The Appearance Design Of Fireweed Cloth On Yi People And Application In Modern Ladies’ Dress

As a multi-ethnic country,cultural diversity in costumes is common throughout China.Hand weaving,as a vital part of the culture,is the topic of this research.The paper unveils the social significance of cloth material development of ethnic costume,inheritance of classic cloth material and weaving technique,as well as creation of fashion sense based on traditions.In Yunnan,there has been a long history of fabricating cloth made of fireweed.Due to the preciousness of fireweed and the nature of handcrafting,making cloth from fireweed is time-consuming and sophisticated.Such a weaving tradition exists solely in some ethnic villages like Yi.Hence,its uniqueness makes this tradition precious.Fireweed fabric and the weaving technique inherit ancient traditions and provide a trace for people conducting research on the ancient culture.Moreover,such a technique contains outstanding artistic and cultural value as it presents various ethnical characteristics.Research shows that in Yunnan fireweed weaving appears in the settlements of Yi,Zhuang,Lisu and Dai(middle-stream of Jinsha river)peoples.The year 2009 witnessed fireweed fabrication from Yi ethnic being granted as one of the key items in the list of province-wide culture heritage protection.In 2013,the fabrication technique of the Lisu people was granted as a cultural heritage protection item.The following year saw the grant of fireweed fabrication as a national protection item of traditional cultural heritage.This paper focuses on the fireweed fabrication technique.During the past few centuries,Yi people have accumulated rich experience weaving fireweed fabric.The fabrication technique is of great value because of high-quality cloth it produces.The concern,however,is centered on the inheritance of this tradition.The possible reasons include the extinction of fireweed material,the challenges from modernized fabrication,cultural melting from major Han people,emerging age-gap,and its misalignment with modern aesthetics.An extinction threat has been drawn upon such a tradition,as people could hardly find historic notes in books and papers.The paper also discusses the imparting of fireweed fabrication.Fireweed,as a traditional cloth material,has been majorly used for fabricating ethnic costumes.This paper focuses on the merging of traditions and modern fashion sense,and eventually applies such a merge with the design of women’s cloth.Starting from the analysis of fireweed attributes(based on design aesthetics),this paper studies the texture,color,form and function of fireweed and loyally presents its artistic attributes.Fashion creation in the paper strictly follows the classic fireweed design rules and preserves the original beauty.It experimentally improves the appearance by applying artificial material to weave the cloth,which could be aligned with modern women’s sense.In addition,the paper also encourages people to be involved in learning fireweed,and provides strong reference for peer scholars and designers.The paper integrates research methods like literature review,field investigation,case study and application design,etc.During field investigation in Wuding,Zika,Shilin,Nanhua and Heqin,the paper closely studies the culture of Heqin and Zika with collections of pictures and video footages.Also,it records the interviews with cultural heritage figures like Li Huilan and Luo Yinqin,and collections of historical materials from local museums.The first section of this paper provides an overview of Yi population distribution,history,as well as the definition fireweed and history of fireweed cloth.The second section presents the processing technique in terms of fireweed fabric.Based on the materials collected during field investigation and literature review,the paper gives a summary of traditional fabrication process based on traditional weaving machines and weaving techniques.The third section analyzes the beauty of fireweed.There are threefold outcomes.Firstly,fireweed fabric has the unique beauty of texture and color since its warp dyeing process is based on natural weed.Secondly,the diverse exhibition of fireweed fabric shows the special beauty of style.Thirdly,breathable and heat absorbing attributes indicate the functional beauty of fireweed fabric.The fourth section describes the re-creation of fireweed clothing,which merges classic and modern techniques to keep the clothing aligned with modern aesthetic.Through the studies on classic fireweed fabrication and aesthetic analysis,the paper aims to make impacts on the following aspects.It would bring people’s attention back to the endangering tradition.It could also contribute to the forming of aesthetics through combining traditional and modern characteristics.It is of great value to balance advancing modernization and keeping the traditions alive.Last but not the least,the paper provides a strong reference for aesthetic theory,and fresh ideas for peer researchers.