Rong Xing, Cherry

Contact:
xingrongonthetree@gmail.com
University/School:
Birmingham City University
Location:
Birmingham
Specialism:
Award NomineeDiversityEco / Zero Waste DesignFashion DesignHeritage & CultureKnitwear DesignSustainabiltyTextiles
About Me

I'm Cherry! A Sustainable Fashion Designer!

Rong Xing, Cherry is a Chinese-born sustainable fashion designer, raised in 4 different countries throughout her teens, free-spirited, and always curious about everything around her. She considers fashion a way of story-telling and believes 'sustainable fashion' is not only about techniques but also a way of living.

I believe "loved clothes last" and they hold healing powers. Doing a huge research project on "sustainable fashion" first-year acted as a wake-up call for me. I knew at that moment that I do not want to graduate and use my knowledge and something I love so much to pollute my only "home". Fresh air, clean water, and sunlight that cost no money are luxuries in our big cities, the psychology that drives us to consume is to fill the void, and I want to use fashion to fill that emptiness with stories, with love, until we become whole again.

INSPIRATION

back to my ROOTS, to my COUNTRY, to my CULTURE, to my HEART.

Looking back on 2020, I consider COVID as a blessing in disguise. “On my way home” is a project inspired by a tiny remote mountain village I visited in the south of China, GUIZHOU, home to the GE family, an ethnic group that has roots dating back to the Tang dynasty (618 to 907 AD). I quickly fell for their traditional costumes, organic craftsmanship, fairy tale history stories, and the genuine smile on their face and ended up living with them for 15 days.

Grandmamas from the village would dye their fabric using indigo plants, and hand-painted with beeswax, they do not have languages, the patterns are their history. However, it is slowly disappearing as young people move to big cities to find better opportunities, leaving no one to inherit, the thought of losing this Art pains me, I want to tell their stories on a global scale, hopefully, would bring more opportunities for the villagers so this craftsmanship could last for a long time to come.

MY WORK

PORTFOLIOS

DETAIL

The whole project is 90% sustainable, using recycled, up-cycled, eco fabrics and 0 waste techniques.

The blue fabric were sourced as fabric waste from the village, dyed using plant-base indigo dye and hand-painted by the grandmamas using bee-wax, denim were gifted by friends which were unwanted/damage beyond repair, the base were hessian coffee bean bags sourced from friends and local coffee shops, knits were sourced from local charity shops, all adopting a zero-waste technique, the fabric waste will go back to making fabrics again so nothing is wasted.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao Tzu
Award NomineeDiversityEco / Zero Waste DesignFashion DesignHeritage & CultureKnitwear DesignSustainabiltyTextiles
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