Yu Kunyao: Combining ethnic embroidery with international brands

During the 2015 New Balance Anglo-American production series tour in Kunming, a pair of track shoes featuring traditional Yi embroidery attracted considerable attention.

The shoes were embroidered by Yu Kunyao, a post-90s Yi ethnic minority girl living in  Yunnan’s Yongren County. Yu Kunyao has a simple and ambitious dream: to rejuvenate and hand down the declining tradition of Yi embroidery, while introducing it to the outside world.

The Yi ethnic group is China’s sixth largest ethnic minority mainly inhabiting the country’s southwest provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou. Over thousands of years, Yi embroidery has been handed down from generation to generation.

Yu Kunyao’s mother Li Ruxiu is a legendary embroiderer. “Following in my mother’s footprints, I know it is a difficult road, but I am not going to give up,” said Yu Kunyao. The Yi embroidery has been passed down thousands of years, and Li Ruxiu has embroidered from childhood to old age. Yi women’s clothes are embroidered in different patterns and colours and are never the same. If a piece of clothing is lost or cremated with a deceased woman, the style or pattern can no longer be reproduced. In order to preserve these unique embroidery works, Li Ruxiu goes from door to door to buy and collect them.

 “Mother began to collect embroidered articles before I was born. She has spent a lot of money on them,” Yu Kunyao says, “Now our house is filled with her collection.” Her twenty years’ perseverance has finally been rewarded. Li Ruxiu’s collection of over 3,000 Yi costumes and embroidery works are now exhibited at the Yongren County Cultural Centre, attracting many researchers and designers.

Li Ruxiu’s peers used to find her weird, and now the same thing is happening to her daughter. Yu Kunyao says with a smile, “I think I am luckier than mother, because people around me give me support, while my mother was on her own.”

 “Unlike Suzhou embroidery, the Yi embroidery is not restricted by any fixed frame and has more freedom. Today, however, affected by market demand, patterns are basically stereotyped, and creativity and imagination are constantly weakening,” says Yu Kunyao.

When New Balance placed an order, Yu Kunyao spent more than a week trying to break through the limitations of traditional thinking. “To interpret ethnic style from a new perspective, you need to fully understand traditional artistic expressions and transform and refine traditional elements. Only then can you integrate them into concepts of modern life to achieve local design with modern characteristics.”Yu says.  

 

Yu Kunyao: Combining ethnic embroidery with international brands

During the 2015 New Balance Anglo-American production series tour in Kunming, a pair of track shoes featuring traditional Yi embroidery attracted considerable attention. The shoes were embroidered by Yu Kunyao, a post-90s Yi ethnic minority girl living in Yunnans Yongren County. Yu Kunyao has a simple and ambitious dream: to rejuvenate and hand down the declining tradition of Yi embroidery, while introducing it to the outside world. The Yi ethnic group is Chinas sixth largest ethnic minority mainly inhabiting the countrys southwest provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou. Over thousands of years, Yi embroidery has been handed down from generation to generation. Yu Kunyaos mother Li Ruxiu is a legendary embroiderer. Following in my mothers footprints, I know it is a difficult road, but I am not going to give up, said Yu Kunyao. The Yi embroidery has been passed down thousands of years, and Li Ruxiu has embroidered from childhood to old age. Yi womens clothes are embroidered in different patterns and colours and are never the same. If a piece of clothing is lost or cremated with a deceased woman, the style or pattern can no longer be reproduced. In order to preserve these unique embroidery works, Li Ruxiu goes from door to door to buy and collect them. Mother began to collect embroidered articles before I was born. She has spent a lot of money on them, Yu Kunyao says, Now our house is filled with her collection. Her twenty years perseverance has finally been rewarded. Li Ruxius collection of over 3,000 Yi costumes and embroidery works are now exhibited at the Yongren County Cultural Centre, attracting many researchers and designers. Li Ruxius peers used to find her weird, and now the same thing is happening to her daughter. Yu Kunyao says with a smile, I think I am luckier than mother, because people around me give me support, while my mother was on her own. Unlike Suzhou embroidery, the Yi embroidery is not restricted by any fixed frame and has more freedom. Today, however, affected by market demand, patterns are basically stereotyped, and creativity and imagination are constantly weakening, says Yu Kunyao. When New Balance placed an order, Yu Kunyao spent more than a week trying to break through the limitations of traditional thinking. To interpret ethnic style from a new perspective, you need to fully understand traditional artistic expressions and transform and refine traditional elements. Only then can you integrate them into concepts of modern life to achieve local design with modern characteristics.Yu says.