Zhou Hongyu, The Master Of Chinese Hand Sewing Art: The Craftsman Spirit Of Slow Work And Meticulous Work

Ceremonial flourishing. As a state of ceremonies, Chinese people are not only emblem of social status, but also people's customs, attitudes towards life and philosophy of life.

As to how many years history of sewing and weaving in China, archaeologists will come up with the bone needles of the top cave people in Zhoukoudian fifty thousand years ago, 5000 years ago, Longshan civilization set of bone needles, and iron needles in Qin and Han Dynasties. Literary historians will tell you that in ancient times, "the first silkworm goddess", the yuan concubine of Xuanyuan Huang Di, taught people to reclaim silkworms, make clothes, shoes and shoes, and promote wedding etiquette.

Zhou Hongyu, the Chinese hand sewing artist, will take out a series of her works, and lay the front lines of stitching technology in front of you: "from the most traditional way of sewing, inserting and pressing in China, I do not see the stitching of the finished products on the finished products, and it does not need ironing, natural leveling, and no need for natural lining. This has exhausted my half life's efforts."

Iron is an extremely important tool in the traditional sewing process. According to the traditional practice, the seam must be pressed irregularly after the seam is inserted. And at the side of the stove that smoked and burned, the young Zhou Hongyu did not grasp the temperature of the iron very well. It was not that the temperature was not enough, the ironing was flat or the temperature was too high.

"If it doesn't need ironing." Zhou Hongyu thought this way and told her grandmother the idea. "Where is this technology?" Granny was surprised at the time, but she began to talk about it. "But the electric light has not been used before. If you really want to do it, go ahead and study it."

This sentence is a great encouragement to Zhou Hongyu. Since then, Zhou Hongyu has been working on the new sewing method every day: how to use soldering iron and fit comfortably, to meet the needs of all kinds of modeling, and to be more environmentally friendly and beautiful.

After more than thirty years of research and trial and error, Zhou Hongyu finally found that all kinds of special lines, with different materials, plus various needles and certain needles, can achieve the desired effect.

In Zhou Hongyu's studio, there is no need for a shoulder padded suit, a suit without a shoulder pad, a sleeved collar that does not adhere to a natural upright upright dress, a fluffy skirt without lining, a shoe satchel without perfect glue, and so on.

The most amazing thing is that all these clothes and shoes bags can be washed and dried directly. It is very smooth. Inside and outside of the finished products, the stitches are not seen or pressed, and the more washed it is, the more natural it is. "As the clothes will grow, the more you wash, the more natural the line and cloth merge, and the more harmonious it becomes." Zhou Hongyu said. Zhou Hongyu is proud to say that every work is her child. Before starting sewing, Zhou Hongyu needs at least half a month to a month to run on the fabric.

"The physical properties of each piece of cotton, linen, silk, brocade and so on are different. Apart from the material and color that people are concerned about, their inner structure is the decisive factor for the garment effect, such as the strength and texture of the fabric when weaving." Zhou Hongyu said, in addition, she must study the condition before and after the water, find the most suitable material and line model, first go to the special line, then try the details.

When you concentrate on doing things, time is always very fast. Zhou Hongyu's daughter often complained to her mother: "although you are with us, you are not sewing or rubbing cloth or chatting with us." Hearing this, Zhou Hongyu would also feel that she owed her child, but her persistence in cloth and sewing skills always made her unable to restrain herself. Every time she meets the fabric with eyes, she will come back with a small sample, hold it in her hand, rub her knitting texture and strength repeatedly, see the difference before and after the water, design various shapes, and find suitable stitches, sewing threads, and keep experimenting until the cloth can reach all kinds of shapes she thinks of.

Contrary to the trend of industrialization, Zhou Hongyu has always insisted on 100% hand sewing technology. She said: "hand is my most important tool, all the effects are achieved by the mutual strength and angle of these two hands."

Although machine sewing is fast, it has no way to grasp the strength and angle of each needle. Mass production can only be achieved by suturing rather than sewing. In the definition of Zhou Hongyu, "sew well" is that the seam of all kinds of materials can be perfectly smooth without drawing lines, straight, straight, arc, paste, and upright.

The most basic line, arc, and circle are the basic skills of her training disciples: the perfect combination of two pieces of material without drawing a line is the right way to see the right side of the pin with a magnifying glass.

Because strict checks and checks, even if completed 90% of the works sew a little bit, she will be destroyed and redone. "Some people will ask me if I want to destroy the stitch, but why I want to destroy it? But in my opinion, the withdrawal of the needle will affect the physical characteristics of the cloth, resulting in the deviation of the final product, so we must redo it."

It is also for this reason that after so many years, the number of Zhou Hongyu's works is not many, and many disciples have chosen to give up halfway because of her strict requirements for high standards.

"In the field of top-level hand sewing technology, it's really slow work." Zhou Hongyu said, "to customize a piece of work from design to completion, it will take more than six months to make the simplest part, and it will take about a year or so to make the complex garment. Full dress It will probably take a year or two to finish the work smoothly. "

Zhou Hongyu's most proudly present work is a small white silk knitted fabric. The fabric is light white and soft, elastic and easy to deform. However, in Zhou Hongyu's hand, both inside and outside, he could not see a stitch, as if the cloth had naturally grown into this coat. The collar and cuffs felt soft and elastic, and no rough lining was upright.

Experts in the industry and the masters of clothing making in many countries, after seeing it, applaud: "such a large elastic fabric can be leveled without ironing. It is impossible to say that it will not be deformed and wrinkled without any adhesive lining. We have never seen this new disruptive technology. Absolutely can afford the title of "art"!

From the human body measurement, style design, plate cutting, manual sewing, to enter the collection of works, Zhou Hongyu is the whole process. Products are rare and expensive. They are different from the ordinary clothing brands. The long production cycle, the high price of collection works, and the shortage of the market still make Zhou Hongyu very strict with the customers. "All the customers who want to be customized should be guaranteed by the guarantor whom I trust. He can buy them back, wear them as personal favorites, or buy needles." Research. I would like to welcome more people to study and research my hand sewing technology, and also to let people wear clothes that are more comfortable.

In 2002, by chance, Zhou Hongyu met a German collector. He bought a pair of shoes made of half a dozen palm sized shoes at the final price of six figures. Zhou Hongyu said, "I was surprised and asked him why he had such a high price. He said that this is an art treasure enough to be handed down to the world. If he does not get it now, it will be more difficult to buy later.

Sure enough, the German Collector's eye is very accurate. Soon, Switzerland, France, Italy, Austria and other European and American customers have been found. Zhou Hong Wei The products you want to buy are varied, and the price of the other party is higher and higher. In particular, after realizing that the shoes of his opponent had been hurt, Zhou Hongyu no longer sewed up the shoes. The Germans bought them back and became the orphan.

Zhou Hongyu said: "my design of shoes production technology is too complicated, not the vamp and the outer layer, the bottom of the single core is made of more than 10 layers of linen cloth, and the process of each layer is different. Some processes are for comfort, some crafts are for strong, and some are for beauty. The superposition of different techniques is easy to magnify errors. Even though I have been a great apprentice, I sometimes give them 38 yards, and the result is 36 yards. "

In the eyes of industry experts, every piece produced by Zhou Hongyu is "enough to be handed down to the world". Faced with the "olive branch" extended by international brands, Zhou Hongyu chose not to be tempted.

There's only one reason - she wants her to innovate. hand sewing Skills remain in China and serve the world. "We have such splendid civilization, silk, textile and sewing technology also originated in China, but why the top international brands including garments are all in Europe and America?" Zhou Hongyu said that our generation is duty bound to launch an international top clothing brand with "Chinese style" as soon as possible.

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