Chinese Creative Minds

A high-profile International Jury
For each edition, the organizers put together a trusted professional jury comprising of both national and international prominent industry personalities, for 2017 the jury included: Liza Cheng, Executive Director & CEO of Embryform Holding Limited and President of SUA (Shenzhen Underwear Association), Jos Berry, Founder and Creative Director of Concepts Paris, Jasonpaul McCarthy  Director of the Associate Degrees (AAS) in Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing at Parsons School of Design / The New School, Winnie Yu, Professor Fashion & Textile Technology – Clothing, Yongjin Wang, Associate Dean, Master Instructor in School of Fashion Art and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology Fang Wang, Professor, MA student advisor and chair of Donghua ,University Fashion Art and Design Department, Chi Liu, Head of department of Intimate Clothing, Apparel and Art Design College, Xi’an Polytechnic University and PhD of Clothing Engineering, University of Manchester, Qing Cao, GM of Fashion Industry Department, HLBN and Francesca Spinetta, Co-owner and Editorial Director of Intima Media Group.

A 50,000 USD reward
This year again prizes were very significant and reached a total amount of ¥316,000 (about 50,000 USD).  The first prize of 150,000 Yuan (23,500 USD) went to Wenjie Zhang and Fangfei Mei for their work “Conation Newborn”, inspired by architectural lines and planes, expressing the smooth feminine smooth and curvaceous body. Seamless laminating process and clear-cut technology produced a fluid effect, reflecting a new generation of women’s aspirations of independence and self-image.
Second place prizes of 50,000 Yuan (8,000 USD) went to two students: Mengmeng He  and Agnes Huang. Mengmeng’s “Frame”, combines fashion and technology to bring a new aesthetics to traditional underwear thanks to an inspiring use of rigid-flexible associations and 3D printing. Agnes’ work “Rhythm” is inspired by the Harbin Opera House - a landmark building on the Songhua River of the North - with its unique curve, just like a fluttering ribbon, touching people's heart and soul.
Third place 10,000 Yuan (1,500 USD) prizes were given to: Jiejing Deng for “Southeast folk songs”, inspired by Miao silver and traditional Chinese elements and using the "runway" interlinked circle design technique; Wentao Pan  and Minjie Luo for “Composition” influenced by  Piet Mondrian and the visual effect of Lego toys; and finally,  Guidong Zhou for “Just do it”. “I am always very enthusiastic to participate in this contest’s jury and support future designers. I consider this to be as part of our mission to encourage creativity and I must say that young Chinese people are very creative, as long as they are set free to think out of the box” says Francesca Spinetta (Intima Media Group), she continued, “ This is why my personal favourite was Guidong Zhou for “Just do it” to whom we dedicated the opening pages of this edition”. To support the overall quality of participants this year, 10 Excellence rewards of 3,000 Yuan (500 USD) each were given, as well as a Most Commercial Value Prize and one Best Online Popularity Prize. The first went to Eric for his work “Feel” characterized by vibrant colors and unconventional patterns to embody the new generation's rebellious spirit and self imagination. The second was given to Yining Gao for “Shan Xin Cao Mu” to reward their forward thinking project based on plant dying. In Chinese characters, “fan” and “good” share the same pronunciation, here the fan acts as a metaphor for getting close and being open freely. This project received 187,000 on line votes.

The 2018 edition of The Charm of Oriental China International Underwear Creative Design Competition has already started. Good luck to all participants!

Photo: COMPOSITION 构