Chinese designers have their moment on Paris haute couture catwalks
Rising stars Yiqing Yin, who is Paris-based, and Guo Pei and Lan Yu, who plan to open workshops there, announced their elevation to the French capital’s fashion showcase in contrasting style
Fewer than half the fashion houses that unveiled spring haute couture collections on the catwalks of Paris last week were French. Italian houses Valentino, Armani and Versace are correspondent members with an established couture clientele; there is a Middle East contingent, led by Elie Saab and Zuhair Murad; and the new kids on the block are the Chinese.
Although Yiqing Yin has been showing in Paris since 2011, the designer, who was raised in the French capital and is based there, has only just become a full member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture – the group of elite designers allowed to call their work haute couture as opposed to just couture. She marked the achievement with a shamanistic, warrior woman collection of fine drapery, chainmail and leather harnesses, conveying a sense of both fragility and power.
Guo Pei, who dresses Rihanna and Zhang Ziyi, and has a studio in Beijing that employs 300 embroiderers and 200 designers and petit mains (as the seamstresses would be called in Paris), was invited by the Chambre to stage her first show in the West and plans to open a studio in Paris to work alongside her atelier in Beijing. Guo Pei’s polished debut featured remarkable antique-style embroideries depicting the mythical phoenix on pastel organza dresses and vibrant mandarin yellow gowns.
Despite the weight of history in the craft, the silhouettes were contemporary. Guo’s best looks included a yellow silk gown with floor-length sleeves and an embroidery-trimmed shirt and trousers worn by a Chinese model with blonde flick-ups – regrettably the only Chinese model in the show.