Wang Yannan, 35, has made an effort to keep her distance from the mass media for years, even though her designs have been regarded by professionals as some of the leading fashions the whole world over. Too much publicity would break the tranquility that she needs to create her beautiful designs, she said.
The number of her clients has kept growing largely through word of mouth. These clients range from the wives of the country's leaders and of foreign ambassadors to China to distinguished film and pop stars, from finance experts to academic scholars.
"Her name is why we choose her because it is so well-known," one of her clients said.
What distinguishes Wang from other fashion designers is that Wang uses silk as the main material for her clothes.
"It's unfair to silk!" Wang said emotionally when presented with the fact that wool, cotton and flax have been better favored by other masters. "Silk was once the 'queen of fabric!' But now, silk is sold cheaply, designed coarsely, and ignored by most of the leading designers!"
The revival of silk thus became Wang's crusade and the main reason that she has unveiled herself to the media in recent times.
"I did it for nothing but to arouse people's concern about silk," she said.
Glory and dignity
Silk, the most precious textile material in ancient China, was reserved exclusively for use by royal families for a long time since it was first discovered 5,000 years ago.
But it seems that silk in modern society no longer maintains the glory it enjoyed in ancient times. Silk has almost disappeared from the modern world of fashion but can easily be found in stands everywhere at a cheap price, especially in Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces of East China - the home of silk.
"I don't mean that the popularity of silk has gone," Wang said. "But silk has lost its attraction to the world fashion market. When designers want silk sporadically, they buy it from Italy, from Japan, from India, but not from China - the first country in the world that discovered the use of silk."
Machines now substitute hands when it comes to making silk.
"People cannot see the best silk in the market now so they are unable to see the true value of silk," Wang said with regret.
But this is not the only reason that has brought about the decline of silk. A lack of fashionable creativity over the past 100 years has been the fatal reason for the decline of silk, Wang added.
Wang recalled an unpleasant encounter with a director of a silk factory in Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang Province in 1995.
The director shouted at Wang, saying that Chinese designers knew nothing about the value of silk and their coarse and trite designs had almost ruined the whole image of it.
The director believed that was why Chinese silk couldn't be sold at a high price in the world market while other kinds of textile materials were sold for much higher prices.
"Honestly, the silk he showed me didn't move me. But his strong affection for Chinese silk and his blame on designers made me feel ashamed," Wang recalled.
From that time on, Wang began to immerse herself in the study of silk whenever she had the time.
She has been to almost every silk mill in East China, visited every silk museum and read every book she could find in the library. She has even watched the whole process of silk production - picking mulberry leaves, feeding silkworms, reeling silk from cocoons, weaving, dyeing and printing silk.
She feels she is better acquainted with the material.
"Silk's dignity comes from the process of producing it. From mulberry to silkworm, from cocoon to silk, each step is joined and filled with sentiment between human beings and nature," Wang said.
Source of inspiration
Having been devoted to the field of fashion design for more than 10 years, Wang said she has finally found the root of her creativity in China. And silk, she believes, can best demonstrate her creativity.
Born in Beijing in 1966, Wang's memories of her childhood are filled with the turbulence and unpleasant experiences that her family went through during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).
But the making of silk dresses, inherited from her grandma, remains a comfort to her. "To me at that time, the silk shined like a gem. It evoked hope in my heart," Wang said. "I kept one of the silk dresses with me all along. Although many years have passed, it is still as beautiful as before."
Wang admitted that some of her inspiration came from her grandma, who grew up in an old noble family of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Wang liked to watch her making colorful and delicate embroidery at home when she was a little girl.
"I will never forget the gentleness, serenity but nobleness in my grandma's eyes when she was embroidering. I am putting this kind of feeling into my designs of silk dresses now."
Wang believes her inspiration also comes from her deep understanding of both Chinese and Western culture.
Wang majored in Western art history at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, where she developed a great interest in costume design.
Through self-study, she made many designs in college and was praised by professors for her work, which they called "innovative and meteoric."
After graduating in 1989, Wang worked as a fashion designer for a Chinese clothes company.
But she soon found her advanced and innovative designs were not liked by companies because they were different from fashion styles in Europe, Japan and Hong Kong.
Ironically, her designs were always ahead of the latest fashion.
"Once I saw pictures in a magazine of clothes designed by master Gianni Versace. I cried. I had drawn the same style almost three years ago when I was still at school," she said.
Luck came to her when her designs were discovered by a French fashion company, which later invited her to work in France. Although Wang gained much experience during her five years in France, she prefers not to talk too much about it.
"I don't deny I benefited a lot from my experience in France," she said. "But I also know that all my inspiration is rooted in China, without which I couldn't have drawn anything in France."
Due respect
One thing that Wang still cannot bear is watching other people belittle Chinese silk.
Once in a silk museum in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, she encountered a foreign tourist who was bargaining with the staff of a museum about one piece of yellow silk. It seemed to her that the staff members were preparing to lower the price.
Wang knew the true value of the silk was far higher as it was woven by hand using a technique from the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). So she stopped the bargaining at once and insisted that she buy the silk at its original price.
"Someone would think I was crazy, but I just wanted to tell people that silk is not a common product that can be reduced," Wang said. "Now, most museums realize the high value of hand-knitted silk and they have raised the price again."
Wang said she once showed some silk that she had collected to an Italian fabric businessman who was willing to invite Wang to be chief designer for his company. "The Italian expert just couldn't believe such great silk was still available in China today," Wang recalled.
Revival ready
Wang clearly knows that only innovative and fashionable designs can save Chinese silk.
Wang said, in the eyes of Western designers, the image of silk design is still the style of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), which mainly includes qipao (cheongsam, a close-fitting woman's dress with a high neck and slit skirt), duijin (Chinese-style jacket with buttons down the front) and xiao'ao (a short close-fitting jacket).
"Chinese designers haven't contributed anything new to world fashion for nearly 100 years," Wang said. "So no wonder silk has gone downhill these years.
"Following world fashion or imitating old Chinese styles cannot save Chinese silk. Combining the silk with advanced design techniques is the only way."
Wang said she has no doubt about the ability of Chinese designers.
"Many of our designers already have the ability to surprise the world. The only thing we lack is our own world-class fashion brand to show our creativity."
Wang has finished more than 100 pictures of fashionable silk dresses. A number of fashion companies have shown interest in her designs but she has decided to keep them a secret for now because none of the companies have agreed to her terms.
Her terms of negotiation sound difficult. One, only use Chinese silk as a textile material; Two, give the item a Chinese name.
Most of the negotiators would not agree to the second term because they do not believe a Chinese name would help lead the clothes into the fashion world.
Wang decided to wait.
She said she would continue to wait for a Chinese company to support her dream.
(China Daily June 19, 2002)
