The London – Beijing Fashion Olympics

 

Trip to Beijing, China

         

 

International Fashion Futures 2006/2007

 

 

 Students from the Beijing Polytechnic of the Second Light Industry are working with students from across London to design and produce original outfits to be worn at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The project is an initiative of British educational institutions Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, Fashion Awareness Direct, and Newham College, who are working to bring fashion students from London and Beijing closer together.

 

 

 

 The project is inspired by the Olympic spirit of fraternity and the special relationship that Beijing and London have as consecutive hosts of the next two Olympic Games. Its objective is to introduce British design principles to Chinese education and for participants to learn from each other’s strengths.  In this spirit, students will follow a design brief inspired by the long history of exchange between China and Britain – “Trading Across the Waves – Silk, Porcelain and Tea.”

 

 

 

 Students in both countries will collect images of artefacts relating to the silk, porcelain and tea trades between China and Britain – objects in museums, family possessions or items in shops or markets – and investigate their shapes, colours, patterns, motifs and materials. Inspired by this research, they will design a trendy, informal, modern outfit to be worn at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.  They will display the results of their work and exchange ideas on a website which will be specially set up for the project.

 

 

 

 Five members of staff from the UK partner organisations visited Beijing between 29^th October  and 5^th November 2006.  They worked in partnership with the Polytechnic’s Chinese teachers to introduce the project and to run some practical workshops in figure drawing and design development.  The students were encouraged to be as creative as possible and the classes were a great success – the British teachers were very impressed by the enthusiasm and responsiveness of the Chinese students, and by the quality of the work that they produced.

 

 

 

 So far, the collaboration between the UK and Chinese colleges which began in April 06 has been an unqualified success. The Beijing teachers will visit London next January to see the British workshops in action and to learn more about British design education.

 

 

 

 Subject to funding, selected Beijing students will attend the final stages of the project in London in July 2007 – a Summer school to make up the designs, and a fashion show, which it is hoped will be staged in London’s Millennium Dome.