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september 22, 2024, local time, milan. chinese architect wu wenbo and hui brand founder ms. zhao huizhou jointly presented a blue-themed women's "grand tour" at the 2025ss milan fashion week. this was the first time that the two outstanding designers had created a breakthrough oriental artistic conception for the fashion show in milan. with an amazing cross-border collaboration, a mysterious blue fantasy with a typical oriental literary and artistic atmosphere was born in the leonardo da vinci museum of science and technology in milan.

wu wenbo's concept draft

architect wu wenbo has always believed that culture is the driving force of creation. he combines "localism" with "internationalism", combines the softness of fashion with the hardness of architecture, and effectively links the east and the west. with his unique artistic vision, he has blossomed his creative ideas all over the world.

over the past decade, wu wenbo has become a young leader who has won many international and domestic awards for his achievements in the field of public architecture. he has also led the avant-garde exploration of "combining architectural design with art installations". in addition to design, he is famous for his exquisite painting manuscripts, which has also contributed to his fame and influence in the cross-border creative field of art.

exploring wu wenbo’s designs often involves local cultural research and in-depth spiritual exploration. he believes that “a space is not just a multi-faceted structure, but a seamless communication between a designer and the user, a dialogue between the present and the future, and a work that he has given to time.” as wu wenbo goes further and further on the road of cross-border, including creating art installations for the "shanghai design week", serving as a judge for the design competition, and designing the opening show for the fashion week, a series of "cross-border play" has allowed wu wenbo to realize his fantastic ideas beyond architecture and brought his works to all parts of the world.

zhao huizhou x wu wenbo

at the beginning of the design, wu wenbo carefully read the architectural history of the leonardo da vinci museum of science and technology and deeply understood the core expression of the hui brand this year. because when the founder zhao huizhou was looking for inspiration for the hui2025ss theme, she was lucky enough to meet wang xiaomei, the founder of the hand memory museum from the deep mountains of guizhou. the mysterious traditional oriental printing and dyeing craftsmanship created by these two women gave mr. wu wenbo the initial inspiration. after further understanding the stories of women's grand journeys in the world, he decided to use blue as the basic color for this design.

blue is the color of the sea and the sky. it represents vastness, depth and tranquility. it is the world that traditional women have longed for throughout the ages, and it is also the beautiful scenery seen by today's independent women around the world.

in the show design, mr. wu wenbo used sustainable fabrics printed with ethnic patterns, which are exclusively produced by the hui brand, as the main material for the art installation of the show, creating a sharp contrast between the warm-colored buildings and the cold-colored fabrics. the soft blue fabrics superimposed a soft interface on the traditional italian hard architectural form, and through the change of materials, a fusion of rigidity and softness was achieved, expressing the two designers' interpretation of "the grand tour and female power" from different perspectives in different artistic forms.

in addition, wu wenbo also specially designed a sun installation that symbolizes the spiritual totem of mankind for the "grand tour" show. from the starting point to the end point, it expresses the "toughness and softness" of women on the road ahead, while also creating an atmosphere of alternating virtual and real in the perfect strip space.

scene

on the top of the building, dark metal vertical strips are used to construct an undulating three-dimensional curved surface. the lights on the top of the arcade pass through layers of blue translucent fabrics, creating a rich change of light and shadow. in the semi-open space of the corridor, the breeze creates a "rolling wave" dynamic. at the same time, the blue-gray ground can be dyed with a ripple-like texture effect, as if the light passes through the sea surface and leaves a faint light on the deep seabed. with the swing of the top fabric, the shadow changes on the ground are formed, just like the waves surging on the seabed.

show scene

on the day of the show, the models followed the blue moving line into the museum's green inner courtyard, as if embarking on a journey between the sky and the sea. the audience on site were all amazed at this architectural technique of space separation, which cleverly enclosed the roof and the ground of the entire show, creating two completely different spatial atmospheres. inside, the architecture and clothing blend perfectly, jointly interpreting the gentleness and tenacity, elegance and strength of oriental women. outside the space, this is not only a fashion show, but also a collision of two artistic languages, allowing people to feel the profoundness of oriental aesthetics and the infinite charm of "walking on the waves and chasing the sun" after the awakening of women's power. the overall presentation is like spreading out a scroll of traditional chinese freehand landscape painting, forming a dialogue between two cultures across space with the external italian architectural aesthetics.

the perfect ending of the "grand tour" is undoubtedly another cultural practice of chinese design and chinese stories on the world fashion stage. zhao huizhou mentioned, "in the future, hui will continue to uphold the concept of innovation and inheritance, constantly explore the integration of fashion and culture, and integrate more traditional crafts and cultural elements into fashion design through cooperation with more outstanding artists and designers, bringing more unique fashion works to global consumers."

in this crossover design, wu wenbo used the show as the artistic context. when the models in gorgeous clothes walked between the blue "sky and sea", they seemed to have traveled through time and space at the same time, vividly displaying the implicitness and power of eastern culture in the historical buildings of milan. it was unforgettable and also amazed the 2025ss milan fashion week.