Past Issues

Here Comes Shiatzy

• Byline:WINNIE CHANG
• Publication Date:09/01/1997

        For the past twenty years, fashion designer Shiatzy Chen has been working to build a signature style that combines West and East. She has conquered Taiwan with contemporary Chinese chic--next stop the world?

        Traditional Chinese costume has long been a source of inspiration for fashion designers around the world. For many years, couturiers with a genius for color and pattern, cut and style, have been coming up with designs featuring mandarin collars, slit-sided dresses, knotted buttons, or even dazzling chipaos in all their former glory, cut from a single piece of red embroidered Chinese silk and reminiscent of the decadent but sophisticated world of pre-1949 Shanghai.

        The most recent bout of "China fever," as it is known in the fashion world, began to spread some time ago, with almost every well-known maestro--Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Donna Karen, Jill Sanders, and Hanae Mori, to name but a few of the biggest names--launching lines that drew upon traditional Chinese influences in some way.

        But this time, the rush to China in search of inspiration was not just some exotic flash in the pan designed to appeal to Western women only, as had often been the case in the past. Hong Kong, for long the fashion headquarters of Chinese communities throughout Asia, also began to extend a welcome to the new trend. Chinese women in the former British territory are finally mastering their fear of being-Chinese-but-looking-too-Chinese. Now they can carry themselves with confidence, grace, and even pride in clothes that are a modern interpretation of their ancestral heritage.

        The handover of Hong Kong by Great Britain to mainland China, which took place on July 1 this year, saw the culmination of this process. Wearing clothes that are modern, chic, and Chinese has become the "in" and politically correct thing to do throughout every stratum of Hong Kong's diversified society.

        While Hong Kong's reversion to mainland rule looks like an irreversible fact of history, can any fashion trend ever hope to fall into that category? People who monitor world fashion trends are quick to say that the current vogue will soon breeze away, just like everything else, until it comes around again and zaps a new generation of designers with the desire to "go Chinese." Such cynics should wake up and take a closer look at what has been going on in Taiwan, where for the past two decades at least one designer has been working on combining Western approaches to couture with traditional Chinese culture. She has, with the help of her husband who manages the business, built up a fashion house that boasts its own production line, hires more than 200 employees, and runs some thirty boutiques throughout the island. She is Wang Chen Tsai-hsia (王陳彩霞), 46, currently one of Taiwan's very few top fashion designers.

        The strange thing is that "Shiatzy" Chen, or Mrs. Wang (her married name) as she is usually called by her staff, did not set out to be a designer. Twenty-five years ago, she was still a young and dedicated dressmaker in a small town near Taichung city in central Taiwan. She served an apprenticeship, but never received formal academic training, as most young designers do nowadays. Nor did she ever expect to be anything other than a small-town dressmaker. "I am a very practical person," Chen says. "Being a fashion designer was something beyond my imagination. I just wanted to make clothes."

        Then in 1972 things began to change. Chen met her husband-to-be, a local fabric salesman with good business sense and lots of ambition. They got married and soon afterwards moved to Taipei in search of better opportunities. That was during the mid-1970s--a prime time for Taiwan's garment industry, when many other confident young people were seizing life by the throat and starting their own businesses. With limited capital, much determination, and a good knowledge of ready-to-wear manufacturing processes, the couple set up a small knitwear factory. They chose that line, because knitting technology in Taiwan was more advanced than in other countries and knitwear was in great demand overseas. "That was when I first seriously felt I was doing something Chinese," Chen recalls. "The designs were simple, but I used lots of Chinese icons, patterns, and coloring on them."

        According to Chen, they hit just the right button. Their products were soon selling in Japan, Europe, and America, and selling well. Orders flooded in from overseas until the business started to resemble a round-the-clock cash machine. Buyers, especially in Europe and the United States, kept on asking them to send more. Chen's company, which by then had acquired the name Shiatzy, literally, "Styles-for-Chinese" (夏姿), was quickly forced to expand to meet ever-increasing demand.

        But Chen did not neglect to build up a strong domestic market for her knitwear products, which turned out to be equally successful in Taiwan. Her brand name was gradually becoming known to a small but rapidly expanding circle of customers who appreciated her low-key, elegant style and fine workmanship. That encouraged her to start making cloth es with different materials, as she had formerly done back in the small town where she used to live. She consciously put more effort into the creative process. Her designs became more experimental, but they always bore that air of quiet sophistication which over the years was to become Shiatzy's hallmark.

        Chen's growing reputation as a designer eventually paid dividends in the business world. In 1985, the Sunrise Department Store, which claims to have been the first upmarket shopping center designed for today's woman in Taiwan, opened in Taipei. Hsu Li-lin (徐莉玲), the store's original general manager and one of the masterminds behind its concept, encouraged Chen and other local designers to develop individual styles that would not only suit the modern woman's love of European fashion but also reflect Chinese culture. "She told me that to develop Taiwan's fashion industry, we must turn to our own culture for inspiration, we must come up with fashion that immediately reflected the rich and colorful culture of China," Hsu recalls.

        By lucky chance, this happened at around the time the movie The Last Emperor came out. The lavishly produced film by famed Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, who also made The Conformist (1970) and Last Tango in Paris (1972), tells the story of the last Ching dynasty emperor, Pu Yi. The film that gave the Chinese-American actors John Lone and Joan Chen their shot at Hollywood stardom was not only a huge box-office success, it also rekindled worldwide interest in imperial China. Before long, lines of clothes inspired by the film's ornate costumes could be seen on models sauntering up and down the catwalks of Paris, London, Milan, New York, and Tokyo.

        Taiwan was not slow to take note of the new trend. Chen saw the movie and then flew to London with Hsu Li-lin of the Sunrise Department Store on what they called "an observation trip." She wanted to see for herself what European designers were going to do with the neo-Chinese inspiration. A fter that, Chen began to focus her search for new ideas on traditional Chinese costumes and cultural artifacts. Through sheer instinct, she knew she had found her style.

        In the late 1980s, the export market suffered a depression, due to a rise in the value of the New Taiwan dollar and increased production costs. Chen and her husband accordingly decided to concentrate on developing the local market, and since then Chen has been treating Taiwan women to Western-style clothes with clean-cut, simple lines, and, above all, a strong Chinese flavor.

        Just because she combines East with West, Chen has no intention of trying to "modernize" traditional Chinese clothes, as some local designers have attempted to do with the chipao, for example. On the contrary, her ideal modern Chinese "look" has to be created with Western concepts and techniques of dressmaking. "I care very much about line," she explains. "Modern fashion is basically about line and cut. On the othe r hand, line is not much emphasized in traditional Chinese fashion, and the cut is usually flat. That's why made-over Chinese clothes like the chipao have never really found acceptance with today's Chinese women, even though they've been made easier to wear."

        In this respect, Chen has found role models in Korea and Japan. Of the contemporary Korean and Japanese designers, Chen admits to appreciating Yohji Yamamoto the most. "I like his designs a lot, because he doesn't copy, let alone try to imitate others," she says. "It's true that his designs are extremely avant-garde and he uses lots of Western techniques, but they're so unmistakably Japanese. "

        When considering a new design, Chen first maps out the basics according to the Western skills she acquired as an apprentice dressmaker in Taichung, and only then does she think about what traditional Chinese touches to add to the design. "Mandarin collars, quilted patterns, knotted-fabric buttons, and slits down the side of the skirt are all parts of the Chinese fashion tradition," she notes. "They shouldn't just be cast aside. You can have a lot of fun with them and still make them look stylishly modern."

        Like every designer, Chen has an ideal woman in mind. "For me, she is very self-contained, but also efficient and tough inside," she says. "If I want to present that kind of personality through fashion, I must create clothes that have simple lines and clean looks." When it comes to colors, Chen admits to being traditional. "I'm not that adventurous with colors," she concedes. "Sure, I'll use colors that I know are popular. But I have a tendency to put contrasting hues together--red and black, green and yellow--especially when I'm doing my winter collections. You know, Chinese love red, especially in winter. It's an auspicious color."

        Quilted (or padded) jackets have consistently been among Chen's most popular items in her winter collections. They usually come with a wide range of options as to fabric, pattern, color combination, and style. Often they are reversible, with silk inside and cotton outside, or vice versa. They are light but designed to keep the wearer warm, like the old cotton quilted versions grandmother used to wear. When mixed and matched with other styles, they seem to dramatize the overall effect.

        "One time I was waiting for a flight at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, and I saw this young Chinese woman in one of my jackets," Chen recalls. "She was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans. Together they made her looked fabulously hip." A Shiatzy salesperson points out that the winter quilted jackets are usually the first to sell out during sales. "We have some really loyal customers who've bought several," the assistant says. "They're very comfortable to wear, they look smart, and stand out from the crowd. And they're equally good for casual or formal occasions."

        The most difficult thing for Chen, or for any designer, is to preserve a unique style while still giving the latest designs new twists based on current trends. "To maintain my own style, I have to come up with something new every year," she says. "Take the quilted jackets, for instance. They can't be the same as last year's. I have to do something different with them if I'm to keep my customers coming back for more. Often it drives me crazy just thinking about it."

        Fortunately there are still lots of ideas that Chen can absorb from her culture. "The history of China is long and its culture is incredibly diversified," she notes. "I can turn to any historical period's clothing style for ideas. For instance, I can use the Tang dynasty's open turndown collar, or the Ching dynasty's chipao collar, on a jacket." She also pays tribute to the help she receives from her six assistants. "As my company expands, I can't do all the designing myself," she admits. "So i f Shiatzy is successful, it's not because of me, but because of the wonderful teamwork that goes into each design."

        Although her assistants graduated from one of the best fashion design schools in Taiwan, Chen knows all too well that formal education and hard work are not enough. "To become a good designer, one must have a broad world vision," she says. Therefore her assistants often get the chance to go to Paris, where they have to stay for about two months or even longer at the company's expense. "When they go, they attend all kinds of fashion shows, they visit boutiques, they go to museums, they experience the whole Parisian bit," she says. "That way, I hope they'll come back to Taipei with new ideas and a fresh approach to their work."

        Chen is determined to enter the international market. To pave the way for that, six years ago she set up a workshop in Paris, and this serves as much more than a base for her assistants during their sojourns in the city. There her staff learn about European fashion trends, and discuss and design new fashion ideas and decorative patterns for Shiatzy's upcoming collections.

        The same French patternmaker has presided over the workshop since its inception. His responsibilities include keeping abreast of the latest developments and teaching Chen's assistants current styles of cutting and fashion concepts. "It's good to have him in the company, because he can tell us what Europeans like or don't like," Chen says. "The 'Chinese' that we envisage is different from what Westerners think of when they hear the word 'Chinese,' so if I want to sell clothes in Paris, the designs mustn't be too European or too Chinese. We can't afford to look at the sky from the bottom of a well. We have to understand what our customers want."

        Shiatzy is scheduled to enter the French market next year, when her first boutique will open in Paris and for the first time she will stage her own shows. But giving the world Taiwan's interpretation of modern Chinese fashion by taking the Western approach is far from being her ultimate goal. Her dream is to see someone else carry the brand name Shiatzy and the signature style that she has so diligently built up well into the next century. "I've always admired Giorgio Armani, because his designs are very simple and clean, and his clothes are comfortable to wear," she says. "He has a knack of making whoever wears his clothes look soft and feminine. But what I admire about him most is his ability to stay on top for so long. He's the evergreen of fashion, and that's what I want for Shiatzy."

        Chen has come a long way from being a small-town dressmaker to becoming Taiwan's leading fashion designer. By her own super-exacting standards, she is still far from being successful. But to quote Goethe, "He who is firm in will molds the world to himself," and Chen is going to make it no matter what. "I don't consider myself a very creative person, but I'm determined," she says. "Once I set my mind on something, I'll do my best to make it happen."

        So Paris, New York, Milan, London, and Tokyo: Sit tight and get ready--because here comes Shiatzy!