Kapok Road: Huang Huilan, The "Fashion Big V" Of The Republic Of China, Even Song Qingling Peeks At Her Wardrobe

Everyone is a book, with thousands of experience to connect the story of life. Each piece of clothing is not only used to cover or keep out the cold, but also the companion closest to our skin. It carries the memory of history, the essence of culture and the persistence of ingenuity We buy a dress just because we like it for a moment, but it takes ten or even decades to make a good one.

Kapok Tao always believes that clothes should have their own stories. A garment with a story can understand people's heart and make the wearer meet more beauty. For more than 20 years, we are not only making clothes, but also writing a volume of stories.

This year, we invite you to write and witness with us.

Dress experience of "fashion godmother" in the Republic of China

Chinese fashion is a story with a long history, which has the historical precipitation and the innovation of the trend. Kapok road constantly creates new fashions, and never forgets to review the past and pick up the beautiful memories of the old time

In the last century, there were a group of special fashion icons - they were born in China, but they had a good western education, and they walked between China and the West in dressing. They all have a strong sense of national pride. They have brought Chinese clothing to foreign countries and made many dazzling demonstrations for the integration of Chinese and Western fashion.

Zhang Ailing, whom we wrote last time, is one of them. The other to be written today is Huang Huilan, a Chinese woman who was once rated as the "best dressed" in 1920s-1940s by vogue magazine.

Fashion: 90 points

nickname: "Pearl of the Far East", "godmother of fashion"

Specialty: Chinese style and accessories

Cymbidium hybridum

Huang Huilan was born in Indonesia. Her father, Huang Zhonghan, was the richest man in Indonesia at that time. Her mother, Wei mingniang, was the first beautiful woman in the Chinese city of Indonesia, and she later married Gu Weijun, the "first diplomat of the Republic of China".

Her superior family background gave her a chance to contact a wider world in that changeable era. At a young age, she followed her mother to travel around the world. As an adult, she could speak six foreign languages, including English, French and Dutch. She could sing, dance and draw easily.

Her fashion taste is a school of her own, often attracted the then celebrities and ladies to follow, even the famous Song Qingling and Song Meiling are her fans.

It is said that before he followed Sun Yat Sen to the north, Song Qingling always wore a two-piece robe with a jacket and skirt. This kind of dress is classic and dignified, but not fashionable and pretty. After coming to Peiping, Song Qingling, who stayed at Huang Huilan's house for a while, secretly took a peek at Huang Huilan's wardrobe. Because it must be the most popular style, she found that almost all of them were cheongsam. From then on, Song Qingling also opened the "cheongsam style" model, becoming a "Qingling mother" integrating elegance, beauty and modesty.

A comparison of Song Qingling wearing a robe and a cheongsam

When Song Meiling lived in Huang Huilan's house, she would secretly pay attention to her jewelry matching. Huang Huilan is a detail control, very particular about jewelry, there are many necklaces and bracelets at home. Her 3-year-old birthday present was an 80 carat diamond necklace.

Huang Huilan's influence on the Chinese fashion industry at that time can be seen clearly. If put in modern times, her facilities are definitely the godmother of fashion and the queen of goods. What's more, many of her ideas still seem to be up to date

01

"Hui" eye recognition bead, for the strong call of Chinese elements

Although she grew up abroad, she has a special preference for Chinese style. In China's upper class society at that time, women were keen on wearing French clothes, but Huang Huilan liked old-fashioned embroidery and silk.

She thinks it is not suitable for Chinese women to copy the clothing experience of foreigners. So she chose old-fashioned embroidery and exquisite silk tapestry, as well as exquisite Chinese silk and satin, and selected the characteristics of traditional Chinese style to make clothes. "A lot of people don't understand the value of the beauty of silk in their own country, and don't understand how wonderful the authentic Chinese craftsmanship is," she said

It is said that once, when Huang Huilan went to Hong Kong, she saw some people cover the old-fashioned antique embroidered skirt on the piano to block the dust. She bought a lot and brought it back to Paris. After a simple modification, she appeared at the dinner party wearing an antique embroidered skirt, which immediately caused a sensation. After the dinner, the price of the skirt soared 100 times.

Her clothes embroidered with Chinese elements such as dragons and Phoenix, cornices and arches have left a deep impression on foreigners. Until now, many foreign designers always use some dragon and Phoenix totems and embroidery techniques when creating with the theme of Chinese elements. Maybe they are inspired by her.

Embroidery technology on modern improved Chinese style clothing

02

Color master, leading the brightest cheongsam color

A competent fashion icon must be a master of color. Huang Huilan, who has received western art education, has bold color matching ideas. She can't stand the traditional color matching of black, white and gray, and has developed a vibrant color system such as lake blue, peach red and green.

Shanghai's fashion girls wear colorful cheongsam to go out, changing the dull atmosphere, making the streets become lively.

In 2015, in the New York Metropolitan Museum of art charity dance and exhibition with the theme of "China: the moon in the mirror", there was a gift from Huang Huilan in 1976 - a very beautiful and elegant cheongsam.

Looking at the color and pattern, you can see that it represents the style of Cymbidium.

Improved cheongsam with bright modern color

03

Break the stereotype and make Chinese style interesting

Like retro things, does not mean to wear the same. Huang Huilan is like a magic trick. She can often make some new improvements on traditional clothes.

"What's the style of seeing women on the street wearing either long skirts or H-shaped cheongsam?" she said? It's not the material, it's the way it's wearing that's boring. "

As a result, she changed the cheongsam version into a more slim one, and opened the slit from the lower leg to the knee, and even to the thigh all the way, which increased the sexy style of cheongsam. She thought it was too boring to wear a single shirt with a skirt. She changed the upper one into embroidered cloth, and the lower part was made into gold silk soft satin trousers with silk satin, which looked more capable and unique.

In that conservative era, she was the first person to wear cheongsam with bare legs. In fact, this is also a beautiful coincidence. One winter, she couldn't wear socks because of her skin disease, so she went to Shanghai barelegged. The Shanghai celebrities didn't know, and because it was the latest fashion, she took off her socks one after another in the cold winter, and barefoot Qipao swept the fashion circle in Shanghai.

It was these novel and brilliant fashion ideas that made her gradually become the wind vane of the time.

Today's modified cheongsam with slits

04

Come to get quickly and mix Chinese and western with no mistakes

Because Huang Huilan often attends international social occasions with her husband Gu Weijun. Of course, she has to do as the Romans do in her hometown. In terms of collocation, she does some blending of Chinese and Western culture.

The same mix and match, Huang Huilan and Zhang Ailing are different, will not be too independent. Last time, when we talked about Zhang Ailing's dressing method, many fans said that they could not hold her and couldn't copy. With the reference of Cymbidium Huang, there will be no big problem.

Every time she mixed up, she was decent. Sometimes they wear a cheongsam inside and a suit coat on the outside. Sometimes they wear exquisite embroidered singlets, noble mink coats, sometimes diamond crowns, long pearl necklaces on the chest, cream silk dresses and Chinese red yarn.

In the diplomatic arena, Gu Weijun played games with foreigners to fight for China's rights and interests. Huang Huilan, who was around the same time, put the idea of combining Chinese and Western culture on her body and became "China's window". Foreign friends also gave her the title of "Pearl of the Far East".

05

Big player of accessories, proficient in folding style

In addition to the preparation of clothing control, Huang Huilan also did not miss the details of the decoration. She has a lot of Chinese and Western style accessories, and can do a good ornament for clothing. Today's popular Necklace folding, she has played for a long time!

Now the popular necklaces are folded

Wearing cheongsam and pearl necklace, it looks noble and elegant. It has the style of Lady Coco Chanel.

She also likes to fold and wear jade bracelets, four floating flower jade bracelets are folded on her hands. These four bangles are made of the same material, and their colors and shapes echo each other. They are not only not cumbersome, but also more fashionable and have a sense of hierarchy. Although this kind of wearing method is a bit taboo in geomantic Science... It has also been imitated by other celebrities.

The real godmother of fashion is probably like Huang Huilan. No matter how she looks, she will lead the current fashion trend. It's no wonder that she was elected the "best dressed" woman in China in the 1920s-1940s of vogue magazine by crushing first ladies such as Song Meiling, Song Qingling, Hu Die and so on.

Portrait of Cymbidium Huang by Federico Beltran in 1934

The trend is constantly moving forward, but the classic style is ever lasting. The style of the fashion icons of the Republic of China may be more moving than what we have recorded. They led to the fusion and transformation of Chinese clothing, and provided us with a lot of inspiration for contemporary design. They are worthy of being Chinese fashion idols.