Participants:
University of Arts London - Elisa Palomino
The film “Preservation of Hezhen Fish Skin Tradition Through Fashion Higher Education” will be premiered as part of the official selection of the Fashion Film Festival Milano (10th-13th December). The film, art directed by FISHSkin researcher Elisa Palomino, together with Zhongjin Zhang and Joseph Boon, focuses on the Hezhen society, one of China’s smallest ethnic minorities, living in north eastern China by the Amur river basin.
The film focuses primarily on identifying the historical, cultural, environmental and socio-economic importance of fish skin as an innovative sustainable material. It proposes a vision of sustainability as an anthropological study of the resourcefulness and resilience of the Arctic indigenous peoples, their lifestyles and fish skin practices. The application of the craft to fashion via sustainability practices has been tested through a participatory workshop with fashion students from Central Saint Martins taught by Hezhen craftspeople.
During the last century, Arctic indigenous peoples resisted both colonization and repression by humans, and dramatic ecological changes in seafood security. Fish skin craft became a way to communicate traditional knowledge combined with cultural resilience. In 2006, the Hezhen method of making fish skin clothes was listed as intangible cultural heritage, and Wenfeng You, the main craftsperson featuring in the film (alongside Sun Yulin), was appointed its heir.
Participants:
Kyoto Seika University - Mitsuhiro Kokita and Yuji Yonehara University of Arts London - Elisa Palomino
Researchers Mitsuhiro Kokita and Yuji Yonehara of FISHSkin’s partner Kyoto Seika University were interviewed by the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun last September. Titled "Salmon Skin Transformed into Fish Leather" the article described Kyoto Seika's challenges in dyeing fish leather and the hope to expand the demand and clientele for the Kyoto traditional textile dyeing industry. The article also references traditional usage of fish skin in Ainu shoes, bags and ritual garments, and fish leather items created by the Italian fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo during the 1930s and 40s. Pictured on the right are fish leather handbags by our project's researcher, Elisa Palomino.