The Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre (CPTTM) organised the 13th Macau Fashion Illustration Contest earlier this year and held an award ceremony last night, where one of the winners said he found his “niche” in the fashion industry in Macau although it was challenging.
The annual contest aims to nurture Macau’s fashion illustration talents and promote artistic creation, according to CPTTM, which has been organising a series of activities related to fashion design.
With the theme of “China-Chic” this time, the competition aimed to promote Chinese fashion through the “exquisite” art of fashion design illustration.
According to CPTTM, a total of 200 entries were submitted, of which 20 were awarded prizes.
The winner of the open category, Cheong Chan Fai, an amateur fashion illustrator and an art teacher by profession, pointed out that his work was based on the concept of traditional Chinese elements, with red being its main colour, and that his main idea was to combine these elements together well.
Cheong underlined that there is a lot of room for development in the local fashion industry, adding that Macau is a place that blends different cultures and if fashion illustrators can make good use of these elements, it will be “very distinctive”.
Cheong said that designers should look for room to grow in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), as the market in Macau is relatively small and not yet “mature”, and there was “risky” to work as a full-time fashion illustrators, admitting that he would worry about being able to make a living.
The GBA includes nine cities of Guangdong province: Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Zhaoqing, Zhongshan and Zhuhai and as well as the nation’s two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
“So, we’re looking further into the GBA for better development” by doing so, Cheong said, adding he believes that local fashion illustrators can discover more styles and do a better job at spreading traditional Chinese styles in a new way.
According to the CPTTM, China-Chic has been a popular theme in recent years, where it combines Chinese cultural elements with fashion styling to give a brand-new life to the traditional and unique Chinese culture.
According to the centre, fashion Illustration is one of the foundations of fashion design and one of the ways for fashion designers to express their concepts and reflect their personal style.
The CPTTM has set up an online exhibition for the public to enjoy the works at any time, and anyone interested can see it on its website https://assets.artplacer.com/virtual-exhibitions/?i=5021.
The winner of the open category, Cheong Chan Fai, talking to the media after yesterday’s award ceremony at the CPTTM headquarters in Zape. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
This screenshot was taken yesterday from CPTTM’s online exhibition website.
