Shirts paired with horse-face skirts, graduation gowns matched with cloud shoulders, improved qipaos paired with over-the-knee boots, Song brocade jackets matched with wide-leg pants. Nowadays, new Chinese-style outfits frequently go viral, smoothly integrating into the daily lives of the public. Delving deeper into the industry, the popularity of national style not only heats up the clothing market but also drives a traditional industry that comes from history — silk.

Silk, woven from each silkworm and each thread, is China's "specialty" exported to the world. Since the opening of the "Silk Road" more than two thousand years ago, this "specialty" has gained batch after batch of fans from east to west, from ancient times to the present. However, as the "noble" textile, silk is also regarded as a symbol of nobility and elegance, with many people's impression limited to "high-end," resulting in a relatively narrow demand market.

Facing the new situation, how can the traditional silk industry, which has come from thousands of years ago, uphold integrity and innovate to "weave" into modern life and rejuvenate vitality? In Zhejiang, starting from the application and technological innovation upgrade of silk, the reporter attempts to glimpse the "code" of its industrial growth.

From admission notices to clothing, silk is "woven" into daily life.

Entering July, with the conclusion of the college entrance examination, many universities have successively started "creating new things," launching new admission notices. This year in Zhejiang, the new admission notice released by Zhejiang University of Technology has attracted many netizens' attention.

The notice is named "Bright Future," integrating three intangible cultural heritage techniques: Song brocade, Su embroidery, and painting mounting. It uses digitally empowered Song brocade as the base, with the new student's name hand-embroidered by intangible cultural heritage inheritors, and is mounted using the "painting and silk mounting" technique, making it easy for students to collect.

"This intangible cultural heritage admission notice is not only proof of enrollment but also an artistic masterpiece carrying history and culture," said Liang Lin, Director of Admissions and Employment Guidance at Zhejiang University of Technology.

"I want to retake the exam just for this certificate," "Local characteristics, such a notice is worth collecting for a lifetime," "The combination of inheritance and craftsmanship is very meaningful"... Many netizens commented like this under the display video of Zhejiang University of Technology's new admission notice.

Not only Zhejiang University of Technology, but this year, Fudan University's undergraduate admission notice also uses fabric made with the national intangible cultural heritage Lu silk weaving technique as the cover, blending campus characteristics with intangible cultural heritage, fully displaying classical aesthetics.

An admission notice is not only a beautiful blessing from the school to new students but also one of the scenes where the traditional silk industry integrates into modern life. In recent years, from admission notices to clothing and cultural and creative products, silk, once regarded as the "noble" textile, is appearing in various forms in public life.

"I used to associate silk with my mother's silk scarves and pajamas, thinking it was a bit old-fashioned. I didn't expect that now I really like it." This year, driven by the "new Chinese style" fashion, 26-year-old office worker Ms. Shen has become obsessed with various silk clothing.

From new Chinese-style Song brocade jackets, national style satin wide-leg pants to mulberry silk dresses, Ms. Shen has added many items to her wardrobe. "Each piece looks great, and wearing them instantly elevates my temperament, fashionable and noble," Ms. Shen told the reporter.

The reporter noticed that besides clothing, in the past two years, silk coasters, embroidered bookmarks, cloud brocade notebooks, and other silk cultural and creative products have emerged one after another. Their exquisite appearance and fresh cross-border combinations have successfully attracted a group of "appearance fans."

The "cultural flavor" is getting stronger, and the national style heats up traditional industries.

For consumers, this is an aesthetic feast; for industry insiders, it is a signal that the silk industry is heading toward spring.

"The silk industry is booming!" Yao Chen, a professor at the School of Fashion of Zhejiang University of Technology who has been engaged in silk industry research for more than 30 years, has sensed new trends in the industry. Taking the clothing market as an example, from the previously popular Xiangyun yarn items to the Song brocade that was hard to find by the end of 2023, the rise of national style is "heating" this market.

"In clothing markets such as Nanyou in Shenzhen and Sijiqing in Hangzhou, whether it is national style silk or silk blend stalls, many buyers gathered in 2023. National style has driven a new silk craze, and the market has seen a considerable recovery," Yao Chen frankly said. Behind this phenomenon, there is both the push of trends and the efforts of silk enterprises in transformation and upgrading over many years.

Located by the East China Sea, Zhejiang is not only one of the export channels for silk but also one of its important production areas, known as the "Silk Capital." Its silk industry has about 5,000 years of history and cultural heritage. The Qianshanyang site in Huzhou unearthed the world's earliest discovered domesticated silkworm silk textiles. In Hangzhou, the reputation of "Half West Lake, Half Silk" has made it another city symbol.

Zhejiang attaches great importance to the development of the silk industry. In 2015, Zhejiang proposed for the first time to inherit and develop historical classic industries, integrating silk with tea, yellow wine, and other industries, and issued corresponding development guidance opinions. Among Zhejiang's historical classic industries, silk revenue accounts for half of the national total. However, reviewing its development history, affected by modern industries such as artificial silk, silk actually experienced a long period of downturn.

"Previously, the silk category was relatively single, basically home products such as pajamas, silk quilts, bedding, or silk scarves and shawls. The fabric was easy to wrinkle and hard to care for, making it less competitive compared to chemical fiber and artificial silk products," Yao Chen believes. Solving the problem of silk's easy wrinkling and difficulty in care, making it machine washable, is one of the keys to promoting silk products into public life.

Another "code" is to ride the trend wind and launch diversified products to broaden the consumer base. "Previously, silk was mostly used for gifts and homewear. With the arrival of national style, it has gradually spread into daily life in the form of trendy clothing and cultural and creative products," Yao Chen explained. With more and more style choices and stronger "cultural flavor," she believes this is one of the reasons for the silk industry's recovery.

The surge of national style has driven the younger generation of consumers, with clear segmentation of consumer groups, and the design of silk categories has never stopped. "From the perspective of new Chinese-style trends alone, more than ten styles can be broken down, such as Chinese old money style, wealthy lady style, etc.," Yao Chen said, adding that the segmented styles meet the diversified needs of consumers.

At the same time, due to cultural empowerment, silk is also welcoming a group of "mutually committed" consumers. "The national style has driven a wave of enthusiasm among consumers for intangible cultural heritage and traditional Chinese arts and crafts culture. Many young groups are willing to pay the price, breaking the price barrier of silk's luxury."

How to explore cultural elements? Digital empowerment solves industry pain points

With the formula of "historical classics + national style lifestyle + trendy culture," Zhejiang's silk industry is breaking traditional barriers and better reaching consumers.

But looking backward from the results, when digital empowerment becomes one of the driving forces for the entire industry's development, this industry also faces new challenges: how to explore traditional culture? How to integrate cultural connotations into products?

At the previously held Zhejiang Province Historical Classics Industry Boutique Exhibition, a shade of sky blue attracted many visitors to stop and admire. This Hanfu named "Sky Blue Presenting Dew" not only showcases silk as an oriental charm of the historical classics industry but also contains the charm of the digital empowerment era behind it. Its creator is Yao Chen.

"Sky Blue Presenting Dew" is a typical product combining digital and physical forms. To some extent, it is also a typical case of digital technology empowering the silk industry. "We selected Song Dynasty painting patterns and integrated AIGC and STYLE 3D high-fidelity digital sample clothing technology to solve the 'bottleneck' problem faced by Zhejiang silk enterprises," Yao Chen told reporters.

Currently, national style is popular, and the excavation of cultural elements is the focus of silk enterprises' product development. Among them, product development efficiency determines whether a company can quickly grasp market trends.

However, in interactions with companies, Yao Chen found that the ability of talent to interpret and explore culture is a "shortcoming" for many small and medium-sized companies. For current traditional silk enterprises, even a designer with many years of experience may not have enough energy to deeply explore culture from interpretation to design transformation.

Taking the production of a silk fashion garment as an example, besides design, a company also needs a sample clothing team of "pattern maker + pattern assistant + sample worker." From making the first pattern to finalizing it takes about 5 to 7 days. During this time, multiple labor costs, repeated pattern revisions, sample adjustments, and losses are all costs the company must bear.

The AIGC and STYLE 3D technologies used in "Sky Blue Presenting Dew" correspond to solving the problems of cultural material design and efficient pattern making. "In production, we use AIGC to capture and input past patterns, generating graphics that blend ancient and modern elements based on design instructions by inputting elements from Song paintings such as 'Listening to the Qin' and 'Eighteen Scholars.'" Yao Chen explained that after the company generates digital pattern materials with AIGC, STYLE 3D performs digital fabric simulation and digital pattern making, producing digital samples. Users can intuitively view patterns, craftsmanship, fabric, and style details, and designers can immediately optimize and adjust these options on the computer, greatly improving efficiency and effectiveness.

"Companies highly recognize the effect of digital empowerment. A regular garment can basically reduce time and financial costs by 50% or more." She revealed that with digital empowerment, a digital art designer can basically develop 5 to 7 exquisite new Chinese-style vest items per day.

Whether it is digitalization helping companies accurately connect supply and demand in the industry or using big data to analyze trending elements, currently, digital empowerment is injecting vitality into the traditional silk industry.

It is worth noting that in promoting the inheritance and development of the traditional silk industry, the Zhejiang government, universities, and enterprises are working together. Taking the Huzhou Research Institute of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University as an example, currently, traditional silk enterprises in Huzhou mainly focus on silk fabric processing and production, and the brand effect needs to be strengthened.

In response to the local silk industry's status, Yao Chen, who also serves as the director of the research institute, promotes the extension of the industrial chain with the local government, associations, and leading enterprises through a new quality productivity model of "silk + culture, technology, digital, talent," combining Huzhou's profound silk cultural heritage to build a new intelligent and beautiful silk lifestyle.

"This year, we and Huzhou are planning to create a silk cultural industry park sample that gathers hundreds of silk enterprises, covering from primary to tertiary industries, from culture, creativity, production to live e-commerce. We hope to form a closed-loop full industry chain through an integrated industrial base for mutual support." Yao Chen revealed that government support, university assistance, enterprise response, and the cultural confidence highlighted by the national style trend make her feel that a new spring has begun for the silk industry, "We, as people of the silk industry, are full of confidence."