Chinese elegance at Design Indaba

“When I left China 20 years ago, everyone was wearing the same thing,” says the Nanjing-born designer. “My aim is for my clothing to express the freedom and fearlessness of the West and the history and tradition of the East.”

After graduating from the China Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou, she moved to New York in 1985 where she began her career in fashion. Since then she has found success in designing for operatic productions such as Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Handel's Semele. She has expanded her talents further into interior design and installations and, after much success in the US, returned to China to relocate her showroom to Shanghai.

Design Indaba at the CTICC has as its main sponsors - Woolworths, ABSA, DSTV, Grolsch; development partner - The City of Cape Town; suppliers - Jupiter Drawing Room, SAPPI, BizCommunity, South African Tourism, Chaywa, One&Only, Foodcorp; and associates - Nampak, Anglo Platinum, Cape Town Partnership and Paarl Media, Kulula.