Designer Wang Tao: Revisiting Tradition and Modernity
Wang Tao and DigiFun collaboration wearable will be officially released. Stay tuned to our official Twitter, and look forward to a collision between modernity and tradition.
Designer Profile
Wang Tao
- 2011-2018 Studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in jewelry design.
- 2018-2022 Worked at Beijing Institute of Fashion Art and Engineering, College of Jewelry
- 2022-present Working at Beijing Institute of Fashion Art and Engineering, School of Virtual Fashion
Academic Part-time Position: Head of BIFT-XR Lab
- Invited mentor of International Design Marathon
- Director of Bao Xiang Sheng Dunhuang Jewelry Brand
- Director of TAO VIRTUAL LAB
International study visits and study tours
- 2017 Participated in AMBLARD JEWELRY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL to visit study program in France
- In 2019, participated in a study tour in the UK, visiting the Royal Academy of Art, London College of Fashion, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
Exhibition experience
- The 1st VENICE Annual METAVERSE Art exhibition 2022
- Wuhan Fashion Art Season Art Exhibition and the 2nd International Wearable Art Exhibition 2022
- Shenzhen International Industrial Design Exhibition 2021
- HongKun Breeze and the Man-made Art Museum 2020
- Creative work “Wall” was selected for the Beijing International Design Week Persuasion Field New Medium Design Art Exhibition and the 2nd Beijing International Jewelry Art Biennale in 2015
- Creative work “The Way Back” participated in the joint exhibition of Brooklyn Institute of Art and Central Academy of Fine Arts, Marzee Jewelry Gallery in the Netherlands, the “Identity” art jewelry exhibition of the Danish Cultural Center.
Q1:You have a deep understanding of the Dunhuang culture in China and are committed to spreading it. Is this digital fashion collection “MoonSand” the latest attempt to build on that? Can you share with us the process of its creation?
Wang Tao: The MoonSand series as a whole is traditional and realistic, incorporating traditional Chinese clothing patterns, but not in a conservative and traditional way. I wanted to create an ancient and mysterious new Chinese style to deconstruct and innovate the structure of traditional costumes, and hope that the effect it presents is ethereal and mysterious.
This time I also adopted the internationally popular elements of Shanhaijing. We will find that the prehistoric culture of China is splendid. Many ancient myths that passed down give people more room for imagination. Especially Chinese, we are more in pursuit of the feeling of writing. I hope to create a delicate feeling between the mountains and the landscape, a kind of beauty of mountains surrounded by clouds, just like the first ray of sunlight in the morning that shoots through the mist between the mountains, in which shrouded the outline of the mythological creatures, hereby to create an ethereal and sacred visual effect. Although the structure of the antlers is exaggerated, I used a unified blue tone in the color palette. Like the texture of moonlight streaming down, extending in the space, to express mysterious and tranquil visual effects, that is the impressionistic form of both antler and wings.I hope to create a sense of atmosphere for the person who wears this outfit, letting them wear the culture in a digital space that is detached from the physical properties and to feel the charm of culture.
The main difference between male and female versions of this outfit is the simplicity of the design. Women’s design is very rich, especially the hemline. During the design process, we also consider integrating the characteristics of contemporary female aesthetics, such as the bare space on the shoulder. Men’s in general has a more traditional design. The men’s hemline is from bottom to top, while the women’s hemline is from top to bottom, exploring the relationship between the balance between men and women , yin and yang
Q2: Did you know about the Decentraland platform before this collaboration with DigiFun?
Wang Tao: Decentraland and I are relatively related, I participated in the Venice Metaverse Biennale in early 2022. As a continuation of the exhibition, we were invited by MODERNLAND to participate in a Decentraland event, and it was the first time we came into contact with the Meta-Universe platform. On this platform, we made a virtual exhibition at the time, which actually did not involve clothing and costumes. However, I got an idea of wanting to produce my own designs, to create a chinese, ancient and mystic style of wearables in Decentraland when I was experiencing the world.
Q3: You mentioned the innovation of Chinese culture, the Chinese elements have already become a new trend in international fashion, and each designer has a very different understanding and expression of Chinese culture, can you share your views on using Chinese cultural elements?
Wang Tao: Yes, after graduation, I went to AMBLARD JEWELRY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL in France to further my studies. When you go out in the world and truly realize that what is common in our own culture is actually valuable. We have been living in Chinese culture for so long that it is easy to overlook its value. In the midst of huge cultural differences, communication and collisions happen all the time. In fact, the local teachers would prefer to see us bring our own traditional culture to communicate with them. They would be very interested in seeing us create with Chinese costume elements.I realized that there are so many possibilities and standpoint when we step out of the culture and look back at it. I am deeply aware of the value of national culture, and the urge to promote national trends towards mainstream culture, and international communication.
For the use of Chinese elements, I think what we need to do is innovate and to take the lead.
Q4: In your 2018 design “Imaginary Collection”, you used VR technology to increase the scale of the jewelry and produce a new visual effect. Will these attempts be combined with your offline jewelry brand in the future?
Wang Tao: In the 2018 exhibition, my initial design intention was to re-establish the relationship between people and jewelry. I chose two elements, ring and diamond, to construct the space. Using an immersive approach to let viewers to feel the relationship between jewelry and the wearer. Jewelry is no longer just a distant piece in a showcase, I hope to let viewers enter the jewelry and think. How do we experience a piece of jewelry? Can such a small piece of jewelry carry the deep emotions that people give to them? That’s why I’ve been wondering if we can use multi-dimensional technology to bring people closer to jewelry, to change the original scale of perception and to build a new concept.
People are no longer receiving information by words, but image centric. In the future it must be in a virtual, immersive way. As offline brands are greatly affected by the epidemic, we also want to integrate virtual reality technology. For example, we are developing a brooch that uses AR ‘augmented reality’ technology, which can be scanned to present a three-dimensional effect.
Q5: How do you usually accumulate creative inspiration?
Wang Tao: In fact, we all have a set of methods when designing, such as preliminary research, design conversion, to the final implementation, it actually has a solidified method. I think the exploration of artistic inspiration should be divided into two directions, free creation and design projects. We received a proposition from Party A to do design, this is one direction. The other direction is spontaneous creation.
My creative inspiration comes from recording every hour and moment. Which is inspired by my screenwriter friend. He carries a notebook with him, not on the phone, must be on a notebook. There may be a particular moment that touches him, he will immediately record his inspiration on the notebook. I am the same now, whether I am watching a show, an exhibition or a work, I will always judge and give feedback on all the information I receive.
Art comes from life is an important concept, we can understand it from another perspective, that is, art comes from life, but you have to have the eyes to discover art. After I learned painting, I realized that the color of the sky is not only blue, not only black, there are also such beautiful colors. When I was trained as a designer, I became more acute and delicate. As the former vice president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts said, ‘sketching will turn a rough person from a to a detailed person.’ When I started to do virtual fashion, I was still carrying this attitude and looking at some phenomena from a subtle perspective. I would prefer to incorporate inspiration and emotion into my work.
In addition, clothing is actually a kind of aura, a field, and I hope that my works can be seen in the big picture in a small way, and generalize the whole picture to build up the field. The accessories are equivalent to the receiver of a field, it is the part that gathers air. Costume is to cover a person, however, accessories are to bring this covered state together into a point and distribute it to the audience, which is a very interesting process.
At the end of the interview, we learned a lot from this young designer, looking at tradition with a modern eye, and how to face life in a balanced mind.
This month, Wang Tao and DigiFun collaboration wearable will be officially released. Stay tuned to our official Twitter, and look forward to a collision between modernity and tradition.
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