Video | Chinese designer Zhu charms Milan fashion world with plans for Krizia
Chinese owner of Krizia vows to maintain firm's made-in-Italy heritage but with her own style
Zhu Chongyun, the glamorous Chinese entrepreneur and designer who has taken over Krizia, has vowed to maintain the historic fashion house's made-in-Italy heritage.
Zhu, who bought the stricken brand from its iconic founder Mariuccia Mandelli earlier this year, outlined her plans in an interview in Milan during the spring/summer 2015 womenswear shows.
All being well, she will be back in the city in five months to present a debut collection of womenswear for the autumn/winter of 2015, although that launch date has still to be confirmed. "We hope it will be in February 2015 ... we hope," she said with a smile.
WATCH: Chinese entrepreneur and designer Zhu Chongyun charms Milan with Italian vision of Krizia future
Zhu, who is based in Shenzhen, has been spending the week in Italy's fashion capital, taking in the shows and putting together a creative team that will, under her leadership, be charged with reviving a brand that had fallen on hard times in recent years as Mandelli and Aldo Pinto, her husband and business partner, struggled with age-related health problems.
The willowy Zhu has also been cutting a dash on the fashion week cocktail circuit, thanks to a catwalk figure and youthful beauty that defy her status as a 50-year-old mother of two.