Emerging Brand: DEYI LIVING
Q: Describe your philosophy and mission with your brand Deyi Living.
DEYI is a French sustainable lifestyle brand, inspired by the Chinese philosophy and sense of beauty. It proposes a global art of living that studies traditions to give new perspectives for a better future, in harmony with nature and people.
Our brand aspires to preserve the craft’s cultural heritage in rural China through a contemporary and ethical approach. We work hand in hand with artisans from indigenous communities in Guangxi and Guizhou provinces, China. We create contemporary and innovative outfits using their exceptional traditional fabrics and techniques.
Q: Where do you draw most of your inspiration from?
China is our essence. We draw our inspiration from Chinese philosophies, ancestral art, traditional craftsmanship, architecture, landscapes and so on… For example, for our last slow fashion collection YIN YANG, we were inspired by the Taoist philosophy.
Taoism teaches that the world is ruled by opposite but complementary energies, the Yin and Yang breaths. Inner harmony lies in the quest for a balance between thosetwo energies. Thus, with our last collection, we promote a new philosophy of clothing by proposing to combine two independent parts of clothing, which embody Yin or Yang’s characteristics, to create a piece that aspires to harmony. A multitude of combinations becomes possible and everyone is free to design a look that reflects his personality, with elegance.
Q:How did your creative process look like for your first collection, YUANFEN?
The YUANFEN collection was our first major ethical design project, which began in April 2019. During our investigation trips to remote villages in the Chinese provinces of Guizhou and Guangxi, we have become witnesses to the gradual disappearance of the textile craftsmanship of the indigenous communities living in these regions. We decided to create this first collection in collaboration with local artisans, committed to the preservation of their traditional crafts.
YUANFEN is a Chinese concept meaning that “chance” or “destiny” is hidden under any relationship. Thus, each outfits of the collection embody a person we have met on our path in China. Those people instantly touched us. We feel having the responsibility to continue their stories because they gave us a message of confidence in our ability to build a caring world.
Q: What led you to your motto, “All we need is timeless handcrafts design”.
Our brand is built in opposition with the growing phenomenon of “trends” in the fashion industry. We aspire to propose contemporary garments, with a timeless aesthetics, made with Chinese traditional handcrafted textiles. We aspire to give a new regard on “MADE IN CHINA” items by promoting the expertise and traditional know-hows of our artisans.
The quality of our clothes is our priority, we use only natural handwoven fabrics, dyed with natural dyes. We also want to increase awareness among our customers to the need to take care of our clothing, in the context of over-consumption in the Western world.
Q: How has your positive and ethical impact on the environment and fashion industry contributed to your brand’s identity and wear.
Our willingness to participate in the preservation of the textile heritage of Chinese indigenous communities, with a sustainable approach, is our core mission. This is what makes us vibrate and the reason why the three founders of the brand have decided to join together. At each step of
our value chain, we challenge ourselves to find new ways to achieve our mission. For our sustainable packaging for instance, we use the traditional handmade paper of Miao indigenous communities.
In the long term, DEYI envisions to raise social and environmental consciousness among consumers and build a community committed to preserve our global cultural heritage and the natural environment.
Q: Describe your work from your Guizhou artisans. How have you made their ancient textile culture of pleated fabric, indigo dyeing, wax-resist printing, hand woven fabrics andmore, feel modern within your designs?
All of those exceptional know-hows are threatened to disappear in the decades to come. Our desire is to bring these ancestral techniques back to life with an innovative approach, with the new regard of our Spanish designer. It is not a question of copying these techniques identically,
but rather studying and revisiting them with respect.
Our project was built in opposition to the growing phenomenon of cultural appropriation in the fashion world.
Indeed, many designers are copying traditional designs from tribes and other autochthonous communities, and then make profit from them without any economic benefit for the local people whom the designs belong to. On the contrary, with DEYI , we work in collaboration with several artisans of Guizhou indigenous communities. This collaboration aspires to empower local communities to contribute to their social and economic development.
Q: Can you tell us the story of how you started Deyi Living? Why did you choose the name “Deyi”?
DEYI was founded by three friends passionate about traditional Chinese culture and convinced in the power of ethical design to change our society. Adriana Cagigas, a Spanish fashion designer has joined forces with Pauline Ferrières, a French cultural entrepreneur, and Zhang Xing,
a Chinese interior designer. The original name DEYI symbolizes the core values of the brand. DE means “Ethics” and “Sense of dignity”. According to Confucius, humans need first to learn from Nature and respect
human dignity and then transmit this moral value to other to live in inner peace. This quality is complementary with the YI mindset. YI depicts a mindful lifestyle in harmony with nature and oneself. This art of living is perfectly
illustrated by the lives of ancient Chinese literati who decided to step back from the drifts of society to live a simple life connected to the natural world and nurtured by the arts.
Q: What has been one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced with starting and upholding Deyi Living? Biggest accomplishment?
We embarked on our ethical entrepreneurship adventure at the time of the pandemic, we had to be resilient. The year 2020 has been a challenging year, but we are very proud of how far we have come. We are confident in the future of our project. After our first investigations in China in the spring of 2019, we were already participating in
February 2020 at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Madrid, and again in the following September. Our greatest pride was to see the smiles of our artisans when they watched the videos of our fashion shows. They were moved to see the models dressed in the fabrics they wove with their own hands, in their remote mountains.
Q: How do you hope individuals feel wearing your designs?
We put a lot of importance on the comfort of our clothes, we want the customer to feel comfortable and free of its movements. Thus, we favour oversized cuts Above all, we aspire to create an emotional attachment between the garment and the client. Our wardrobe is designed to accompany the customer for his entire life. Our textiles are made by hand, with love, by our craftswomen according to the gestures of the ir ancestors. The client becomes an integral part of the story of the garment, he/she has a key role to play to continue to perpetuate those exceptional know-hows. Wearing DEYI testifies of a real willingness to actively participate in the preservation of indigenous communities’ crafts cultural heritage.
Q: Where do you hope to see yourself and your brand in 5 years?
We started the development of our brand with the sustainable fashion project. In the very near future, we also wish to develop in parallel the design of space and furniture by continuing to use the traditional materials of the Chinese indigenous communities: textiles but also bamboo and paper craftsmanship. We wish to promote our art of sustainable living, in harmony with nature and nourished by Chinese philosophy, through all aspects of design. It is an ambitious project, but one that responds to the future we wish to design: to live better, consciously, closer to the essence of life.