作者：Ian Hylton
翻譯：潘澤彬
校對(duì)：Jevon、Joanne、James
My biggest influence as far as style is concerned was undoubtedly my mother. She not only had impeccable style and taste, but taught me to appreciate art, dance, design, both fashion and interior design, and culture of all types. International culture. She also supported my love of all of the above. There was also another influence, my aunt Selina in New York. When I was a child, I would visit her during the summers on Long Island. She was a captivating woman. It didn’t even need to be any special occasion; or rather, every night was a special occasion, with the way she dressed and carried herself. I was inspired by them, and fashion has since become my life’s work.
對(duì)我的風(fēng)格影響最大的無疑是我母親。她不僅有無可挑剔的風(fēng)格和品味，而且教會(huì)我欣賞藝術(shù)、舞蹈、設(shè)計(jì)，包括時(shí)裝和室內(nèi)設(shè)計(jì)，以及所有類型的文化。國際文化。她還支持我熱愛上述一切。還有一個(gè)人對(duì)我的影響很大，就是在紐約的姨媽 Selina。小時(shí)候，每到夏天我都會(huì)去長島看望她。她是一個(gè)充滿魅力的女性。她的穿著和舉止，不需要任何特別的場合來凸顯，或者說，只要有她在，任何場合都是特別的。我受到了她們的鼓舞，時(shí)尚成為我畢生的事業(yè)。
In the 2000s, I moved to New York and worked as editor-at-large for a magazine called Suede. After the project ended, an old friend of mine Tu Ly informed me that the brand Ports 1961 had recently been acquired by a Chinese-Canadian company. I actually have a long relationship with Ports. My first contact with Ports started with my friendship with Miki Tanabe, one of the founder’s daughters, and continued with a lineage of dear friends, who would go on to design the collection. And my personal relationship with the brand started with my dear friends Fiona and Tia Cibani.
十多年前，我搬到了紐約，擔(dān)任 Suede 雜志的自由編輯。項(xiàng)目結(jié)束后，我的一個(gè)老朋友 Tu Ly 告訴我，寶姿 Ports 1961 這個(gè)品牌最近已被一家中加合資公司收購。其實(shí)我和 Ports 有著很深的淵源。Ports 創(chuàng)始人的女兒 Miki Tanabe是我的好友，因此我開始接觸這個(gè)品牌。我與許多摯友繼續(xù)保持聯(lián)系，他們將繼續(xù)設(shè)計(jì)該系列。而我與 Ports 的私交則源于我的朋友 Fiona 和 Tia Cibani。
Tu told me that Ports was looking for a creative director for menswear to relocate to Xiamen. I had never been to Asia before, but my mother had always emphasized to me the importance of going abroad; after all, that was how she met my father. My mother was originally from Guyana, and my father Jamaica. They met while at school in England; I was born in Liverpool. They decided to relocate our family to Canada on a whim, and so I grew up in Toronto. When my mother heard I might be going to China, she gave her wholehearted support. “If you don’t go for me, go for you.” She said that China was the future, just as she believed Canada was the future back then.
Tu 告訴我，Ports 正在尋找一位男裝創(chuàng)意總監(jiān)，調(diào)到廈門工作。我以前從未去過亞洲，但我母親一直強(qiáng)調(diào)出國非常重要。畢竟，她就是這樣認(rèn)識(shí)我父親的。我母親來自圭亞那，而我父親來自牙買加，他們?cè)谟蠈W(xué)時(shí)相遇。我出生在利物浦。他們臨時(shí)決定舉家遷往加拿大，因此我在多倫多長大。我母親全力支持我去中國?！澳憔退悴粸槲胰ィ惨獮樽约喝?。”她說，未來屬于中國，就像她當(dāng)年認(rèn)為未來屬于加拿大一樣。
So I jumped at the opportunity. I packed a suitcase full of white clothes and a Panama hat, ready for tropical weather. Xiamen was the Miami of China, or so I had heard. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I arrived in Xiamen on December 1, 2005, and I was greeted by a damp cold! Luckily, though, that was just an unusually cold winter. Xiamen is almost always warm and full of light, and it has an amazing energy.
所以我抓住了這個(gè)機(jī)會(huì)，行囊里裝滿白色衣服和巴拿馬帽，準(zhǔn)備迎接熱帶天氣。我聽說廈門是中國的邁阿密。2005 年 12 月 1 日到達(dá)廈門時(shí)，迎接我的竟是潮濕的寒風(fēng)！你能想象我有多驚訝嗎？不過幸運(yùn)的是，那年冬天是個(gè)例外，冷得有些異常。廈門總是溫暖如春，陽光明媚，蘊(yùn)藏一種驚人的能量。
I quickly fell in love with the city. I had just come from New York, the city that never sleeps, where there are neon advertisements as far as the eye can see, car horns constantly blaring, crowds crisscrossing. Xiamen was different. I didn’t understand the language, which made it feel almost as if I was walking in virtual silence. And the vibe of the city is leisurely and calm; you work hard but you rest well.
我很快就愛上了這座城市。我從紐約來，那是一個(gè)不夜城，目光所及之處都是霓虹燈廣告，汽車?yán)嚷暡粩?，人群穿梭不息。廈門則不同。我不懂中文，只能在城市中默默行走。廈門這座城市的氛圍是悠閑而平靜的。你可以努力工作，盡情休息。
Another thing that amazes me about China is the speed of development. When I first arrived in Xiamen, Binbei was 60% or 70% bicycles, with very few cars, and there were no lines on the road. Driving there was what I can only describe as a joyful madness. Jimei district was just a suburb, with almost nothing there.?But the pace of growth in China is staggering. Once, I left briefly to go to Europe for three weeks. When I came back, I called a cab, and I soon noticed that the cab driver was going the wrong way. Except, he wasn’t going the wrong way; in the space of three weeks, a totally new bridge had been constructed, with over 1000 workers working day and night.
中國的發(fā)展速度同樣令我震驚。我剛到廈門時(shí)，濱北的馬路上 60-70% 是自行車，汽車很少，也沒有地鐵線路。在那里開車，瘋狂而興奮。集美區(qū)只是一個(gè)郊區(qū)，那里幾乎什么都沒有。但中國的發(fā)展速度十分驚人。有一次，我離開中國，去歐洲只呆了三個(gè)星期。回來時(shí)，坐在出租車上，感覺司機(jī)走錯(cuò)了路。不過，我發(fā)現(xiàn)他并沒有走錯(cuò)路，短短三個(gè)星期，1000 多名工人沒日沒夜地工作，一座全新的大橋很快落成。
As much as I loved Xiamen, I hadn’t initially planned on staying permanently. I thought I would come and experience China for a year or two, and then go back to New York or Europe. The company and I had the shared ambition to bring the menswear brand back to the West. The womenswear brand had successfully launched in New York years earlier. So in 2009, we opened a showroom in Milan, and I split my time between Milan and Xiamen. We started showing on the Milan runways. Serendipitously, that year, I met Min, the woman who would become my wife. Min is a designer who trained in London and was living in Amsterdam at the time. She had come back to China only temporarily because of an illness in the family, but then she decided she might stay for a year. That was when we met, and it was a very fast romance. We got married the next year.
盡管我很喜歡廈門，但起初并沒有打算在這里長期居住，只想在中國呆一兩年，然后回到紐約或歐洲。公司和我本人有一個(gè)共同的愿景，就是把男裝品牌帶回西方。女裝品牌幾年前已在紐約成功上市。2009 年，我們?cè)诿滋m開設(shè)了一個(gè)時(shí)裝展廳，我在米蘭和廈門之間輾轉(zhuǎn)，我們的時(shí)裝走上米蘭的 T 臺(tái)。那一年，我遇到了后來的妻子 Min，我們的相遇是一場偶然。她是一名設(shè)計(jì)師，在倫敦做培訓(xùn)，當(dāng)時(shí)住在阿姆斯特丹。因?yàn)榧胰松。氐街袊?，后來決定可能會(huì)呆上一年。就在那時(shí)，我們相遇了，浪漫來得非常快。認(rèn)識(shí)第二年我們就結(jié)婚了。
In true West Indian fashion, I invited all of my friends and family to the wedding. I didn’t think they would all come, though, so we didn’t plan on having a big wedding. But to my surprise, all 150 of my invitees RSVPed yes! They were coming from all over the world, from England, Canada, Jamaica, to celebrate with us. Fiona and Alfred, the owners of Ports, very generously offered to host the wedding at their villa on Gulangyu, where we had a beautiful and emotional wedding.
我們舉行了一場西印度式的婚禮，邀請(qǐng)了所有親朋好友參加，但我認(rèn)為他們不會(huì)都來，所以婚禮并沒有打算辦得很大。但出乎意料的是，150 位親朋好友都接受邀請(qǐng)。他們從世界各地，包括英國、加拿大、牙買加，遠(yuǎn)道而來祝福我們。寶姿 Ports 的所有者 Fiona 和 Alfred，非?？犊孬I(xiàn)出他們位于鼓浪嶼的別墅，我們?cè)谀抢锱e行了一場美麗而感人的婚禮。
What made China even more special was being able to share it with my family. In the early years, my mother and father used to come to China regularly to visit me. And my son Bailey from my first marriage also came to China many times. When he was 12 and living in Vancouver, his school was on strike, and after going through three supply teachers within two months, I was fed up with the situation. I decided, literally overnight, to bring him to China. That was his first time in Xiamen; he went to Xiamen International School for a year, and went back and forth between Xiamen and Canada for the next few years. He spent holidays and Christmases in China, too. He grew to love Chinese culture and the Chinese language, so much so that after he graduated high school, he came back for his gap year to learn the language.
我家人與中國也產(chǎn)生了千絲萬縷的聯(lián)系，這讓中國在我心中有了更加特殊的意義。早些年，我父母經(jīng)常來中國看我。而我與前妻的兒子 Bailey 也多次來到中國。他 12 歲時(shí)，住在溫哥華，學(xué)校正在罷工，兩個(gè)月內(nèi)換了三個(gè)代課老師，我受夠了。幾乎是一夜之間，我就決定把他帶到中國來。那是他第一次來廈門，他在廈門國際學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)了一年，接下來的幾年里在廈門和加拿大之間來回奔波。他也在中國度過假期和圣誕節(jié)。他越來越喜歡中國文化和中文，所以高中畢業(yè)后，來中國學(xué)習(xí)一年中文，才去上大學(xué)。
Splitting my time between China and Milan became challenging, because Min and I were newly married, and I had to spend half my time in Milan. In 2013, I started making plans for how we could be together more full time. Min had founded a brand in 2010 called Ms MIN, which was growing, and needed my expertise. So in 2014, I decided to leave what I was doing and work with my wife full time. I came to China to work and stayed for Love. Now, I am permanently in Xiamen.
如何分配在中國和米蘭的時(shí)間，對(duì)我而言是一大難題。因?yàn)槲液?Min 是新婚，所以我一半的時(shí)間都得呆在米蘭。為了能相處更久，2013 年我開始為今后做打算。Min 在 2010 年創(chuàng)立了一個(gè)叫 Ms MIN 的品牌，這個(gè)品牌正處于成長期，需要我的專業(yè)知識(shí)保駕護(hù)航。所以 2014 年，我決定放下正在做的事情，全新全意與妻子一起工作。我為了工作來到中國，卻為愛留了下來?，F(xiàn)在，我永久居留在廈門。
Of course, there are still things I miss. When my father was here, he taught our cook how to make curry the way our family makes it. It’s funny, though. I may have grown up in Toronto, but I feel like my roots have shifted. I actually feel more comfortable now in Xiamen than I do in Toronto, and I’ve started a family and a life here. I am home here in Xiamen.
當(dāng)然，我仍然有想念的東西。我父親在廈門的時(shí)候，他教我們的廚師如何制作咖喱，才有家的味道。這很有趣。我是在多倫多長大的，但我覺得我的根已經(jīng)不在多倫多了。我感覺居住在廈門比多倫多更舒服，我在這里組建了家庭，過著向往的生活。廈門就是我的家。
I love travel and culture. It is my life, my destiny. China is a magnificent nation. I only hope to share more of its beauty, incredible history, and culture with the world.
我喜歡旅行和文化。這是我的生活，我的命運(yùn)。中國是一個(gè)偉大的國家。我只希望能與世界分享它的美麗，以及它那令人驚嘆的歷史和文化。
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