Chinese Designers to the Fore
Quick. Name a Chinese fashion designer. Despite China’s importance in the global luxury market and the growth of its fashion industry, few of its designers are well-known names in the West.
It is a situation that Gemma Williams, who curates fashion exhibitions in London, hopes to improve with the publication of “Fashion China” by Thames & Hudson in the spring of 2015.
“It is hard to find them because of the language barrier, in part,” said Ms. Williams, 34, who is going to China this month to identify new brands to write about. “Even designers like Guo Pei, who has 450 people working for her and created Olympics outfits, aren’t known by some of my Chinese friends.”
Ms. Williams has been working on the book for six months, beginning with the creation of a committee to choose which designers to include in a final group of 40 to 50. Among the committee members is Liu Wen, who is considered China’s first supermodel and who was ranked fifth on Forbes’s list of top-paid models for 2013.Photo
Yiqing Yin, who was born in Beijing, has probably made more inroads into the European fashion world than any of her compatriots. CreditFrançois Guillot/Agence France-Presse
“Fashion has always been about sharing art and culture,” Ms. Liu said in an email, “and this will be a great reflection of what China has to offer and help to reveal the hidden gems.”
Ms. Williams wants the book to be used by the fashion industry at large, including buyers, as “a snapshot of who is important now.” She also hopes it will provide insight into China’s fashion universe, where many people appear to be turning away from international luxury brands in favor of local designers.
“There is a confidence growing in China, with having faith in their designers,” she said. “What is interesting is the difference between those trained there and here. I am trying to tweak that out in the interviews. It is more designer-lead here and there is an emphasis on manufacturing there, for example.”
In the introduction to her book, Ms. Williams said she plans to write about the Chinese market, including buying habits, which are often dictated by friends and family, but also influenced by celebrity endorsements.
“The Chinese are quite patriotic,” she said. “When the first lady got off the plane in Russia last year wearing a local designer, Exception, their website crashed,” she said, referring to President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow last March and the stir caused by his wife, Peng Liyuan.
“They also love celebrity endorsement and Fan Bingbing has been a big supporter,” she said of the Chinese actress whose credits include “Lost in Thailand” and “Shaolin,” and who has given Chinese fashion a major boost.
Much has been written about home-grown fashion in China, but the concept of taking the pulse of new designers for an industry readership is new, Ms. Williams said.
“China is already famous for fashion manufacturing and fashion consumers,” said Valerie Steele, the director and chief curator at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, which staged an exhibition in 1999 called “China Chic: East Meets West.” “The emergence of Chinese fashion designers will position China as an even more important fashion power.”
Yiqing Yin, the Chinese-born designer who in January was named the creative director for the French fashion house Leonard, will be featured in Ms. Williams’s book.
Ms. Yin, who was born in Beijing, has probably made more inroads into the European fashion world than any of her compatriots. She left China when she was 4, studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and has been a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne since 2012, an honor for a young designer. On Monday she presented her first collection for Leonard in Paris.
She has a clear vision: “To create the new Leonard woman, who will be cool and young,” she said from her Paris atelier a stone’s throw from Belleville, one of the French capital’s Chinatowns.
Ms. Yin said she remained inspired by China. “My parents were antiques dealers,” she said, “and I was influenced as a young child by the beauty and history of Chinese luxury.”
Ms. Williams also plans to write about the designers Yifang Wan, Masha Ma, Xander Zhou, Huishan Zhang, Renli Su, Uma Wang and Xiao Li.
Ms. Li, also 26, a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London who is creating a project for Diesel, won a Fashion Scout award and had her first runway show at London Fashion Week last month. She acknowledged that Chinese designers were drawing increasing attention in both China and the West, but said she planned to stay in London for now.
“People in China are desperate for fashion and all the magazines come to me looking for young Chinese talent,” said Ms. Li, who has been featured in Vogue Italy, British Vogue, The Financial Times and I-D Online, among other publications.
Ms. Williams also plans to write about Haizhen Wang, a graduate of Central Saint Martins in London who was born in Dalian, China; he won the Fashion Fringe award in London in September 2012. Inside his cramped workroom, Mr. Wang gave instructions to his Chinese-speaking staff and inspected a luxurious Italian wool and cashmere jacket he had designed. “My biggest market since last season is China,” he said. “Right now, it is a great moment to be a Chinese designer.”
But things are rapidly changing, and Mr. Wang plans to stay in London, he said, to solidify a presence in the West.
Ms. Williams acknowledged that even if the Western media are showing increasing interest in Chinese designers, there are still few stores in the West that stock their clothes. “Chinese design is still relatively niche in London,” she said, noting that Browns and Selfridges have carried limited collections. She added: “In America they are talking about Chinese design, but it will take a while.”
“People are quite eager to put China on a level with global fashion,” she continued. And that, she said, is what her book aims to do.
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