How Chinese haute couture is taking on the fashion world

Chinese high-fashion designers have dressed everyone from Rihanna to royals in recent years and their presence is growing on global catwalks

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Outfits from Dutch-Chinese fashion designer Hu Sheguang’s “Silk Road” collection at London’s Natural History Museum in 2017. He is one of many designers making waves with looks inspired by traditional Chinese culture. Photo: sheguang-hu.com

Published: 7:15am, 21 Nov 2024Updated: 1:00pm, 21 Nov 2024

Haute couture, which means “high dressmaking” in French, has historically been associated with Parisian culture. But the concept of high fashion is no longer confined to France, or the West, as more Chinese designers make headway in the fashion industry.

Beijing-born fashion designer Guo Pei’s current solo exhibition at Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture, in the West Kowloon Cultural District, features the sensational gold dress Rihanna wore at the 2015 Met Gala in New York.

Grace Chen, who in 1999 became the first Chinese designer to graduate from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, counts Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan and Oprah Winfrey among her clients.

Fang Yang, the designer behind Atelier by Fang, has dressed celebrities including Gong Li, Angelababy and Katherine Langford in her Asia-inspired designs.

This success is not solely my effort; it represents the rise of ethnic confidence

Hu Sheguang, a Dutch-Chinese designer of Mongolian descent

The arrival of such Chinese designers on the international high-fashion scene was propelled by the growing appetite for haute couture at home, which was in turn fuelled by China’s rapid economic growth.

“It’s fair to say that there’s a huge audience [in China], quite young as well, that have the desire, the need and interest in luxury fashion,” says Robert Wun, a Hong Kong-born designer who has dressed the likes of Beyoncé, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and Adele.