紡織初衷‧布衣回歸

紡織初衷‧布衣回歸

光華雜誌 中華民國105年3月 第41卷第3期 中英文國內版

紡織初衷・布衣回歸 Cloth and Clothing: Back to Basics

文・李湘婷　圖・金宏澔　版面設計・林欣潔

(Lee Hsiang-ting/photos by Chin Hung-hao/tr. by David Mayer)

《左傳‧定公十年》疏中云：「中國有禮義之大，故稱夏；有章服之美，謂之華。」短短幾個字，展現漢民族服飾，縈繞華麗浪漫的意境。

時空回至現代，熱愛織品的鄭惠中，轉身尋找人類著衣的初衷，以棉、麻織品製作簡約布衣，堅持手染精神，有別於傳統中國服飾的華麗感，呈現出東方文化中，另一種輕鬆、內斂的生活態度。

The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals states in its section on the tenth year(500 BCE) of Duke Ding’s reign: ”The Middle Kingdom has the grandeur of rites and rituals, hence it is called Xia.  It has the beauty of symbols and robes, hence it is called Hua.”  In just a few words, the Zuo Commentary expresses the special place that the Chinese people hold in their hearts for clothing and accessories.

Today, textiles lover Cheng Hui-chung is seeking to resurrect what clothing originally meant to mankind way back when we first began wearing it.  His simple hand-dyed garments of cotton and linen represent a stark departure from the ornate look of traditional clothing.  What they present is a relaxed, understated attitude toward life that can also be found in the cultures of the Far East.

一如往常，新北市中和區中山路三段，車水馬龍熱鬧非常，舉步轉進巷弄之間，竟有一方禪意空間隱身於木質門扉之後，古意幽靜。

這裡是一間布衣工作室，負責人鄭惠中自十幾歲開始進入紡織產業歷練，經歷台灣紡織產業曾有過的一段榮景，接受了完整的織品設計與紡織教育訓練。

親身參與了台灣紡織業從家庭代工的手工製程，進步成為高轉速機械化的大規模生產；布料生產的選擇，也從天然材質演變成大量的化學纖維，逐漸隔離了人體與自然環境的關係，熱愛織品的鄭惠中於是開始思考，我們人類所要追尋的衣著精神，難道是24小時血汗工廠不間斷生產的產物？生產者在三班制的工作上得被迫犧牲生活？能不能不要使用化纖布料？

以上種種的反思，讓鄭惠中在30年前立下大願，要做出一個品牌，回歸人類穿衣的原始初衷。

After driving for a stretch along the heavily trafficked Zhongshan Road Section 3 in New Taipei City’s Zhonghe District, we turn off onto a side lane and find ourselves before a wooden door.  Entering, we find ourselves in a Zen-like space that houses an atelier where fabrics are produced. The proprietor, Cheng Hui-chung, has been engaged in cloth production since his teens, and during his career has seen the Taiwan textile industry at the height of its prosperity. Over the years he’s become a consummate expert in every phase of fabric design and manufacture.

He has personally witnessed the leap by Taiwan’s textile industry from home-based piecework done by hand to mass production at big plants using high-speed machinery, and from natural to synthetic materials, all of which has gradually severed the tie between people and the natural environment.  At some point, though, Cheng began to wonder about precisely what our ancestors sought in clothing at the dawn of civilization.

Such musings prompted Cheng 30 years ago to set himself the goal of creating a new brand that would get back to what humans originally had in mind when we first started to wear clothes.

共好服裝經濟學

鄭惠中以織布機產能的RPM〈每一分鐘轉速〉單位做為舉例，他說最早期的手工紡織時代，RPM大約是45，人類織布非常辛苦；而後學習運用獸力、風力與蒸汽機，形成RPM150的階段，人類與機械生產交互合作，產程不至於太累，是很舒服的階段；工業革命之後大量生產，RPM超越800時，人被機器帶著跑，許多思想慢慢消逝，這也是產業辛苦的開始。

最後RPM發展至兩千、三千，鄭惠中笑說那是一個裝神弄鬼的時代，台灣紡織業追著西方工業跑，最後只有遭受淘汰的命運，因此他所創立的生產模式，希望在製程上，找回以人為本的出發點，「我自己將夢想訂在RPM150，那個階段大家彼此合作，機器生產布料，家庭代工合作裁縫，與左鄰右舍一起努力的模式，是最美的『共好』時代，這成為我經營的理念，不完全手工，也不完全機械，而是共好的模式，期待延伸出一種感恩型態的經濟模式。」

The common good

Cheng uses loom speed, measured in “picks per minute”─the number of weft threads laid down each minute─to demarcate different phases in the evolution of textile production.  Manual looms in early times operated at about 45ppm. Back then, the task of textile production was truly arduous.  Later on, after humans learned to harness beasts, wind power, and steam engines, loom speeds rose to 150 ppm. Manual and mechanized labor combined to make textile production quite a pleasant activity.  Then the Industrial Revolution gave birth to mass production and loom speeds of over 800 ppm.  Machines came to determine the pace at which people worked. Many old ways of thinking faded away, and work in the textile industry became unpleasant.

Loom speeds later rose to 2,000─3,000 ppm. Taiwanese textile makers, following in the footsteps of the West, flourished for a good long time, but most of them eventually had to close up shop.  Cheng, however, has created a mode of production that he hopes will put people back in charge of the process.  “I’ve settled on 150 picks per minute as my ideal speed. At that speed, everybody works together in cooperation.  Machines produce the cloth, while sewers work out of the home on a contract basis.  When neighbors work together, you’ve got an ideal situation, where everyone seeks the common good.  This is my guiding principle.  Production is neither all manual nor completely mechanized. I’m hoping this will yield a sort of ‘gratitude-driven’ economic model.”

紡紗織布親自設計

Coco Chanel曾經讚美六十年代重量級法國服裝設計師Cristobal Balenciaga，說他是「真正的裁縫師，他不但能裁剪布材、打版，而且親自手工縫製。」

Cristobal Balenciaga的執著已夠讓人感動，但鄭惠中除了親自裁剪布料、打版、手工縫製，甚至連使用布料，都是自己織、自己染出來的。

鄭惠中認為，化學纖維布料是戰爭需求下的產物，人類不應該一天24小時被非天然的衣著所包覆。而參與蠶絲紡織製造過程中，他感受到許多動物的生命因此犧牲，於是也捨棄了蠶絲與羊毛原料，最後，決定選擇棉、麻做為布材，雖然自己織布沒有太高的利潤，卻符合環保的理念。

「台灣沒有生產棉、麻的纖維材料，我就從國外買進，自己畫設計圖，找到適合的工廠生產線紡紗織布，完成的布料再回到我自己的工作室，打版、裁剪、社區分工裁紉，回到以前那個年代，很多歐巴桑在家做衣服，我把裁縫的工作分給左鄰右舍，形成一個互助型態，最後做完衣服才開始染色。」鄭惠中說明自己的生產理念。

Spinner,weaver,designer

Cheng cuts his own cloth, does his own patternmaking, and sews by hand. He even weaves and dyes the cloth he uses.

Cheng feels that synthetic fabrics are the product of wartime demand, and that humans shouldn’t be enveloped 24 hours a day in clothing made of artificial materials.   But countless living things─the silkworms─are sacrificed in the making of silk, so he eventually decided to make his clothing from cotton and linen.  These materials are less profitable, but they are more in line with the principles of environmental conservation.

“Cotton and flax aren’t grown in Taiwan, so I import them.  I draw the designs and find an appropriate textile factory to spin and weave the cloth.  I do the patternmaking and cloth cutting in my own atelier, and then farm out the sewing to people in the local area.  This is a return to the ways of the past. Lots of older women have experience making clothes at home, so I hire out the sewing work to neighbors.  It’s a symbiotic arrangement.  I don’t start the dyeing process until a piece of clothing is completed.”

原民文化汲取靈感

翻開學生時代的筆記，鄭惠中鉅細靡遺記錄了布材的組成比例及紡織產程細節，就連機器型式，也在他生動的筆觸之下躍然紙上。他說，當年上海紗廠隨國民黨來台，一批老師傅將紡織技術帶到台灣，從他們身上學習到布料紡織，研究布材成為他的興趣，時到今日，他仍習慣於親自「開處方」配置比例，除了自己的布料自己做，還經常研發新的布料纖維。幾年前從原民文化汲取靈感製作出的一批斜紋布設計，就曾被電影《賽德克‧巴萊》劇組選擇，做為戲服製作之用。

「原住民的祖靈思想是很美好的，部落文化對於人類完整生命的珍視就是共好精神，我喜歡到部落去，部落讓我看到織品手作完整的人文呈現。他們認為織布機上經緯交錯出的織品，經線是老天爺準備好的，緯線才是人類自己創造的。」鄭惠中說，原住民對於織品的堅持與傳承，影響他自己選擇布材的態度。

鄭惠中特別說道，他很喜歡台灣原住民彼此見面時的一句問候語「你現在有正常呼吸嗎」，他說自己做出的衣服，最在意的是布料剪裁在穿上之後，能否讓身體有自由呼吸的感覺。

Indigenous inspiration

Cheng also develops a lot of new fibers. A few years ago, for example, he developed a new type of geometrically patterned cloth.  He got the idea from motifs commonly used by Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.  This cloth was used for costumes in the filming of Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale.

“On my visits to indigenous village,” says Cheng, “I came to appreciate the larger cultural context surrounding the cloth they make.  The indigenous people believe that in a loom-woven fabric, the warp threads are prepared by the deities, while the weft threads are created by humans.”

He especially likes a standard greeting used among indigenous people:” Are you breathing normally?” The thing Cheng cares about most is whether clothing on one’s body will allow a person to feel like he is breathing freely.

有能量的環保染色

顏色，是鄭惠中布衣的另一個特色。走進工作室的染房，鈕扣、線材、手染布，顏色款式多達數十種，或深或淺，或鮮豔或素雅，就連染布所使用的機器，都由鄭惠中親自設計，功能上注重減少廢水的排放，「染色時，我希望找到生產導向與市場導向之間的平衡，就是環保導向。在屬於實的表相上，選擇穩定度高的染料，以健康加工方法染出各種色彩。在虛的抽象層面上，顏色不只反映人的性格，也是調和個性的一種能量。」

鄭惠中建議浪漫感性的人，可以多穿藍色或綠色，增強理性的那一面；對於個性內向的人，則建議他們選擇黃或橘色，他說：「這是照耀別人的顏色，也能讓自己更主動積極！」

「零排碳」是鄭惠中的大願，目前設計中的新式染布機，希望以最少的水量，為布料反覆上色，他說自己做衣服時的心情可以「料理」二字形容，「做衣服和做菜或蓋房子是一樣的，第一是如何選材，二是如何料理。以回到傳統的方式，選擇天然的素材，健康的加工。」例如布料在染色褪漿時，現在大部分採用強酸或強鹼，但鄭惠中用的是傳統酵素。

Environmentally friendly dyeing process

Colors are another special facet of fabrics made by Cheng.  Walk into the dyeing room in his atelier and you will see cloth buttons, yarns, and skeins of fabric that have been hand-dyed in dozens of different colors.  He himself designs the equipment he uses to dye fabrics, and is keen to reduce wastewater.  “When dyeing fabric, I try to be environmentally friendly.  I choose highly stable dyes, and use healthy methods to impart various colors.  Colors reflect more than a person’s character; they are also a type of energy that modulates one’s personality.”

Cheng advises people with a heart-on-the-sleeve personality to wear blue or green to bolster their rational side.  For those who are more reserved, he recommends yellow or orange:” These colors light up other people, and can make you more active and outgoing.”

“Zero carbon emissions” is a dearly held goal of Cheng’s. He says:” Making clothing is no different from cooking or building a house.  First you choose your ingredients or materials, and then you decide your cooking or building methods.  I want to get back to traditional methods, and this requires natural materials and healthy processing methods.  Most textile makers use strong acids or alkalis for desizing, but Cheng uses traditional enzymes.

設計內斂、搭配自由

「生活禪」是鄭惠中布衣的設計基調。有別於傳統服裝給人的華麗感，鄭惠中更希望呈現出輕鬆、內斂的另一面。

穿上鄭惠中布衣，身體毫無拘束感，前襟交合的上衣，寬大的袖子，褲子又長又寬鬆，身體與衣服之間流動著充分的空氣，無論什麼季節穿著，都讓人身心舒適。

鄭惠中認為穿衣也是內心的呈現，人可以透過服裝來調整自己的內心，出自鄭惠中之手的任何一件布衣，都是可以任意組合的單品，也可以和其他服飾混搭。

一條簡單的棉布長巾，可以披掛成為高雅的上衣、手繞成為亮眼的花朵腰帶或時尚前衛的頭巾，可以穿出隨興自在的風格品味，也同時展現個性時尚，鄭惠中布衣不依循市場流行導向，讓穿衣成為一種無限想像的趣味。

Understated and free

“Living Zen” is the basis of Cheng’s approach to clothing design.  But unlike the traditional emphasis on a flashy look, Cheng wants to create things that are relaxed and understated.

When you put on a piece of Cheng’s clothing, your body feels utterly unrestricted.  There’s ample breathing space between the body and the clothing, which affords a feeling of physical and emotional comfort at all times.  All of his garments can be mixed and matched in many different ways, and they can also be worn together with other makers’ clothing and accessories.

A simple cotton rectangle can be used as a shirt.  It can also be wrapped into an eye-catching waist tie or a stylishly avant-garde head wrap.  You can wear it in a casual distinct style, and you can also make a personal statement with it.  Cheng has made the act of getting dressed an occasion for unlimited imagination and delight.

行為藝術、國民外交

這樣的布衣精神受到許多人喜愛，甚至有一群來自日本、中國的追隨者，鄭惠中認為身體是最低限度的劇場，服裝本身就是一種行為藝術，遇上懂得欣賞的文人雅士，他樂意分享布衣的生活態度，甚至以作品交換布衣的方式，間接贊助了許多藝術團體的演出。

優表演藝術劇團、莫比斯圓環創作公社、江之翠南管劇團、台北市立國樂團、琴園國樂團、樂興之時管弦樂團、海馬劇團、身聲劇場……等藝術團體，都曾經穿過鄭惠中的布衣，近年來他也為表演團隊設計舞台裝置，進而賦予布衣更豐沛的演繹空間。

「協助設計表演舞台與服裝的過程，我更了解人體活動時的需求，製作出更貼近運動機能的剪裁，讓肢體有更多可呼吸的空間……，這些都讓我對服裝本身有更多的思考。」與藝術團體的合作，激發出鄭惠中更深層的設計靈感。

2015義大利米蘭世博會，在米蘭大教堂附近200公尺的不遠處，就能看見被百年的古老建築所包圍的世博台灣館，館內志工服務員穿著台灣農民的傳統布衣，顏色和義大利國旗色調呼應，服裝就是由鄭惠中義務提供。鮮明的視覺吸引當地媒體的報導，他說，我們用建築、服裝、台灣美食一起向國際發聲，展現了台灣人的生命力。

2005至2009年間，鄭惠中與其贊助的非營利團隊「台灣土狗工作室」〈To Go〉，曾三度遠赴德國，以不同的展演方式，宣傳台灣文化，只要有機會在國際發聲，鄭惠中總是一馬當先，不落人後，他說，「布衣的設計落實台灣人的生活文化，我的選擇，是從纖維到銷售的都全然了解，藉此知道生命的整體是什麼，也藉由這樣的製作傳承，希望這股精神能被世界看見。」

Performance art

Cheng feels that a person’s body is the most primitive theater there is, and that clothing is a kind of performance art.  When he runs into someone capable of appreciating it, Cheng is more than happy to share his thoughts on the attitude toward life that accompanies his clothing, and even donates clothing he has made to performing arts groups, thereby indirectly supporting their performances.

U-Theatre, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, and Sun Son Theatre have all worn Cheng’s clothing in their performances, and in recent years he has designed stage sets for performance troupes.  “Designing sets and costumes helps me to better understand what a human body in motion needs, and to cut clothes in a way that better suits our movements, so that our bodies have more breathing space……Such things spur me to think harder about clothing.”

At Expo Milan 2015, volunteers in the Taiwan pavilion wore the traditional clothing of Taiwanese farmers, made in colors that brought to mind the colors of the Italian national flag.  This clothing, provided free of charge by Cheng, made a powerful visual impact that attracted coverage by the local media.  “We used architecture, clothing, and cuisine,” says Cheng, “to show the world what Taiwan is about, and to demonstrate the hardy survivor spirit of our people.”

Whenever there is an opportunity to place Taiwan in the international spotlight, Cheng will certainly be out front in the effort. Says Cheng:” Clothing design embodies the lifestyles and culture of the Taiwanese people.  I have chosen to understand everything in the process, from fibers to sales.  That enables me to know about the entire life cycle of clothing.  By continuing a traditional way of clothes making, I hope to make sure that the world becomes aware of this spirit.”

P94圖說

布衣妝點了表演藝術的呈現，也保存了衣著文化。（鄭惠中提供）

Cheng Hui-chung’s natural fiber garments have graced artistic performances, and have also helped to preserve the culture of clothing. (courtesy of Cheng Hui-chung)

P96圖說

由鄭惠中一手打造，鬧中取靜的布衣工作室，希望與鄰里創造「共好」的經濟模式。

Operating out of his clothmaking atelier on a quiet lane in bustling Zhonghe, Cheng Hui-chung tries to create an economic symbiosis in the neighborhood, where everyone seeks the common good.

P97圖說

鄭惠中設計的每一塊布，皆源自於其人文品味的積累以及素樸雅典的堅持。

Every piece of fabric designed by Cheng Hui-chung is a reflection of his culture tastes and insistence on simple elegance.

P98圖說

學生時期手繪布材製作細節，可看見鄭惠中對於紡織業的熱愛。

As a student, Cheng made hand drawings of the cloth production process. His love for fabrics shows through clearly.

P99圖說

堅持原創精神的布衣製作，提供衣裝更自覺的可能。

Cheng’s commitment to the manufacture of creative new natural fiber garments enables the wearers to be more fully aware of what they are wearing.

P100圖說

從鈕扣、線材到布料染整，鄭惠中堅持環保原則。

Cheng Hui-chung insists on using environmentally friendly methods of dyeing for everything from cloth buttons to yarns and skeins of fabric.

P101圖說

布衣製作真切走過歷史傳統，尋回著衣初衷。（鄭惠中提供）

The production of natural fiber garments has restored the original essence of the act of wearing clothes. (courtesy of Cheng Hui-chung)

P102圖說

穿衣是一種行為藝術，布衣提供表演藝術演出，圖為「樂興之時」交響樂團在桃園大溪田間的演出。（鄭惠中提供）

The act of putting on clothes is itself a kind of performance art.  Indeed, Cheng has provided his natural fiber garments to performing arts troupes.  Shown here is Philharmonia Moments Musicaux performing in a paddy field in the town of Daxi, Taoyuan. (courtesy of Cheng Hui-chung)

P103圖說

2015年米蘭世博會，台灣館志工身著布衣，受到外國媒體關注。（鄭惠中提供）

At Expo Milan 2015, volunteers in the Taiwan pavilion wore natural fiber clothing that attracted a lot of attention among foreign journalists. (courtesy of Cheng Hui-chung)

1070725紡織初衷‧布衣回歸