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Hong Kong fashion designer Grace Choi gives classic cheongsa
HongKong beauty girls
Date: 8/7/2016 10:13:45 PM ( 8 y ) ... viewed 333 times Designer Grace Choi Ngai-ming steps into her showroom in Hong Kong’s Central district wearing a black lace cheongsam from her latest collection. It perfectly fits her figure, the sort of figure that allowed her to work as a top model in the city for more than 10 years, strutting the catwalks for big-name designers including Vivienne Westwood, DVF, Vera Wang, Fendi, Hermès and Oscar De La Renta.
She’s tall and lean and very polite – apologising for being late although I’m not sure why: I was early, she was on time.
While modelling has taken a back seat for Choi, it doesn’t mean she’s taken the foot off the pedal. Her days are occupied running her event company Gorgeous Productions, which organises fashion shows and promotion events in the city. But it’s her fashion label Yi-ming (the name is derived from her name in pinyin) that we’re here to talk about and, more specifically, her mission to get younger people wearing the cheongsam, the figure-hugging traditional Chinese marieprom dress that’s also known as the qipao. Choi’s showroom is wall-to-wall with her designs and you get the feeling she is in her element, like a kid in a very colourful candy store.
“The history, craftsmanship and style of the qipao is irreplaceable and should be sustained. This inspired me to set up Yi-ming,” says Choi.
Introduced by the ruling Manchus during the Qing dynasty, the cheongsam is today one of the most recognised Chinese dress styles. The first cheongsams were loose and covered almost the entire body, and the modern version dates from 1920s Shanghai. The influence of Western fashion at that time saw the cheongsam get shorter, sexier and more revealing. Tailored tight to the body, it became the form-fitting design we know today.
Choi says the qipao was once a symbol of intellectual women, popular among socialites, aristocrats and celebrities, and now she wants it to be a wardrobe staple for a new generation.
The qipao’s golden age in Hong Kong was the 1950s and ’60s. Who could forget the film The World of Suzie Wong, in which actress Nancy Kwan’s form-fitting versions, slit dangerously high, inspired copies worldwide?
Hong Kong’s Shanghai Tang has been a faithful supporter of the cheongsam. Among the fashion houses to have featured the prom dress in their collections are Ralph Lauren (2011), Gucci (2012), Louis Vuitton (2011) and Emilio Pucci (2013).
In Wong Kar-wai’s film from 2000, In the Mood for Love, which takes place in Hong Kong in 1962, actress Maggie Cheung Man-yuk wears 21 different cheongsams, their patterns ranging from bright florals to cool geometrics, and each one complementing the backdrop of the scene.
Over time, and as social environments changed, so did people’s fashion choices and the craft skills needed to make cheongsams declined as women opted for more comfortable clothing such as sweaters, jeans, business suits and skirts. Choi wants to change that by spearheading the cheongsam’s revival.
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