When Rihanna wore a fur-trimmed yellow satin gown by the Chinese-born designer Guo Pei to the Met Gala on Monday night, it became the talk of Twitter, which erupted with jokey comparisons to omelets and pizzas. Memes using cartoon characters like SpongeBob SquarePants were rampant. “The fashion world pretty much came to a standstill,” Glamour magazine wrote of the “jaw-dropping” cloak, while Time magazine declared that the singer stole the show.
周一晚上，蕾哈娜(Rihanna)身穿中国设计师郭培设计的黄色皮毛镶边绸缎礼服出席大都会艺术博物馆的慈善晚宴(Met Gala)，成为Twitter上的热议话题，人们戏谑地把这件礼服与煎蛋饼和披萨相比较。用海绵宝宝(SpongeBob)等卡通人物设计的网络米姆(meme)纷纷涌现。《魅力》(Glamour)杂志提到这件“令人惊愕的”披风时写道，“时尚界几乎惊呆了”；《时代》(Time)杂志认为这位歌手抢尽风头。

Yet Ms. Guo isn’t the first Chinese-born designer to create a media meltdown with a spectacular design. The “X-Men” star Fan Bingbing wore a bright yellow dragon dress by Laurence Xu to the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it “launched her into the style stratosphere.” “Sensational!” the website Red Carpet Awards proclaimed.
不过，郭培不是第一位通过惊人设计引起媒体轰动的中国设计师。2010年，曾出演《X战警》(X-Men)的范冰冰身穿许建树设计的明黄色龙袍出席戛纳电影节。《好莱坞记者报》(The Hollywood Reporter)写道，这件衣服“让她一举成为顶级时尚明星”。红地毯颁奖网站赞扬说：“美极了！”
The dress got so much attention, in fact, that the actress Qin Hailu complained publicly that Ms. Fan was using the dress to cast herself as China’s leading lady (a charge that Ms. Fan denied), and London’s Victoria & Albert Museum ultimately snapped it up for its permanent collection. Now, that dress and two Guo Pei designs are part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Costume Institute exhibition, “China: Through the Looking Glass.”
范冰冰的龙袍引起强烈反响，以至于女演员秦海璐公开抱怨说，范是利用那条裙子塑造自己是中国影后的假象（范否认了这一指责）。伦敦的维多利亚与艾伯特博物馆(Victoria & Albert Museum)最终把它变成自己的永久收藏。如今，那件龙袍和郭培设计的两件服装都在大都会艺术博物馆时装学院的新展览“中国：镜花水月”(China:Through the Looking Glass)上展出。
Juxtaposed against a dragon dress made by Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent, Mr. Xu’s gown highlights the different ways contemporary Chinese designers interpret their aesthetic history, and reflects the approach of a new wave of Asian creators who are drawing attention and acclaim for work that is defined by a modern balance between East and West.
许建树的龙袍与汤姆·福特(Tom Ford)为伊夫·圣罗兰(Yves Saint Laurent)设计的龙袍并列放置，突显出当代中国设计师对自己审美历史的不同阐释方法，展现了新一代亚洲设计师们的创作方式——他们通过创作展现东西方现代平衡的作品引起人们的注意和称赞。
Last year, for example, Yiqing Yin, the Chinese-born, Paris-based couturier who won the fashion designer of the year award at France’s prestigious Globes de Cristal in April, was named artistic director of the French fashion house Léonard. And in 2008, Qiu Hao won the International Woolmark Prize, thanks to the hand-woven fabrics he uses in his minimalist, architectural looks.
例如，去年4月，中国出生的巴黎女装设计师殷亦晴获得了法国著名的晶球奖(Globes de Cristal)年度最佳时装设计师奖，之后被任命为法国时装公司莱昂纳尔(Léonard)的艺术总监。2008年，邱昊凭借建筑风格的极简主义手工织物获得国际羊毛标志大奖(International Woolmark Prize)。
“With so many brands doing so many different things, and a country of 1.3 billion people, the Chinese designers don’t have to adapt to us in the West, and we’ll see this develop,” said Gemma A. Williams, the author of “Fashion China.” “They will learn from what we’ve done and put their own spin on it.”
“中国的品牌很多，做的事情也很不同，这个国家有13亿人，所以中国设计师们不必去适应西方，我们将看到这种发展，”《时尚中国》(Fashion China)的作者杰玛·A·威廉斯(Gemma A. Williams)说，“他们将从我们的经验中吸取营养，然后加入自己的想法。”
Witness Boundless, designed by Zhang Da, which gives classic padded, quilted agricultural coats a new spin by reimagining them in luxury cottons, soft pinks and modern geometrics. Or Chictopia, designed by Christine Lau, whose pop prints are drawn by hand rather than computer. Dooling Jiang of Digest Design also uses a traditional approach, in her case ancient cutting techniques, to create conceptual pieces like a landscape-inspired shirt-and-cropped-trouser combo; minimalist, wrapped jackets; or crinoline-esque paper-thin dresses.
例如，张达的品牌没边(Boundless)给经典夹棉农家棉衣注入新元素，用奢华棉花、柔和粉色和现代感几何图案加以改造。又如刘清扬的Chictopia，该品牌的流行印花是用手绘的，而不是用电脑设计的。消化设计(Digest Design)的设计师Dooling Jiang也是采用传统方式，具体说来，是用古代裁剪方法创造概念化的服装，比如以风景为灵感的衬衣和七分裤套装；极简主义的裹式上衣；或衬裙式超薄连衣裙。
As the Qingdao-born, London-based designer Huishan Zhang said, there’s more to Chinese design than dragons, phoenixes and the color red.
正如青岛出生的伦敦设计师张卉山所说，中国设计不只是龙凤和大红色。
“There is a really interesting feeling of these designers working with a blank slate, and much more willing to take risks with their designs,” Angelica Cheung, the editor in chief of Vogue China, wrote in an email. When the magazine started, in 2005, she struggled to find local designers to fill her pages, but is now, according to her, completely overwhelmed.
“这些设计师有一种非常有趣的感觉，他们是一张白纸，更愿意在设计上冒险，”《Vogue》中国版主编张宇在邮件中写道。2005年创办中国版时，她努力寻找当地设计师填充页面，但是她说现在中国的设计师数不胜数。
The 32-year-old Ban Xiaoxue, for example, is one of China’s rising stars; he won the Asian final of the 2012 International Woolmark Prize the same year he introduced his namesake label. Based in Guangzhou, he uses ancient embroidery techniques to create modern floral and grid patterns on signature floating, feminine pieces, and is known for his fabric experimentation.
例如，32岁的广州设计师班晓雪是中国的新秀设计师之一。2012年，他获得国际羊毛标志大奖的亚洲区冠军之后，开创了自己的同名品牌。他在自己标志性的飘逸阴柔服装上运用古代刺绣技术创造现代花卉和网格图案，他还以进行新面料实验闻名。
Then there is the philosophical approach of Evening, designed by the Beijing-based Yu Wanning, whose last collection, full of sculpted wool jackets with fur sleeves, cropped chunky knits, and long sheer skirts, was inspired by wu qin xi, a traditional form of exercise that uses the movement of animals to balance the body and mind. Not to mention the mix of classic Mandarin collars on sheer embroidered tops with cutout shoulders by Liu Min, 34, who trained at Viktor & Rolf; she also designs organza sweatshirts traced by rubber calligraphy.
北京设计师于惋宁的品牌Evening采用的是哲学方法。她的上一个系列充满了有雕塑感的皮毛袖羊毛外衣、宽松超短针织衫，以及长款透明衬衫。这个系列的灵感来自五禽戏，它是中国的一种传统锻炼方法，通过模仿五种动物的动作，实现身体和精神的平衡。还有34岁的刘旻，她把经典中式领与露肩透明刺绣上衣结合起来。她曾在维克托与罗尔夫时装公司(Viktor & Rolf)接受培训。她还设计过镶有橡胶汉字书法的透明硬纱长袖运动衫。
Chinese street-style stars like Leaf Greener, a stylist and former senior fashion editor of Elle China, are helping bring these Chinese designers to a broader audience, whether on Facebook and Instagram or on Chinese microblogging sites like Weibo and WeChat.
叶子(Leaf Greener)是造型设计师及《Elle》中国的前任资深时尚编辑，像她这样的中国年轻时尚明星们常常会通过Facebook、Instagram或中国的微博和微信等微博客网站，帮助这些中国设计师们走向更广泛的观众。
“I mix and match,” Ms. Greener said. “At Giambattista Valli’s show in Paris this season, I wore a simple turtleneck sweater by new Chinese designer Chrisou by Dan with Calvin Klein skinny jeans, Céline coat and brown Louis Vuitton patterned ankle boots. It showed that Chinese fashion is not about the past but it’s about what’s happening right now.”
“我做一些混搭，”叶子说，“比如本季的巴黎詹巴迪斯塔•瓦利(Giambattista Valli)秀上，我就穿了一件简单的高领衫，这是中国设计师欧阳丹(Chrisou by Dan)设计的，搭配卡尔文•克莱因(Calvin Klein)的瘦腿牛仔裤、赛琳(Céline)外套，以及棕色路易•威登(Louis Vuitton)图案的踝靴。这表明中国时装不仅仅是关于过去，也和当下发生的事件有关。”
Christopher Bu, a former stylist who became a designer in 2010, attributes the fast success of his label to Weibo feeds that have showcased celebrities in his clothes, like Xu Fan and Fan Bingbing, who modeled his gold gown and geometric cape at the Met.
卜柯文(Christopher Bu)曾是造型师，2010年又当上了设计师，他说自己品牌的迅速成功归功于微博。在微博上，经常有名人展示他的衣服，比如徐帆和范冰冰，范冰冰还在纽约大都会博物馆慈善舞会上穿了他的金色长袍和几何图案斗篷。
Similarly, Qiaoran Huang and Josh Hupper, whose hip street wear label, Babyghost, has been shown at New York Fashion Week for the last two seasons (they split their time between Manhattan and Shanghai), are using social media as a conduit for their brand.
黄悄然和乔希•哈珀(Josh Hupper)的时尚街头潮牌Babyghost也曾连续两季在纽约时装周亮相，他俩一半时间住在曼哈顿，一半时间住在上海，同样也使用社交媒体来推广自己的品牌。
“We’ve developed a sixth sense for customer reaction because of the immediacy of Qiaoran’s blog and Instagram,” Mr. Hupper said. “We are using the reaction to our products on Instagram to come up with product numbers so we are building a fan-based business.”
“我们发展出一种对消费者反应的直觉，因为悄然的博客和Instagram都很有即时性，”哈珀说。“我们把产品照片放在Instagram上，然后根据消费者的反应来决定产品数量，这样我们就建立起了一种以粉丝为基础的商业模式。”
For Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute show, this is a reflection of the future. “As the Chinese designers are so sophisticated in technology, and the future of fashion is technology, Chinese designers are well placed to take advantage of this, opening up the market and the parameters of fashion,” he said.
安德鲁•博尔顿(Andrew Bolton)是时装学院这场展览的策展人，他认为这种做法反映了未来的趋势。“中国设计师们非常擅长技术，时尚的未来就是关乎技术，中国设计师们已经在这个领域内占据了领先地位，有助于打入时装界的市场与重要领域，”他说。
Or, as Ms. Guo, who created the 280 handmade theatrical designs for the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, said via Skype from her cavernous Rose Studio in Beijing, “Everyone wants to learn about China, and fashion is the easiest way.”
郭女士曾为2008年北京奥运会开幕式制作了280件手工礼服，她在北京宽敞高大的玫瑰坊工作室通过Skype接受了采访，或许正如她所言，“所有人都想了解中国，时装是最简单的办法。”
“China: Through the Looking Glass” is at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through Aug. 16.
“中国：镜花水月”在大都会博物馆时装学院举行，截止到8月16日。