Gentle Backbone
The MOODBOX “Gentle Backbone” collection draws inspiration from Dunhuang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and from the stories of those who have devoted their lives to preserving and passing down its culture.
“We are copyists, we are artisans. We have spent our entire lives doing just one thing.”
Through this unwavering dedication to their craft, generation after generation has carried forward the art, culture, and historical memory embodied by Dunhuang.
For thirty-six years, she—Guan Jinwen—has meticulously reproduced the murals of Dunhuang, never once stopping. In Shanghai, inspired by the murals she recreated, Qin Xu transformed their beauty into more than fifty exquisite garments.
Only gentleness can meet a thousand years of desert winds and shifting sands with a graceful smile.
Only perseverance can preserve the purity of our original purpose through the long passage of time.
This season, we use beauty to pass beauty on.
MOODBOX “Gentle Backbone”
A tribute — to the guardians of Dunhuang.
A tribute — to the “gentle backbone” within each of us.
Designer Qin Xu says:
“The artistic treasure trove of Dunhuang is like an ocean…
This season, I can only draw inspiration from a single drop of that vast beauty and weave its essence into my creations, expressing the ‘Dunhuang aesthetic’ that I have absorbed.
From the original motifs, patterns, and colours of the Dunhuang murals, I extract, combine, deconstruct and recompose their elements. Through them runs the gentle yet uplifting spirit of the Flying Apsaras: supported by the clouds, but never dependent upon them. With a supple backbone of her own, she dances freely through the air.
Through this language of fashion, I seek to express the value of perseverance among women artisans, and the rarity of true craftsmanship. Thus was born the “Gentle Backbone” collection.
Like a sacred text slowly unfolded in the hands of a monk, each piece tells its story with quiet grace, winding its way across the desert landscape. It tells of a thousand-year-old devotion to the preservation of culture, carries forward the aesthetic of Dunhuang, and renews the enduring power of its cultural treasures for a contemporary world—bringing more of Dunhuang’s art into everyday life.
From “Glimpsing Mogao” to “Winged Horse Everlasting,” “Hu Xuan, As Once Before,” and “Phoenix Reborn,” each garment in the “Gentle Backbone” collection bears its own name.
Across the collection, we discover innovative interpretations and fusions of motifs drawn from the Dunhuang murals: hunting scenes, winged horses, linked-pearl patterns, scrolling foliage, flying apsaras, phoenixes, caisson ceilings and more.
At the same time, these creations embody MOODBOX’s distinctive vision of a new contemporary Chinese aesthetic in haute couture and high-end ready-to-wear.
Through clothing, designer Qin Xu brings the Dunhuang aesthetic into our daily lives, transforming the diamond-shaped patterns of the Mogao Caves’ caisson ceilings into a living connection with the contemporary world.
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