HANGZHOU, China, Nov. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Timeless Elegance: Global Qipao Invitational Design Work Retrospective Exhibition" opened at the China National Silk Museum (CNSM) on September 28th, 2022. Inheriting the elements of the ancient Chinese robe, combined with the tailoring method of the western costume, the Qipao is a fusion of eastern and western clothing culture. Firstly rising in popularity in the 1920s and in recent years having experienced a resurgence, the Qipao is known the world over for typifying Chinese woman's traditional clothing.

Since 2018, along with the Hangzhou Global Qipao Festival, CNSM  has organized four global qipao invitational design work exhibitions: Mountain and Water, Celebration, Poetry, and Vision. Designers from 30 countries and regions studied Qipao culture, designing Qipaos through their eyes of their own regional culture and from the perspectives of their own fields. Designers that were invited to take part spanned from graduating students of fashion institutions, to  globally-known designers that frequently appear at popular fashion weeks. The location of the designers covers five continents: Asia, Europe, Africa, South and North America. 

Through the generous help of embassies, fashion institutes, fashion industry professionals, and long-term friends and associates of the CNSM, the exhibition builds a bridge of communication between dress designers all over the world and showcases traditional western and eastern culture on the world stage. "Timeless Elegance" is a retrospective exhibition that brings together five years of design work, showing the elegance and beauty of Qipao culture.

Since 2011, with a philosophy of "collecting today for tomorrow," CNSM has been putting great efforts into expanding its collection of fashion designs by carefully selecting works from China's most renowned annual fashion events with the purpose of recording the nation's development process in the field of textile and fashion.

Aside from this, the museum organizes annual exhibitions, fashion forums and shows themed around prevailing fashion trends. The museum also brings famous apparel collections from overseas museums. Recent examples include: Dior by Dior: 1947-1957, introduced from the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada in 2019, and Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion, introduced from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2020.

Going forward, the museum aspires to become a hall of inspiration for fashion designers, an academy for fashion lovers, and a fashion museum with an increased international influence.