China

Hang
zhou

Guest City
of Honour
2018

For our inaugural festival, Silk in Lyon is paying tribute to the city of Hangzhou and its know-how.

For thousands of years, China has enchanted the world with its mysterious fabrics. Precious materials with a spellbinding sheen were all the rage at the most elegant of Courts. Silk was highly coveted, soon sparking brisk trading between Europe and Asia.

Silk was first invented in the city of Hangzhou, in the province of Zhejiang, which Marco Polo called the “Celestial City”. As a dynamic city that sets the benchmark, Hangzhou hosted the G20 summit in 2016. It now boasts a National Silk Museum, as well as hosting the head office of the International Silk Union, an international federation for the silk industry.

As the guest of honour for the inaugural edition of SILK IN LYON, Hangzhou is delighted to be in Lyon to present the talents of four iconic firms that embody Chinese silk know-how by way of the exhibition “Aux Comptoirs d’Hangzhou“ (The Hangzhou Trading Companies), with the following participants:

  • Cathaya group
  • High Fashion International Group
  • Jin Fuchun Group
  • Wensli Group

Buoyed by its drive and historic heritage, Hangzhou and its home province have adopted an approach combining ground-breaking techniques and aesthetics, pushing research and development in sustainable solutions.