Ein Kleid gemacht von einem jungen Mann aus Jiangxi. Es gibt nur 15 Stücke weltweit, und die Prominenten kämpfen darum, es anzuziehen.

Liang Liwen, a fashion designer and ceramic artist born in the 1990s, is from Jingdezhen. Three generations of his family have been ceramic craftsmen. Since 2019, he has been researching and developing wearable ceramic fabrics. Inspired by eggshell porcelain, he fires ceramics into 6 - centimeter square thin porcelain pieces with a thickness of 0.4 millimeters, then bonds them with fabrics such as knitted, cotton - linen, and leather, and manually punches holes and sews them into ceramic dresses.

Image source: Vogue Fashion Force in 2023. Liang Liwen was shortlisted for the finals of the "Vogue China Newcomer Mentorship Program" during this period.

Left: Liu Xijun © CCTV6, Right: Chen Li © The 10th - anniversary concert of "One Grain"

Photographer: Zhao Pengyu

Currently, Liang Liwen is applying for a national - level invention patent for his ceramic fabric. The 15 hand - made ceramic dresses he created have appeared on the covers of fashion magazines in many countries, including China, the UK, the Netherlands, and Singapore. They have been selected for London Fashion Week and Milan Fashion Week. Celebrities such as Liu Wen, Chen Li, Fala Chen, and Liu Haoran have all worn Liang Liwen's designs.

In August, Liang Liwen returned to his hometown, Jingdezhen, and held his first personal fashion show in China. Yitiao visited Liang Liwen shortly before the fashion show to talk about his ceramic designs, craftsmanship, and concepts, as well as his efforts to promote "Jingdezhen Fashion".

An Original Ceramic Fabric: Making a Ceramic Dress with 600 Pieces of Eggshell Porcelain

When we met Liang Liwen, he was in his studio, making final preparations for his first personal fashion show in China. Due to his studies and work in Milan and London, he only returned to Jingdezhen for four days this year, and he had to quickly complete all the preparations within these few days.

In August, the temperature in Jingdezhen exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. The ceramic studio had no air - conditioning. After a long - haul flight, Liang Liwen repeatedly modified the details of several porcelain pieces on the clothes. The more than ten clothes to be used in the show were all his best - known designs, but in his opinion, there was still room for improvement.

The ceramic fabric developed by Liang Liwen (Photographer: Zhao Pengyu)

After repeated adjustments and repairs, the 0.4 - millimeter square thin porcelain pieces just out of the kiln are bonded to knitted fabrics, resulting in Liang Liwen's original design - a wearable ceramic fabric.

Liang Liwen started working with ceramic fabrics in 2019 and has successfully made about 15 sets of ceramic clothing so far. With his exquisite handicraft skills and breakthrough fashion designs, this young designer who has just turned 30 was shortlisted for the 2023 Vogue Fashion Fund (China Newcomer Designer Support Program), selected for Milan Fashion Week and London Fashion Week, and is applying for a national - level invention patent for his ceramic fabric.

Photographer: Zhao Pengyu

The cross - border design of ceramics and fashion has been a popular trend in the past two years. Many overseas brands have broken ceramics and pasted them on clothes, but the clothes designed in this way are not only heavy, and the ceramics only serve as decoration.

Influenced by these designs, Liang Liwen began to explore and research the craftsmanship of ceramic fabrics.

"If we want to make clothing, why not directly combine ceramics with fabrics to create a flexible and wearable fabric first?"

The square eggshell porcelain pieces fired by Liang Liwen can transmit light.

As a child growing up in Jingdezhen, Liang Liwen first thought of the technique of eggshell porcelain. This intangible cultural heritage craft, which originated in the Ming Dynasty, can fire the embryo to a thickness of 0.1 to 0.5 millimeters. Since it is similar in thickness to ordinary knitted fabrics, after bonding them together and then manually crushing them, it can become a ceramic fabric that can be bent at will. Like sequin fabric, it can fit the human body and allow free movement.

However, the research and development process was not smooth sailing.

"What I wanted were standardized, flat square thin porcelain pieces because only countless squares can form a fabric," Liang Liwen recalled. Due to the high requirements of the fabric for the thickness and flatness of the ceramics, he spent a whole year testing and adjusting the formula for firing the ceramics.

At first, the porcelain pieces he fired were thinner, even only 0.1 millimeters. But under the high temperature and pressure in the kiln, the porcelain pieces were very fragile, and it was almost impossible to get a complete one. So he had to repeatedly adjust the ratio of mud, glue, and water to make the mud flexible. Then he rolled it thinly by hand, making it easy to demold and less prone to cracking.

Left: Mixing the mud; Right: Glazing

"In the summer of 2019, I tried this every day. It was as hot as it is now. Because of the strong sun, we usually had to dry the embryos in the shade. But unexpectedly, the weather was so hot that even when dried in the shade, the embryos would still crack. This really annoyed me. I could only persevere and keep trying."

After numerous experiments, Liang Liwen determined the firing thickness of the porcelain pieces to be 0.4 millimeters and made them into 6 - centimeter by 6 - centimeter square thin porcelain pieces to ensure that the porcelain pieces are not only hard, translucent, and flexible but also fit perfectly when pieced together.

Thanks to the unique kaolin in Jingdezhen, the fired porcelain pieces have a cold and gorgeous color. The porcelain pieces are laid flat and glued onto knitted or cotton - linen fabrics, crushed from all sides, then manually drilled and hand - sewn to finally make a relatively durable ceramic dress.

A ceramic dress combined with knitted fabric uses about 600 porcelain pieces and weighs about two kilograms, which is lighter than a leather jacket or a winter coat. When worn, it is like a cutting - edge contemporary sculpture and also presents the unique silhouette and volume of clothing.

Wearable Art

Image source: Marie Claire Arabia

"I think my clothes are more like wearable art."

The inspiration for Liang Liwen's fashion designs mostly comes from his childhood experiences in Jingdezhen.

Image source: Harper's Bazaar

Last year, inspired by the movie Green Snake directed by Tsui Hark, Liang Liwen made a long ceramic dress. At first, he noticed that the scales of the green snake were very similar to the texture of Ge Kiln porcelain, so he chose to use the Ge Kiln pattern to recreate the pattern of the green snake on the dress.

Photographer: Zhao Pengyu

During the design process, he also incorporated the shape of the snake into the pattern. The scene in the movie where the snake wraps around the body left a deep impression on Liang Liwen, so he used the same way of cutting and leaving blanks to highlight the layering of the clothing.

Almost every design of Liang Liwen's clothes incorporates design elements from traditional ceramic craftsmanship.

Photographer: FIFI

"The design inspiration for this blue dress mainly comes from the gradient glaze of kiln - change. Then I used the Kintsugi technique to create the golden lines on the dress. I think combining the blue and gold colors together will have a stronger visual impact, and it is also a ceramic aesthetic that I prefer," Liang Liwen introduced.

Using contemporary art creation methods to interpret and spread the culture of Jingdezhen and let more people from different countries and backgrounds, especially young people, learn about Jingdezhen has always been Liang Liwen's goal.

He even deliberately looks for seemingly outdated traditional Chinese elements, such as the "Flowers in Full Bloom and Wealth Abundant" pattern from the 1980s and 1990s that was discarded by ceramic factories, reorganizes them in his own way, and then tells the story in a fashionable language.

Image source: Noctis

Liang Liwen especially mentioned a short skirt with a plum blossom print. "The inspiration for the plum blossom comes from the street lamps downstairs in my house. The street lamps in Jingdezhen are made of ceramics. I passed by them every day when I was studying. It's like a pattern engraved in my heart. Finally, I chose this rather playful way to recreate my hometown in my heart."

Another element of his hometown that left a deep impression on Liang Liwen is the kiln workers in Jingdezhen's ceramic factories.

The red ceramic dress and its details. Photographer: Yuelin (left); Zhao Pengyu (right)

Inspired by the working environment of the workers, he made a red ceramic dress, which is also the only brightly - colored design among his many works. The red represents the red kiln mouths and the hot workshops in summer. Almost every summer, the temperature in ceramic factories exceeds 40 degrees Celsius, but many kiln workers can still be seen insisting on firing the kilns in the high - temperature environment.

"For me, the ceramic workers in Jingdezhen are a very familiar group. My family members and friends are all ceramic workers. My family has been involved in ceramic production since my grandfather's generation. My grandfather and three aunts have all worked in state - owned ceramic factories. My grandfather was responsible for controlling the temperature at the kiln mouth. In the past,