Kaiqi Zhang Recognized as Chinese People’s Artist and UK Honoree

Recently, emerging fashion and costume designer Kaiqi Zhang received the “Chinese People’s Artist Certificate” from the China National Ethnic Culture Promotion Association (also known as the China Culture Promotion Society). The honor recognizes her sustained creative practice and outstanding contributions in contemporary fashion art, stage visuals, and cross-cultural exchange. It not only affirms the solid body of work she has built in recent years but also highlights her role as lead designer and principal creative force in her projects, where she demonstrates comprehensive strength in conceptual development, structural research, and material experimentation.

The China National Ethnic Culture Promotion Association, founded in 1992, is a nationwide social organization approved by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs and supervised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, headquartered in Beijing. Guided by the mission of “promoting Chinese culture and advancing international exchange,” it brings together cultural figures from China and abroad and operates more than one hundred branches. Over the years, it has conducted social art proficiency examinations and organized nearly 2,000 cultural and artistic activities spanning academic research, international exchange, and cultural industries. Against this authoritative institutional backdrop, the “Chinese People’s Artist Certificate” is not only a confirmation of an individual’s artistic status; it also represents a systematic recognition of Ms. Zhang’s professional creative capacity, academic potential, and social impact as a young designer.



Alongside this domestic recognition, Ms. Zhang has also distinguished herself in international professional awards as a principal creator. Her individual work, Foam of Desire, was submitted to the “Patterns for Performance Award,” organized by The Costume Society in the United Kingdom, where it received a “Highly Commended” honor. The piece draws inspiration from the character Sir Epicure Mammon in Ben Jonson’s play The Alchemist. Zhang proposed the overarching visual concept of “luxurious corruption,” using seventeenth-century European male aristocratic dress as a structural foundation. Incorporating historical elements such as the doublet, trunk hose, and ruff collar, she applied deconstruction and exaggerated proportions to amplify the volume of the chest and shoulders, creating a swollen, unbalanced silhouette that symbolizes a body bloated by desire. She further introduced water-moldable fabric, embedding foam and air pockets within the textile to generate irregular “bubbles,” giving the surface a semi-transparent, semi-hardened quality between garment and soft sculpture. This aesthetic leads viewers from candy-like colors toward a subtle unease about “excess and emptiness.”

Founded in 1965, The Costume Society is the United Kingdom’s national academic institution dedicated to the study of dress history and clothing, and its awards are widely regarded as professionally authoritative in the fields of costume and stage costume internationally.

For the 2024 edition of the “Patterns for Performance Award,” only three finalists were selected. The jury was led by costume designer Susannah Buxton, known for her work on British historical film and television productions. The organizers characterized the overall standard of submitted works that year as “incredibly high.” To receive a “Highly Commended” distinction in such a competitive and rigorously evaluated context indicates that the professional community in the United Kingdom has formally recognized Ms. Zhang’s ability to connect historical costume methodologies with contemporary performance.



Beyond her experimental work based on the Mammon archetype, Ms. Zhang has also repeatedly collaborated as lead designer with performing artists in stage practice. One representative case is the stage costume she designed for Dolly Rocket, a renowned cabaret artist in Brighton. Widely viewed as a major hub for performance and LGBTQ+ culture in the UK, Brighton is home to key venues where Dolly Rocket has long served as host and headlining performer, frequently appearing on primary stages including Brighton & Hove Pride. Media outlets have referred to her as “the sensational Dolly Rocket.” Creating bespoke designs for a resident headliner at this level means that Ms. Zhang’s work enters obvious live performance spaces, reaches a stable and diverse audience, and carries substantial professional weight.

In this collaboration, Ms. Zhang approached the project through the question of “how to allow the female body on stage to escape a singular, consumptive gaze,” treating costume as an externalization of stage psychology and personal will rather than a mere vehicle for sexualized imagery. By carefully controlling garment volume, structural rhythm, and material weight, she deliberately reduces the formulaic seductiveness typical of conventional cabaret costuming. Instead, she foregrounds a powerful stage presence that “refuses to be erased.” She also chose not to use real feathers; instead, she hand-wove feather-like textures from fabric warp and weft, allowing the stage image to inhabit a tension between opulence and sharpness while preserving the performer’s sense of self-authorship.



Industry observers note that whether in the bold experimentation with historical garment structures and material language in Foam of Desire, or in the nuanced articulation of female subjectivity on stage in the Dolly Rocket project, Ms. Zhang consistently intervenes from a position of authorial agency. She is the one who proposes the concept, frames the core questions, selects the technical pathways, and personally supervises the realization of details, forming a clearly identifiable personal methodology in her work. By integrating historical pattern-cutting research, material and craft innovation, and broader socio-cultural issues, she ensures that her stage costumes possess not only visual impact but also a depth of discourse that invites critical discussion and academic research.

From the “Chinese People’s Artist Certificate” awarded by the China National Ethnic Culture Promotion Association to the “Highly Commended” honor from the 2024 Patterns for Performance Award of The Costume Society in the UK, the recognitions Ms. Zhang has received across different contexts collectively underscore her professional caliber and growth potential as a new-generation costume designer for the stage. As her works continue to be presented and circulated on international platforms, her ongoing series of projects—centered on theatrical texts, bodily narratives, and material experimentation is poised to extend further across performance and academic arenas, articulating a distinctive voice from the rising generation of Chinese designers.

https://www.thehypemagazine.com/2025/12/05/kaiqi-zhang-recognized-as-chinese-peoples-artist-and-uk-honoree/?fsp_sid=279