A cut above
Updated: 2011-12-26 09:55
By Liu Wei (China Daily)
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Jiao Yan poses with a model wearing her design. The 31-year-old started her clothing brand, Jovonna, in London. Photos Provided to China Daily |
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A model wears a design by Jiao Yan. |
Chinese fashion designer Jiao Yan believes her willingness to do extra has enabled her survival on London's ferociously competitive high street. Liu Wei reports.
When Jiao Yan stumbled upon an online photo of pop singer Rihanna wearing a jumper she designed, she screamed to her colleagues: "Champagne! Champagne!"
That was in October 2010 - three years after the 31-year-old started her clothing brand, Jovonna, in London.
Rihanna was making over five of her fans at the clothing retailer Topshop. She selected a dozen garments, including a Jovonna jumper. She wore it at the airport when she left the United Kingdom.
"When she chose the jumper on the show, I was like, 'OK, that's good', but the fact that she wore it herself really thrilled me," says Jiao, clenching a strawberry mojito in the posh bar Wyld.
The woman from Liaoning province's Dalian city wears thick black eyeliner and frequently switches between Chinese and English when she speaks. She speaks Chinese with a Northeast accent but her London English sounds native.
Jiao started her career with 3,000 pounds ($4,710) and four credit cards during her eighth year in the UK.
She released her first collection of 20 designs, each in two colors, in a 4-square-meter stand at the independent design trade show Pure London. The event lures more than 10,000 designers, buyers and fashion lovers every season.
Jiao focused on dresses. In 2005 and 2006, London's women mostly wore nice tops with jeans, but Jiao thought it was time for "feminine, classic and romantic" dresses.
Shoppers at Topshop and the online shop ASOS liked her collections. ASOS bought 15 designs, while Topshop gave her a shelf in its Oxford Circus flagship shop, so she could sell 100 garments in one of the world's women's fashion centers.
"Topshop was my dream," Jiao recalls.
"When I got their e-mail, I hugged my then-boyfriend and shouted, 'We're gonna be millionaires!'"
She sold 70 percent of her clothes on the first day they became available at Topshop.
"This is something which could only happen in London," she says.
"In China, you have to already be someone to attend trade shows, and the expense of renting a stand is way too much for a beginner."
Jiao's life in London began 12 years ago, when she arrived to study international trade in university.
Fashion was her childhood obsession, but she never believed it could become her career.
After graduation, she worked in a jewelry company for four years, during which time she not only learned business savvy but also what she really wants from life.
"London opens my eyes," she says.
She enjoys lounging in roadside cafes and watches women as they pass by.
"They show their attitudes by what they wear," she says.
"It's not 'in your face sexy', but they tell personal stories through interesting details."
Jiao says she has never believed fashion designing is too demanding. She didn't even know how to draw the sketches when she started.
"I have pictures in my brain and explain them to my pattern-maker," she says.
"Someone just has good eyes."
Jiao's love of fashion started early in life. Her mother and grandmother enjoy making clothes and modifying old garments.
"My mother always wears the chicest items," she says, laughing.
"She thinks she is the it girl of her time."
Jiao developed her fundamental fashion philosophy in middle school.
"I dress for myself - not for the boys," she explains.
"I choose clothes that take care of me with subtle details."
As a teenager, she would visit every shop in the city to find the skirt of her dreams.
Jiao continues the quest for perfection in her business, she says. She attributes her success in the savagely competitive London high street ecology to going further than others.
"When their full gathered skirts have 50 gathers, I make 100," she says, referring to a maxi skirt recently worn by a contestant on X Factor, the UK's most popular singing contest.
She went to China's Guangdong province to find fabric. Although many UK clothing companies went there, too, Jiao believes being a Chinese helps.
"Big companies find these factories by agencies, but I can find them myself," she says.
"I can communicate better and get relatively better prices."
In 2010, she developed her new brand, Jovonnista, which is "edgier and cooler" than Jovonna. It targets students and young professionals. She hopes women are "immediately appreciated and commented on" while wearing these clothes.
"My audiences are real people," she says.
"I know I cannot be Alexander McQueen. McQueen inspires people. I am one of those inspired."
Jiao feels a stronger affinity with Stella McCartney, Alexander Wang and Phillip Lim - but not because they also boast Chinese backgrounds, she says.
"They are famous because they are good - not because they are Chinese," she says.
"Their designs suit most women, but will not outshine those who wear them."
Jiao says being Chinese can be a disadvantage.
"In fashion you have to network," she says.
"But Chinese are relatively more conservative and not that good at selling themselves. I will not bump into someone and say, 'Hey, you know what? My clothes are on X Factor. They are amazing!'"
She recalls the global recession brought challenges to her business. Sales dropped by 60 percent, and the shops that sold her clothes decreased from 10 to two in 2009.
Jiao became short-tempered, and frequently fought with her husband, she says. But the hardest part was dealing with self-doubt.
"Is it because my designs are ugly? Can I do good designs again? I kept asking the same questions," she says.
The only thing she could do was to reinvest, because she had to provide new items every week for London's high street. She had to turn to her parents for money.
Jiao struggled to find reasons. At last, she made the drastic decision to fire her manager, because she believed the manager's dereliction was a major cause of the gloomy sales.
She hired a new team and stopped giving her staff luxury Christmas gifts, such as Hermes bangles. She used to offer employees very high salaries with 10 percent incentives. She has since dramatically decreased the salary and raised the incentive.
"No one taught me how to be a boss before," she says.
"I learned lessons. Being a nice guy will not make a good boss."
Jiao's clothes are now available not only in the UK but also in Spain, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. China offers a tempting market, but she's waiting for the best time to enter.
She believes Chinese customers tend to see clothing already arranged into outfits in the shops, while European women prefer to clothes themselves. Her team of 40 doesn't have time to arrange clothes into outfits, she says.
"But China is definitely a place I will set up shops," she says.
"I want to see Chinese girls complimented in my clothes."