Chinese Creative Minds

20 September 2019

Intima Asia magazine was once again part of the prestigious international jury of the Charm of Oriental China International Creative Design Competitions when it was held by SIUF in Shenzhen last spring.

Here, we bring you the full report, along with the winners of this fantastic 7th edition.

Founded in 2012, the Charm of Oriental China International Underwear Creative Design Contest is an industrial design contest hosted by the Shenzhen Underwear Association, Committee of Guangming New District, China Knitting Industry Association, Guangdong Textile Association, and Hong Kong Intimate Apparel Industries’ Association. Over the years, it has become one of the Chinese underwear industry’s largest professional contests, with the most extensive coverage, the greatest number of entries and the most social influence. It continues to make a significant impact both in China and abroad; since 2014, the contest has been listed as “one of the eight key contests in support of industrial design” by the Shenzhen Municipal Government.

The contest is dedicated to providing a platform for those who show a strong passion for design, underwear and homewear, identifying the most talented designers in the sector. Not only this: it is also a great opportunity to promote the development of creative underwear and homewear design.

48 Groups of Finalists in two Categories
On the second day of the SIUF fair, during the finals of the 7th “Charming Oriental · Fashion Yanbu” China International Lingerie Creative Design Competition, 28 groups of finalists from the new design generation presented work drawing from a range of inspirations, showing women the development of the minimalist, light and comfortable style, and the interlinked evolution of underwear design and commercial development.
That afternoon, the 2019 Seventh "Charming Oriental · Xinshi Family" China International Homewear Original Design Competition finals took place. The design work of 20 groups of finalists showed their insights into homewear design trends and reflected their unique interpretation of the competition theme.
Through the exploration and celebration of the strengths of the new generation of underwear and homewear design, these two major events provided a powerful boost for the industry's passion for innovation, and showcased a range of talents, from design to display.

A High-Profile International Jury
For each edition of the contest, the organisers put together a trusted professional jury made up of prominent national and international industry personalities. For this edition, the members of the lingerie jury were: Liza Cheng, CEO of EmbryForm and Chairman of Shenzhen Underwear Industry Association; Tina Wilson, President of the Underfashion Club; Jos Berry, Founder and Creative Director of Concepts Paris; Prof. Jasonpaul McCarthy from WeDesign; Bingxiang He, CEO and Founder of Oleno; Francesca Spinetta, Co-owner and Editorial Director of Intima Media Group; Meghan Willis, R&D Director of Under Armour; Dr Chi Liu, Program Director of Apparel and Art Design College of Xi’an Polytechnic University, and Dr Kristina Shin, Assistant Professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Francesca Spinetta, along with some other members of the aforementioned jury also participated in voting in the homewear design contest, when they were joined by Bin Ma, GM of Guangdong Kaidi, and Xiaoying Dong, Co-Founder of Caomulanxi.
For both competitions, the jury first had to meet to evaluate each single project – drawings, collection stories and prototypes, before presenting their scores for each finalist during an impressive live-streamed fashion show that garnered more than 3,000,000 viewers. It was particularly interesting to see how individual jury members’ background and position offered different insights, and all came together to offer a ‘global’ evaluation of the finalists.

9 Lingerie Winners and a 30,000 USD Reward
This year once again the prizes awarded were of considerable worth and came to a total of 228,000 RMB (around 30,000 USD) for the lingerie contest category. The first prize of 150,000 RMB (around 19,000 USD) went to Shan Ciya from the Xi'an Engineering University for the project “Wenyue”. The second prize of 50,000 RMB (around 6,300 USD) went to Bai Xue with the work “Second Skin” which utilised an innovative seamless technology. The third prize of 10,000 RMB (around 1,300 USD) went to Yu Xuede with the project “Actively Passive”.
To support the overall quality of the participants’ works, 5 further Excellence Awards of 3,000 RMB (around 400 USD) were given to 5 designers: Zhou Sheng from Tianjin University of Technology with the design theme “Noise”; Zhang Mengyu from Inner Mongolia University of Technology with the design theme “Game start “; Rena Wang from Chongqing Second Normal University with the design theme “Butterfly”; White Pigeon from the Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts with the design theme “Ben Sheng” ; Liu Zhenjie from Xi'an Engineering University with the design theme “Byzantinism”.
Last but not least, the Best Popularity Online Award of 3,000 RMB (around 400 USD) went to the project with the greatest number of online votes. This year Sun Jianyu and Jin Wei from Northeast Normal University won with their project entitled « Evolution ».

3 Homewear Awards
In the homewear contest, three prizes – worth a total of 80,000 RMB (around 10,200 USD)- were presented to the three best young designers. The Gold Award of 50,000 RMB (around 6,300 USD) went to Yiyang Yang from the Xi’an Engineering University with the project « Midnight Dinner ». The Silver Award of 20,000 RMB (around 2,500 USD) went to Zhuoling Chen and Dehan Li of Guangxi University for Nationalities with their work « It’s a New Year ». Anna Tu from Jiangxi Environmental Engineering Vocational College received the Bronze Award of 10,000 RMB (around 1,300 USD) for her concept « Like a Tiger with Wings », a fun, innovative interpretation of homewear.

Intima Media Group is proud to continue supporting this unique project, which provides extraordinary visibility and financial support to lingerie’s most talented emerging designers. The industry is in need of their talent, and China is really investing in their development.