Have U “Get ready with Angelo”? Thanks to @vitoplantamura I’m so glad to curate Angelo Flaccavento’s @poeticallypunk first exhibition in China, which has gained a lot of good energy in the past few days and unexpectedly achieved the effect of ‘Non-fashion is Fashion’.
The reason for choosing an old Shanghainese barbershop as venue, it’s about to be in real life, things beyond fashion, also for Angelo and I, Visitors to be able to carefully find these drawings in the midst of the chaos, as a way to take a step closer, to see, and to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
All in all, it’s time to refreshing, find the meaning cheer us up. Congrats to Angelo and all again and looking forward to next!
QINGGANYIJIU 100 | Who Are They? 100 people, 100+ garments, 100 stories.
What is #QINGGANYIJIU?
As a book, it is an extension and expansion of the exhibition. As a personal history, it constructs a multidimensional emotional narrative, taking the individual as the core and using the relationship between people and clothing as the thread. As a book produced across four seasons and spanning regions from south to north, it freezes fleeting moments into powerful images, capturing the possibilities of old clothes and the “impossibilities” of humanity.
The 100 individuals featured in this book come from various fields: culture, fashion, film, publishing, art, sports, healthcare, business… Within their unique domains, each exerts their maximum potential.
Additionally, more than half of the stories are told by “everyday people.” Among them are the founder of “Facekini,” a Central Saint Martins graduate who returned home to dedicate themselves to children‘s education, someone who has spent half a lifetime healing the oceans, and a roadside tailor with extraordinary craftsmanship that breathes new life into garments. Without exception, they are all masters in their own right.
How many answers can a book provide? QINGGANYIJIU began with sustainability as its starting point. Now, with individuality and sustainability as its driving forces, it continues to redefine the boundaries between the old and the new.
In this new year, we make friends through books.
In this new year, we speak of the old, with meaning and also nostalgic.
#TheStoriesWeWear
#QINGGANYIJIU
The Stories We Wear, can U?
“When you take out an old piece of clothing and wear it again, that’s the best way to practice sustainability.” This offhand remark by Dan Cui @dancui , the founder of the canU Sustainability Fashion Platform, during an exhibition at 52 Yongfu Road three years ago, became the seed for the “QING GAN YI JIU” project.
Since 2022, canU initiated the “QING GAN YI JIU” project, which debuted in July of the same year during the Can U? “Sustainable Mei” exhibition. In August 2023, the project evolved into a standalone exhibition at Shanghai’s Modern Art Museum, later touring cities including Shenzhen, London, Beijing, and Pingyao.
Over the past three years, canU has used “QING GAN YI JIU” as a cornerstone to continuously collect stories of old clothes from all walks of life. Through curations and media engagement, the project advocates for a philosophy of cherishing objects and a lifestyle centered on “re-wearing old clothes, cherishing the past like it‘s new.” The diverse audiences these stories resonate with have inspired, shaped, and expanded the possibilities of “QING GAN YI JIU.”
At the end of last year, we integrated two years of collected stories and extended our narrative exploration into broader possibilities. This effort culminated in the release of QING GAN YI JIU, a book featuring 100 individuals from various backgrounds. Using the relationship between people and clothing as its thread, the book weaves a multidimensional narrative of emotions.
Clothing carries memories. Clothing reveals memories. Clothing sustains memories.
When you open QING GAN YI JIU and read through its stories, you’ll find its purpose extending beyond sustainability into a larger framework—how people, through moments of retrospection, come to understand “who they are.”
Emotional Old Clothes anchors itself here.
Emotional Old Clothes awaits your old garments, your personality, your story.
#TheStoriesWeWear
#QINGGANYIJIU
