A legend from the Miao, an ethnic group mainly living in southern China's mountains, entitled "Ribbon Maiden", recounts the vicissitudes of a Miao girl.
The emperor desired her since he was enchanted by her beauty and embroidery skills, and promised to release her if she created for him a living being made of embroidery. She created a rooster, a partridge and a dragon and gave them life with her own blood. But the creatures attacked the emperor, destroying him.
The focus of this story is a craft - Miao's embroidery - which is different from traditional Han (China's majority ethnic grouping) embroidery as it features more complex stitches (there are over 18 Miao embroidery techniques).
Such techniques are employed to create colourful geometrical patterns, diamonds, stylised flowers, butterflies and birds made with cotton, silk, wool, linen, copper and gold yarns around the cuffs, sleeves, breasts and collar.
The shimmery effects on cotton dyed tunics with indigo favoured by women are instead obtained by coating with egg whites the indigo and then pounding them when dry with a wooden mallet until they are shiny.
Among the most striking garments in the Miao's wardrobe there are stiff, knee-length full skirts characterised by geometric patterning and by dense pleats that in epic poems were compared to mountain ridges (this style of skirts mainly borrowed from traditional costumes are currently being rediscovered in fashion by some independent labels).
These textiles, samples, jackets and skirts decorated with such embroideries can be easily admired in the ethnographic sections of various museums all over the world, next to Miao's beautiful jewellery pieces.
Institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum in London or The Met Museum in New York preserve for example various Miao ensembles from the 19th and 20th century, but also yarns and samples, plus striking silver necklaces and large half-moon combs made of wood and used to decorate hairstyles.
The Miao group comprises diverse subgroups of related peoples that self-identify with various other names, and reside in the areas in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan. While their presence in Guizhou dates to the Song dynasty (960-1279), some argue that the minority may be linked to the tribes of Three Miao that lived in China over 3,000 years ago.
As the years passed, younger generations started adopting Western-influenced dress styles, but it is easy to wonder if there will be further exchanges between the Miao and the West as fashion brands such as Marni and Uniqlo recently announced collaborations with the ethnic group.
In the case of the Italian brand, the collaboration, called "Marni Miao" was announced a few days ago during Shanghai Fashion Week. The project will revolve around a selection of pieces available in March in stores in China and in selected Marni boutiques worldwide.
We don't know yet what kind of clothes will be produced for this collaboration, but we can try and guess: the pieces may be characterised by nature motifs inspired by legends, mythology and the environment, themes that for the Miao people have got one main purpose - showing respect towards nature and the gods. One recurring motif may be the butterfly as the Miao people believe they descend from the Butterfly Mother, but also fish and bird patterns, symbols that indicate reproduction.
Besides, further inspirations may include elements inspired by totemisms, real life and history and, in particular, geometrical migration routes, an important feature in Miao's memory.
Miao people were indeed forced to leave their homeland and a legend says that Lan Juan, a group leader in ancient Miao society (around 4000 BC) and a heroine, embroidered the whole migration route of the Miao Hmong to south China on her costume to preserve their story when they didn't have a written language.
As Miao people do not have taboos when it comes to colour combinations, women wear a wide range of bright and vivid colours, such as green and red, purple, yellow, orange, bright blue and white. So we can probably expect bold clashes, traditional handmade embroideries and modernist silhouettes.
According to Marni Creative Director Francesco Risso, the main aim of this project that unites a modern Italian brand with traditional artisans from an ethnic minority, is trying to find new ways to produce fashion that allows consumers to ponder more about time (and therefore slow fashion and timelessness as opposed to fast fashion and trends), authenticity, quality, and luxury without forgetting climate action. The latter has been a constant fixation in Marni's latest runways.
Marni is not the only brand collaborating with the Miao group: in May Japanese brand Uniqlo teamed up with the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation and launched the Miao embroidery program.
Through it the brand provides over 400 jobs for women from the Miao ethnic group in the western part of Central China's Hunan province.
Such collaborations are an answer to a fashion trend that has generated a lot of criticism - cultural appropriation.
These new collaborations could be conceived as transnational approaches, new ways of transmission that allow people to discover time-honoured traditions from another countries or to feel proud about treasures from their own country.
In this case Marni is obviously trying to attract European consumers with something they definitely not have in their wardrobes, but it is also trying to get more Chinese consumers by promoting a local craft.
Marni is not new to such collaborations set to rediscover handicrafts, having developed in the past interior design pieces made by a community of Colombian artisans.
As Miao's embroidery is a woman's work, these collaborations mean that female artisans may get opportunities to get their art known, preserve a craft that may otherwise die and make a living, escaping poverty.
Globalization undoubtedly represents a threat to certain traditions and skills, yet, if we start using it wisely without appropriating and exploiting other cultures, it will also start providing exciting opportunities.
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