Fashion designers rise to stardom across the globe

When Shanghai couturier Chen Yehuai was preparing to stage a show of her work in Moscow in September, she turned for inspiration to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

"When I was thinking about the theme for the show in Russia, Pushkin was the first name that came to mind," said the designer, also known as Grace Chen. She was inspired by these lines of the poet, who lived from 1799 to 1837, to describe a moment of love and beauty:

I remember a wonderful moment

As before my eyes you appeared.

Like a vision, fleeting, momentary.

Like a spirit of the purest beauty.

Chen, whose Moscow show was titled Deep, A Love Moment, said, "I have read a lot of Russian literature since childhood, and am still influenced by it. I always remember how Pushkin wrote about the grand balls staged in the 19th century, to which the men wore military uniforms and the women beautiful dresses."

At the show, audiences applauded Chen's new designs, which incorporated elements of Russian art.

In 1996, she was one of the first students from the Chinese mainland to graduate from New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. She went on to work as a designer in the United States and returned to China in 2009 to establish her own brand, Grace Chen, in Shanghai.

She has become one of the Chinese couturiers whose works have caught global attention, along with Guo Pei, Ms Min, Bu Kewen, Laurence Xu and Ji Cheng.

Their collective success highlights how Chinese designers have risen to world stardom over the past four decades.

Back in December 1978, a middle-aged Frenchman wearing an oversized drop-shoulder woolen coat strode through the streets of Beijing, causing a stir among local residents. A few days later, he caused an even bigger sensation when he climbed the Great Wall and struck a victory pose.

The visitor, Pierre Cardin, was the first Western fashion designer to visit China, shortly after the country announced its reform and opening-up policy.

Three months later, Cardin organized the country's first fashion show at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing, not only flying in 220 of his haute couture outfits from Paris, but also 12 professional models and a team of photographers, curators and stylists.

On the second day of the show, Xinhua News Agency said in an exclusive report to industry insiders, "The variety of colors on the runway contrasted sharply with the uniform blacks and grays of the audience."

Over the next decade, Cardin, dubbed the "Marco Polo of the 20th century" by Chinese media, continued to make headlines in the country.

He organized fashion shows on the Great Wall and in the Forbidden City, opening them to the public for the first time, with one event attracting an audience of 10,000.

Cardin also sent nine Chinese models to attend Paris Fashion Week and take part in a motorcade, in which they wore qipao as they were driven under the Arc de Triomphe in convertible cars flying the Chinese national flag.

By the late 1990s, Cardin had persuaded Chinese consumers that any attire bearing the logo of his eponymous brand was the ultimate symbol of status, wealth and refinement. Furthermore, he had proved to the world that China, a textile manufacturing giant, could also become a significant fashion market.

The first Western fashion house to be convinced of this was Italian luxury menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna, which made its Chinese debut in 1991, opening a boutique in Beijing.

China is now the largest single market for the century-old business, accounting for about one-third of its global sales.

According to Ermenegildo Gildo Zegna, the fourth-generation helmsman of the family company, these achievements would not have been possible if it hadn't taken the Chinese market seriously by entering early, setting up the right stores and continuing to invest in new areas.

However, it was only after the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton, which entered China a year after Ermenegildo Zegna－opening a store in the same building－that interest in fashion was observed among all age groups and both sexes.

Yves Carcelle, the late CEO of Louis Vuitton, who pushed for this goal to be achieved, believed that China was "sophisticated". This was despite often being asked by local reporters why he was visiting the country, as the "people don't understand luxury".

By 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organization and numerous luxury fashion brands had arrived in the country, Louis Vuitton stood out as one of the most coveted by Chinese consumers at home and abroad.

Last year, annual luxury spending by Chinese consumers exceeded 770 billion yuan ($109 billion), accounting for more than one-third of the global total, according to management consultancy McKinsey & Co. At the time, the company forecast that 2019 would be the first year in which China would overtake the US as the world's largest market for fashion and luxury items.

According to the China National Textile and Apparel Council, in 2017, some 45.6 billion items of clothing were bought in the country, up 66 times on the figure for 1978. Spending on clothing has risen by more than a hundredfold in the past four decades, reaching 2.87 trillion yuan in 2017.

China has not only seen sales and consumption rise significantly in recent decades. As a civilization spanning thousands of years, the country's culture and traditions have also provided a rich and constant source of inspiration for fashion designers worldwide.

In 2015, at the annual exhibition held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, some 130 haute couture dresses and ready-to-wear items showcasing the impact of Chinese design on Western fashion were displayed.

Titled China: Through the Looking Glass, the exhibition included works from almost every recognized designer and leading fashion house, including Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent and Tom Ford.

Andrew Bolton, who spent two years organizing the exhibition, told Vogue magazine that the main aim of the event was to "recast Orientalism in a more positive light as an exchange of ideas and an honored source of influence".

One surprise at the exhibition was a display of contemporary Chinese designer Guo Pei's work. Footage of a yellow caped gown, with a train nearly 5 meters long worn by the singer and fashion designer Rihanna on the red carpet at the event's opening ceremony, went viral.

Guo's design was dubbed the "omelet dress" due to its resemblance to the breakfast staple.

The gown, which weighs about 25 kilograms, combines traditional Chinese craftsmanship and the classic A-line silhouette of haute couture. Some 50,000 hours of embroidery work went into creating it.

Guo said, "People used to say there is no such thing as high-end couture－the epitome of aesthetics and skills－in China. But now that view is changing."

In 2016, the Beijing-born designer was the first Chinese national to have her work shown at Paris Couture Week.

"Fashion reflects the tastes of the age and the feelings of the people. Now, Chinese people's tastes are demonstrating a kind of national spirit, so through my designs I try to reflect the place in which the people find themselves. I try to interpret national sentiment," Guo said.

On Nov 1, she staged her first fashion show in the United Kingdom, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as part of celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the institution's Fashion in Motion series.

This free event featured a catwalk show by leading international designers, which over the years have included Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier and Yohji Yamamoto.

Oriole Cullen, the museum's fashion curator, said: "Guo Pei's work demonstrates the height of what can be achieved in the skilled ateliers of a haute couture house. We are delighted to be working with Guo to showcase a selection of garments from her uniquely beautiful Alternate Universe collection."

Bo Leung in London contributed to this story.