With Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana reviving Europeans' love for retro Disney characters in the past year, there are expectations veteran designer Rowena U will achieve the same success in Hong Kong and the mainland. An industry veteran of two decades, she hopes to make cartoon character clothing hip with young adults. The Walt Disney Company's hopes of expanding the market for its merchandise on the mainland hinge on Ms U producing a high-end fashion line using Disney characters. Having won the licence to design the range last year, she will be one of the first in the fashion industry to introduce designs using the Disney characters to the China market. Since setting up her first store, dot28, in Shanghai's trendy Xintiandi area in October, she has opened a further three shops in the city and two in Guangzhou. Her company also produces designs for foreign brands. Ms U has invested millions in her new business. Some of her clients include a bevy of young professionals who are developing a taste for high-end fashion. 'Disney clothes already available in the market are more for teenagers or kids,' she said. 'But I have designed a mix-and-match collection for young adults aged from 18 to 28.' The designer says her work is not as simple as slapping a print of the character on a shirt, as some of the other fashion brands had been doing. 'Disney has provided us all the characters, including their various poses, which cannot be altered,' she said. 'But we can still make them fashionable, say by putting sequins on them.' She said the clothes had to be well cut to accentuate young women's figures. Ms U's pieces include a ruffle-trimmed purple sweater with a small Snow White print, a man's shirt with a V-shaped neckline that cuts into a Mickey Mouse print and a retro Mickey Mouse shirt with a body-hugging fit. She said she planned to use lively colours in her collection. To stay ahead of copycats, she said, the designs would be changed every two weeks. Ms U, a vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Fashion Designers' Association, declined to comment on why Disney decided to choose her over various other designers, but said she had always been a whole-hearted designer who did not easily give up. Disney's vision is to open 100 stores across China within three years.