Donghua University (China) DHU in the Spotlight at the World Design Cities Conference
The 1st World Design Cities Conference (WDCC 2022) was held in and around the Huangpu Riverside Shipyard during September 15-18. Under the theme of “Vision in Perspective”, the conference aims to build an international first-class cooperation and exchange event in the field of design. As one of the main organizers of the conference, Donghua University has participated in the whole preparation process and provided important support for the conference.
A series of releases of industry-academia-research cooperation projects
At the opening ceremony, a series of creative design industry projects and international cooperation projects such as “Donghua University-WWF Sustainable Fashion Center”, Shanghai 100 International Designers Think Tank, China Time-honored Design Innovation Platform, China Bank Design Industry Open Resource Interaction Platform, PARSONS China Design Innovation Center, Xiaohongshu Digital Design Innovation Platform, and Sifang Puli Global Transportation Design Center were released.
The “Donghua University-WWF Sustainable Fashion Center” is jointly established by the University and WWF. The Center will actively take advantage of the University’s full fashion discipline chain, open up a new green and low-carbon track for Shanghai’s fashion consumer goods with cross-disciplinary, cross-industry and cross-field systematic cooperation and innovation, promote the green transformation and upgrading of the fashion industry, help Shanghai build a world-class fashion city, and contribute wisdom and strength to promote the sustainable development of the global fashion industry.
Great minds gather to advise on the transformation and upgrading of Shanghai’s technology and fashion industry
As one of the mainline forums of the 2022 World Design Cities Conference, the Technology and Fashion Summit, co-hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization Technology and Donghua University, was held on the afternoon of September 16.
Yu Jianyong said in his speech that this Technology and Fashion Summit is of great practical significance, and Donghua University will take this forum as an opportunity to constantly take advantage of its strengths in gathering innovative elements, training design talents, conducting forward-looking research and accelerating industrial integration, to strengthen in-depth cooperation with all walks of life, and to make every effort to cultivate new fashion technologies and new industries with “Donghua characteristics”, so as to contribute its wisdom and strength to building Shanghai into a world-class design city.
Under the theme of “Fashion Metaverse, New Ecology Across Boundaries”, experts, scholars and pioneer representatives from enterprises, academia and media focused on the influence of new technology: the new ecology of fashion consumption, optimization and upgrading of the fashion industry, development of technological fashion, digital construction of fashion brands, etc., and offered suggestions for the transformation and upgrading of Shanghai’s technology and fashion industry, in order to continuously enrich the significance and influence of Shanghai as a world-class “design city” and “fashion city”.
Donghua’s original design to create a “Metaverse” fashion design space
In the afternoon of September 16, “Clothing and Fashion from the East” – 2022 Donghua University Budding Designer Creative Fashion Works Release kicked off at the main venue of the World Design Cities Conference.
12 budding designers from Donghua University with more than 70 sets of original works presented to the fullest the concepts of “heritage and classic re-creation “, “nature and sustainable development” and “future and culture of digital trend”. The show broke through the performance mode of the traditional fashion show, utilizing live digital media technology, with “mountain” water” and “light” to create a scene of virtual reality and retro-future, and combining sound, light, painting and performance to express their designs in an innovative and comprehensive way. Virtual and reality are intermingled, and tradition and technology are in symbiosis, connecting the present and future of design, and bringing infinite inspiration and imagination.
A cute and animated “Donghua Xiaorui” IP cartoon figure is standing at the entrance of the “Jingwei” Fashion Exhibition. “Donghua Xiaorui”, whose design takes the image of “coupled phoenixes”, and is extended from the Song Dynasty idiom “spit and peck together”, was specially produced by students and teachers for this event. It represents the emergence of a group of new designers from Donghua, who are rooted in the traditional Chinese culture and are exploring the future.
This exhibition is an important part of the main exhibition “Design for the Future” of the 2022 World Design Cities Conference. The exhibition uses “Jingwei (warp and weft)” to connect “heaven” and “earth”, and fashionable conceptual clothing to reflect the abstract connotation of science and technology, showing the outstanding contributions of Donghua University in different fields such as serving people’s needs. Among the exhibited works are some of the best works by budding designers from Donghua University that won the World of Wearable Art (WOW) Awards.