For budding fashion designers, perseverance seen as vital

It was a bow on a dress that finally undid everything for Zuo Wen, when she wondered whether she really wanted to continue designing and making clothes for women.

"When I first returned to China from England in 2006, I did couture for ladies," says Zuo, 34, a fashion designer who graduated from the London College of Fashion.

"But soon I had to choose between being a good designer and being one who simply pandered to people," Zuo says, recalling a customer who insisted that Zuo add a giant bow to an elegant, minimal dress she had designed.

"Saccharine beauty did not work for a woman of her age. But she was adamant about what she wanted. The end result was that she was happy, but I was not. That's when I decided to chop that part off my business portfolio.

"Emotionally and perhaps financially in the long term, I cannot afford to lose my credentials as a couture designer and a graduate of the University of Arts London."

Li Yizhou, an industrial designer in Beijing who has also studied overseas, says Zuo's case is typical of a new generation of Chinese designers who have trained abroad before returning to China to jump-start their career.

"In terms of design and the West, China is in a different time zone. That means designers who want to make it here must be fully aware of the pitfalls of the Chinese market. They must ensure their ambitions are realistic."

Another important consideration is cost, Li says. "The Chinese are quickly catching up in their appreciation of fashion, style and design, but that does not mean they are as willing as Westerners to pay a premium for it.

"For a designer to succeed in China, he or she must have a deep understanding of cost control. Beautiful things at a competitive price: that's a mannequin you can hang success on."

Jiang Qiong'er, 37, a designer and entrepreneur who has teamed up with the French fashion house Hermes to launch what has been touted as China's first luxury fashion brand, Shang Xia, believes that for budding fashion designers, perseverance and flexibility are equally vital.

"You need to be able to put everything behind you and start from scratch, to be always sensitive to the dominant aesthetic while staying true to your own heart. Only then do you have a chance."

Nevertheless, Jiang says, the fast-expanding Chinese art and design market does offer opportunities for young Chinese who, running into the hard realities of finding work overseas, want to finally realize the dream they have nursed for so many years.

Jonathan Kearney, a director of Camberwell College of Arts in London, says: "Nearly all Chinese students return to China because getting a job here is very, very difficult."

As a result of this trend, Jo Ortmans, head of external relations at the University of Arts London, of which Camberwell is a constituent college, sees the formation in China of a growing "alumni community" of her university.

"Recognizing the importance of our increasing alumni communities across China, the university has recently hosted two very special events in Shanghai and Hong Kong to re-engage with our graduates and celebrate their and our successes.

As a result of these events and a series of meetings with previously unengaged influential alumni, we have been able to successfully launch formal alumni associations in both cities, with Beijing soon to follow."

While the confluence of human resources is expected to deliver more opportunities, there are concerns that the number of overseas-educated designers is beginning to dilute their value.

But Jiang says there is still good reason to study abroad, although that purpose should be vastly different to the one her generation of Chinese designers had.

"When I enrolled myself at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris more than 10 years ago, China was still an archipelago of its own in terms of design. With previous experience of Western designs, I went there to study, and also to experience for myself, everything related to the concept of design - from daily products to emotionally charged spaces.

"Today, with the Internet and easy travel, distance is no barrier. But I still go there from time to time, to slow down, and to think. A good design is rooted in deliberation, which in turn demands time, while in China, everything seems to happen in a minute. More than anything else, I wish our young design students would bring this attitude back home."

Zhou Heran contributed to this story.

Contact the writers through zhaoxu@chinadaily.com.cn

Zuo Wen is a fashion designer who graduated from the London College of Fashion. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 08/08/2014 page7)