The power dresser: meet the designer who China's top achieving women turn to
To women in the top echelons of business and politics in China, couturier Grace Chen Yehuai is one of a handful of go-to luxury bespoke designers.
Most people, even those in fashion circles, probably wouldn't have heard of Chinese couturier Grace Chen Yehuai, who founded her Grace Chen studio in 2009. But to women in the top echelons of business and politics in China, Chen is one of a handful of go-to luxury bespoke designers.
At her private fashion shows and client salons, held usually in Beijing or, occasionally, Shanghai, powerful women "with money, social status and events to attend" gather to pick up made-to-order outfits that range from elegant evening gowns and cocktail dresses to chic day and business wear - a neatly cropped black woven jacket thrown over a white shirt and skinny jeans, for example.
Chen has never done major promotional campaigns or advertising. It could be a serious shortcoming, she concedes: "I'm not very sociable - I know people expect designers to be celebrities - but I'm too busy serving my customers."
Nevertheless, "I think we have some of the most high-end clients in China," Chen says when we meet in her Shanghai atelier. Upstairs is a showroom with rails upon rails of clothes; on the lower floors a team of about 50 seamstresses and pattern cutters, all personally trained by her, are working hard on glamorous outfits fitted onto mannequins, each made to the exact measurements of individual clients.
