New Yorker's quirky handmade rag dolls take him to fashion riches

A year ago, New Yorker Andrew Yang was a young and penniless aspiring artist. Today, he is collaborating with top fashion pros from Milan, London and Hong Kong, thanks to his quirky handmade rag dolls.

Yang (pictured) was in town on Wednesday to launch an exhibition at Joyce's flagship store in Central, which features 47 of his dolls donning the latest autumn-winter looks by some of the world's most fashionable brands.

He's booked for a similar exhibition next month at New York's Barneys department store and has been working on an Anna Wintour doll, commissioned by the editor of American Vogue for a charity auction.

'If you'd talked to me a year ago, I was collecting my freelance cheques, trying to find a job and making dolls on the side,' said the 25-year-old, who learned his trade at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology then worked as an assistant fashion designer until he got laid off in 2008.

'But I think if you really do what you love, everything else will follow.'

His dolls garnered a following among fashionistas after being featured in popular magazines and blogs. You might call it luck, but Yang believes he's always been different from the rest of the crowd. Instead of growing up playing with toy soldiers, Yang preferred his mother's Madame Alexander dolls. So did he ever get picked on by his peers?