Profile | ‘Who is haute couture queen?’: China KOL Lulu with million fans slams French design house for loan of dress to actress
- China fashion collector and buyer, orders outfit, pays US$2,800 deposit, says ‘classy’ brands do not lend customers’ clothes to other celebrities
An influencer in China has been outraged after a French haute couture brand loaned her outfit to British actress Anya Taylor-Joy.
Taylor-Joy wore the black bodysuit adorned with white silk roses, from Giambattista Valli’s Spring/Summer 2024 Couture collection, at the London premier of the film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, on May 17.
The influencer, known as Lulu, was angry because she had ordered the suit and paid a deposit for it in January.
She felt it was inappropriate for the brand to lend it to somebody else without asking her – especially another celebrity who will be photographed wearing it first.
Lulu, dubbed by many as “China’s haute couture queen”, said she had been purchasing high-end designs for a decade.
Haute couture is a French term that translates as “high dressmaking” and generally refers to handcrafted garments made by skilled artisans using the best quality materials.
Such top-notch clothes take many people many hours to make and generally cost a minimum of US$100,000. The pieces are usually one-of-a-kind rather than mass-produced.
Lulu said there is an unwritten rule that brands do not lend the original dress to celebrities if a customer has bought it.
The “haute couture queen” rose to fame in 2014, wearing the same Valentino music-notes-emblazoned dress that Katy Perry wore earlier that year to the Grammy Awards.
When she was accused by some fashion bloggers of being a copycat, Lulu said she had already bought the dress and so she was, in fact, wearing an item from her own wardrobe.
She said she immediately ordered the dress after seeing it at the design house’s runway show in January, but Perry borrowed it before Lulu had the opportunity to wear it.
“If I had ordered faster, she wouldn’t have had the chance to wear it to the Grammys,” the influencer told NetEase Women.
Valentino later posted a photo of Lulu wearing the dress and captioned it “Chinese fashion icon”.
In 2019, Lady Gaga wore a mauve gown from Valentino to the Golden Globes. Lulu said it was an adapted version of her original royal blue gown, that she made sure to buy so that no one else could wear exactly the same dress.
The influencer said an haute couture dress is “more important than a boyfriend, because the dress is unique and men are countless”.
Lulu, whose real name is Lu Min, has more than 1 million followers across several social media platforms. She introduces herself as a fashion collector and buyer.
Her age and background are a mystery. The only information she has ever disclosed to the media was that her father was in the army and her mother was a businesswoman.
She studied for a degree at university, but realised the subject was not for her, choosing to enter the world of fashion instead.
Lulu is frequently seen sitting in the coveted VIP front row during Paris Haute Couture Week, which is held twice a year.
She said “a classy brand” such as Armani or Valentino would never lend their customers’ bought items without their permission.
Lulu said she no longer wanted the dress and forfeited her deposit, vowing to never buy Giambattista Valli designs again. It was reported by Chinese fashion blogger Chrison that the deposit was US$2,800.
