After entering Central Saint Martins, I began to develop a deeper understanding of the cultural expressiveness of design. As a global cradle for fashion designers, CSM not only values creativity but also emphasizes the social significance and cultural responsibility behind design. It encourages us to tell traditional stories using future-facing languages.
At the same time, I came across the collaboration between Loewe and Jingdezhen, in which traditional Chinese porcelain colors were translated into a contemporary design collection—receiving widespread acclaim. This made me realize: Chinese aesthetics does not lack depth; what it lacks is a “translation mechanism” that allows it to be truly understood by the world.
▶︎ Loewe × Jingdezhen: Chinese Monochrome Collection
And perhaps, AI can become the starting point of that cultural translation bridge.
As proposed by Triyanto et al. (2017) in their paper Aesthetic Adaptation as a Culture Strategy, local cultural arts, when faced with the challenges of globalization and industrialization, must engage in “aesthetic adaptation”—modifying their design language and forms in order to preserve and evolve their essence.
▶︎ Triyanto et al., 2017 – Full paper link
Kexin Li (2024) further expands on this by warning that while generative AI has the power to accelerate the dissemination of cultural content, it also carries the risk of misinterpreting or flattening traditions. She advocates for the creation of localized cultural datasets and close collaboration between AI platforms and design institutions, in order to ensure accurate and meaningful visual expression.
▶︎ Li, 2024 – Full paper link
This strongly aligns with the goal of my current project. By using AI as both a tool and a language, I seek to reinterpret the structural forms and color systems of traditional Chinese garments. Through AI-generated try-on experiments and user feedback collection, I hope to explore how Eastern aesthetics can be made more contemporary, intelligent, and globally communicable.
Leave a Reply