-winning menswear designer Wan Hung Cheung has drawn on one of the most famous events in 20th century Chinese history – the “Long March” of 1935 – to create this eye-catching piece. Taking the straw shoes in which the Chinese Red Army walked thousands of miles as his starting point, Cheung has combined the structure of the Chinese Terracotta Army’s armour with the hand-weaving techniques of traditional straw shoes to create a pair of over-the-knee unisex boots adorned with hand-sewn crystals.
Beijing-based artist Xie Dong is known for crafting works that explore the concept of seizing the ephemeral, and in ‘Capture the Moment’ she presents a ceramic vessel inspired by the movement of water. Irregular in form, the inside of the piece is partially encrusted with Swarovski crystals, recalling the appearance of glistening water droplets.
In celebration of Lane Crawford’s 165th anniversary, we are collaborating with Swarovski to present the “Visions From A New Generation” exhibition at the Shanghai Times Square Store from October 13 to 20, 2015.
Showcasing works by a new generation of Chinese creatives, the exhibition explores their vision of the future of fashion, art and lifestyle through their respective fields of expertise. Each of the unique pieces is inspired by traditional crafts, materials and culture and incorporates Swarovski.
