Cecilia Yau
Fashion designer Cecilia Yau started her haute couture line in Hong Kong in 1999, bringing her intricate, ethereal evening wear to red carpets across the globe. She tells Andrea Lo about learning the ropes in Paris, introducing haute couture to the city, and gives her opinons on how well we dress.
Like a lot of young girls, I liked art and pretty things when I was growing up. It was a path that led me to what I do today, but it wasn’t like, “My childhood dream is to be a fashion designer.”
In the first year of primary school, I was taller than most kids my age. I was a fitting model for a fashion house. That was the first time I came into contact with a fashion designer.
My parents didn’t have objections. Trust is really important.
Not a lot of parents would do that—they might say, “Why don’t you choose something a little more conventional?”
After a summer course in Paris, I realized I had a deep interest in fashion. I went back to study haute couture.
Why did I choose to study haute couture in Paris? I felt like it’s pretty much the country’s forte. They don’t only treat it like clothes. It’s a form of showing their artistic sense and delivering a message through clothing: what the meaning of fashion is. I thought, if I need to plan out the next three to four years in Paris, I need to learn the best they have to offer.