Traditional crafts link heritage with chic style and glamor

Not a single air bubble was acceptable. Xiong Songtao's glistening enamel crafts, which employ the Chinese cloisonne technique, a form of intangible cultural heritage, have attained the precision required for high-end watch dials.

Xiong, a third-generation master of Xiong's Enamel, takes great pride in this innovation, which has brought acclaim to the family brand both domestically and internationally. The brand secured a global partnership with the Spanish fashion house Loewe, which celebrated the Chinese Year of the Snake with a collection that pays homage to Chinese cloisonne.

The collaboration with Xiong saw Loewe introduce two sets of cloisonne works: a nest bag with snake head and lotus cloisonne details, as well as necklaces with cloisonne pendants featuring the auspicious snake, monkey and cloud motifs.

This project exemplifies a growing trend in which international luxury brands increasingly draw on China's craft heritage, particularly intangible cultural heritage crafts, to navigate the evolving Chinese market.

As China marked the 2025 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day on June 14, the trend also highlights the intangible cultural heritage's surge in prominence.

Such partnerships create a synergy that, on one hand, helps international brands gain cultural depth and local market insights, while on the other hand, provides intangible cultural heritage brands with enhanced visibility and growth opportunities.

The collaboration with Xiong was not Loewe's first tribute to art collections inspired by Chinese cultural heritage. In 2022, the brand presented its holiday collection, which included the Chinese Monochrome collection of bags, inspired by Chinese monochrome ceramics from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

Other fashion houses are also on the move. The Italian brand Fendi collaborated with artisans from the Yi ethnic group to create a baguette bag featuring traditional Yi embroidery and silverwork. French luxury brand Dior incorporated ronghua, a velvet flower-making craft that has been practiced since the Tang Dynasty (618-907), into its men's couture knitwear.

"China is a vast market," says Wei Xiang, a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He adds that it is only natural for international businesses engaged in culture and commerce to accommodate the consumer demand in this market.

Yet a shift is underway among young Chinese consumers — especially Gen Z, those born between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, the coveted demographic for luxury brands. Increasingly discerning about consumerism, they're prioritizing experiences like travel over material goods. Moreover, they are increasingly embracing homegrown brands, designs, and cultural symbols, a trend now referred to as guochao, or China-chic.

Xiong says that the necklace pendants they crafted for Loewe rival the rigorous standards required for watch dials. Silver bent wires with a diameter of just 0.04 millimeters — about half the thickness of a human hair — were applied to silver bases filled with enamel paste. Each piece was handmade, taking approximately 20 days to complete.

Chinese cloisonne was widely produced during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

"Our craft and technique are superb, and our brand becomes more prominent, and above all, China is getting stronger, with more people coming to love Chinese culture," Xiong says in a summary of his insights into the new trend of collaboration.

Xinhua