旗袍之恋

For Li Li, the qipao used to conjure up images of her late grandmother. The body-hugging traditional Chinese dress was the last thing the 30-year-old would consider wearing to a party.

But now Ms. Li, a television producer, spends her free time going in and out of dress shops in Shanghai -- she's on the hunt for the perfect qipao to wear on special occasions. And she's not the only one: As Ms. Li goes from shop to shop, she is surprised to find many young Chinese women buying qipaos for parties. The dresses are a far cry from the ones her grandmother used to wear.

'The patterns are so modern and the fabric colors are so bright. And you can choose the length of the qipao according to the occasion,' she says. Long for formal occasions, above-the-knee for cocktails or drinks on Friday. 'It is just so trendy.'

For many young Chinese, traditional is back in vogue: China's sizzling economic growth in recent years has given consumers a sudden lift in purchasing power, and the pride that's come with China's emergence as a big player in the global economy is creating a hunger for things that represent their roots. Newly rich Chinese are restoring old hutongs, or family courtyard homes, and living in them. And they're setting new records on Ming-era porcelain and Chinese antiquities sold at international auctions.

In fashion, this look backward is manifesting itself in two different ways: Young people are snapping up modern takes on old styles, like traditional tangzhuang jackets. Or they're splashing money on Western styles with Chinese embellishments -- fitted coats with just a hint of a Mao collar and an elaborate embroidered silk lining. The shift in taste is translating into big business for designers who can pull the Chinese culture out of the past and interpret it for today.

As a young designer from Shanghai, Denise Huang Mengqi has witnessed the recent change in taste firsthand. When she opened her first boutique in Shanghai's prestigious Bund area four years ago, her customers were almost exclusively Westerners. They liked her modern slippers, bags and scarves, which are sewn from Chinese silks and often adorned with embroideries of traditional Chinese motifs such as fish, birds or bamboo. Chinese shoppers, on the other hand, didn't.

'Some Chinese would walk into the store, look around, and tell me, 'This design is for foreigners,'' says Ms. Huang, reflecting a common challenge major Western fashion houses such as Gucci and Armani faced in 2003 when they launched a line of Chinese-themed clothing that made a splash around the world but got snubbed in China.

Today, about 40% of Ms. Huang's business comes from local Chinese shoppers, many of them lawyers and bankers in their 20s, 30s and 40s. 'I hear fewer people calling it traditional now, and more of them see it as a fashionable item,' she says.

When it comes to wearing Chinese styles, however, there's a fine line between being stylish and looking like you're dressed in a costume. 'If you wear a qipao that's cheap, you risk looking like a waitress at a restaurant,' says Annie Zhang, a 42-year-old venture capitalist and art collector from Shanghai who almost always wears outfits designed with Chinese elements when she goes out with friends or to parties.

Unlike those of Ms. Li and her fellow shoppers, Ms. Zhang's tastes have evolved since she wore her first qipao to a ball five years ago. Instead of traditional dresses, she now looks for modern styles with just a hint of Asian influence.

She and her friends are big fans of the Taiwanese fashion house Shiatzy Chen, whose founder Wang Chen Tsai-shia, 56, is often referred to as the Chanel of China. Ms. Zhang thinks Shiatzy Chen is good at keeping the Chinese elements understated. For example, in a long coat from Shiatzy Chen made with a stiff black fabric, the only hint of Chinese traditional style is a simple embroidered flower. And a suit Ms. Zhang bought looks entirely Western except for its lily-pad like broad collar. 'I don't like clothes with the traditional knotted Chinese buttons. That's too Chinese,' she says. 'Shiatzy Chen suits often use clip buttons so you can't see them.'

In building a brand based on Chinese culture, Ms. Wang Chen says 'it's important that you keep up with the times. You can't separate yourself from the current tide.' For example, she says, 'a lot of people wear qipao or mianao, but just making a qipao or a mianao won't do it.' (A mianao is a traditional cotton quilted or padded jacket.)

Ms. Wang Chen's original line of clothes, in fact, wasn't Chinese. When she launched her label in 1978 in Taiwan, it was a line of Western designs. But after two years, she realized she couldn't compete with the big Western fashion houses if she was simply chasing their trends.

'I thought that if I used my own culture, the Chinese culture, then I could advance quickly,' she says. After Ms. Wang Chen incorporated more Chinese elements into her designs, she says her sales tripled in one year.

She opened her first boutique in mainland China in 2003. Today, Ms. Wang Chen has six boutiques in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Qingdao and plans to boost the number to 40 by 2010. She won't disclose figures, but says sales in Shanghai have more than tripled in the past four years.

Chinese-culture-based couture can be tricky, and even when a designer has a hit, keeping the crowds coming back for more can be a challenge. Shanghai Tang learned this lesson the hard way. The quintessential Chinese luxury brand was launched in 1994 as a custom-tailoring business in Hong Kong. In 1996, the store began to make ready-to-wear fashions -- traditional Chinese styles in brightly colored silks -- to appeal to well-heeled, mostly Western, tourists. But when the company opened a New York boutique in 1997, its array of clothes and knickknacks smacked of costumery and worse, tchotchkes one could buy in Chinatown. The store struggled -- less than two years after it opened, it moved to a much smaller space. The company learned it had to evolve to stay relevant to modern tastes.

Since then, Shanghai Tang has revamped and distanced itself from traditional qipao designs and classic tangzhuang jackets. The company still has a shop in New York -- it is moving again and will reopen later this year -- as well as boutiques in Europe and Dubai. In Asia, besides Hong Kong, it has shops in Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo, among other cities.

'We evolved from utterly Chinese to subtly Chinese,' says Raphael le Masne de Chermont, Shanghai Tang's executive chairman, based in Hong Kong. 'We are much more subtle in the way we design our clothes. So we are embracing a more modern and more fashionista (look) than we used to.'

Six years ago, when Mr. le Masne took over, qipaos and Mao jackets made up the bulk of Shanghai Tang's sales -- mostly to Westerners. Few Chinese bought clothes in the shops. Today, about 40% to 45% of its shoppers world-wide are ethnic Chinese, says Mr. le Masne, compared with just 20% six years ago. And those traditional qipaos and tangzhuangs? They make up just 4% of the company's sales, he says.

The new Shanghai Tang look has included brocaded parkas with fur-trimmed hoods, tweed skirts festooned with crystals in a dragon design and cardigans embellished with pieces of jade.

For the past three collections, says Mr. le Masne, 'we have started evolving toward a very modern vision of China.' Shanghai Tang is 'being a little bit of the torchbearer of China on the move.'

过去，旗袍常常令李丽（音）联想起自己过世的祖母。30岁的她是绝对不会在聚会上穿这种紧身设计的中国传统服装的。

不过现在，作为电视制片人，李丽有空的时候，常常会光顾上海的服装店──她希望找到适合在特殊场合下穿的完美旗袍。还有很多人像她一样：随着李丽进出一个又一个的服装店，她惊奇地发现很多年轻中国女性也在为聚会置备旗袍。现在的旗袍和她祖母的旗袍已有天壤之别。

李丽说，现在旗袍的款式非常时髦，颜色也很亮丽，你还可以根据不同的场合选择旗袍的长度，比如正式的场合可以穿较长的旗袍，而周末的酒会可以穿长度在膝盖之上的旗袍。她慨叹，旗袍太流行了。

对中国的很多年轻人来说，传统重回流行舞台：近年来中国快速发展的经济使居民购买力大大增强，中国在世界经济中不断提高的地位也使国人油然而生自豪感，他们对代表中国传统的元素如饥似渴。刚富起来的中国人对古老的胡同和传统的四阁院进行了修缮，并纷纷移居其中。不仅如此，在国际拍卖会上，中国人也在以大手笔买下明朝的瓷器和中国古董，拍价不断创出新高。

在服装界，这种回归以两种截然不同的方式体现出来：有些年轻人热衷于传统服装的现代演绎，比如传统唐装的再现；有些年轻人则喜欢点缀有中国元素的西方服装风格，比如配有中山装衣领和精致丝绣内里、裁剪合身的外套。这种服装品位上的改变为那些能“古为今用”的设计师们带来了无限商机。

上海的年轻设计师黄梦绮(Denise)亲眼目睹了近年来这种品位上的变化。四年前，她在上海著名的外滩开了自己的第一家专卖店，当时她的顾客几乎清一色都是外国人。这些顾客喜欢她设计的时髦拖鞋、包和围巾，这些物品都是用中国丝绸织成，还常常用鱼、鸟或竹子等中国传统刺绣图案进行装点。相反，中国顾客却不喜欢这些。

黄梦绮说，有些中国人走进他们店，四处看看，然后对她说，“这些都是外国人喜欢的设计。”这也反映出了西方著名服装品牌常常会面临的一项挑战──西方人喜欢，中国人却不喜欢。比如，2003年古奇(Gucci)和阿玛尼(Armani)等推出了以中国为主题的服装系列，在世界上产生了巨大反响，但在中国却受到冷落。

现在，黄梦绮的顾客中有40%是中国人，其中很多是二十、三十、四十多岁的律师和银行家。她说，现在把旗袍当作传统服装的人越来越少了，而越来越多的人认为这是一件时髦单品。

不过，在穿着中国传统服装时，必须要把握住时尚与过于夸张之间的微妙界限。42岁的Annie Zhang是上海的一位风险投资家和艺术品收藏家。她说，如果穿上一件廉价旗袍，你可能会看起来像个餐馆服务员。她和朋友出游或是参加聚会的时候，几乎总是穿着包含中国元素的服饰。

与李丽这样的顾客不同，Annie Zhang穿着品位的变化是在五年前她第一次身着旗袍参加了一次舞会之后。她现在不再穿传统服装，而是会选择一些带有亚洲元素的时髦服饰。

她和朋友是台湾服装品牌夏姿(Shiatzy Chen)的忠实粉丝。该品牌的创办人王陈彩霞现年56岁，常被誉为是“中国的香奈尔”。Annie Zhang认为夏姿非常擅长适度地使用中国元素。比如，一件用硬挺的黑色面料制作的夏姿长外套中，唯一体现中国传统风格的地方就是一朵简单的绣花。Annie Zhang买的另外一件套装看起来完全属于西式，只有荷叶领体现了中国元素。她说，她不喜欢中国传统的盘扣，太中式了；而夏姿的服装常常使用看不见的暗扣。

王陈彩霞表示，在创立基于中国文化的品牌时，与时代保持同步是非常重要的，你不能脱离当前的潮流。她说，比如现在有很多人穿旗袍或是棉袄，但单纯地制作旗袍和棉袄是不够的。

实际上，王陈彩霞最早的服装系列并非中式。1978年，她在台湾推出自己的品牌时，采用的是西方设计。不过两年之后，她意识到如果她只是追逐西方的流行趋势，就无法与西方著名服装品牌进行竞争。

王陈彩霞想，如果借鉴中国文化，她就能飞快地进步。她说，在加入了更多中国元素后，夏姿的销售额在短短一年间就增长了两倍。

2003年，王陈彩霞在中国大陆开了第一家专卖店。现在，她在上海、北京、天津和青岛已经有了六家分店，而且计划至2010年扩大到40家。她没有透露具体的销售数字，但表示上海的销售额在过去四年中已经增长了两倍多。

基于中国文化设计服装可能并不容易，而且即使某位设计师的设计广受欢迎，保持住回头客仍可能是项巨大挑战。中国著名奢侈品牌“上海滩”(Shanghai Tang)就是经过挫折后才体会到了这一点。1994年，服装定制品牌“上海滩”在香港推出。1996年，该品牌开始推出成衣，这些用鲜艳丝绸制作的中国传统服装吸引了富有的游客，主要是西方游客。1997年“上海滩”在纽约开了一家专卖店，不过其服装上使用的小装饰品却过于夸张廉价，甚至在中国城就可以买到。这家店因此陷入困境，开业不到两年就不得不搬家，店面也小了很多。“上海滩”认识到必须不断创新，才能与流行的品位保持同步。

自那之后，“上海滩”一直在转型，脱离了传统的旗袍和唐装设计。该公司在纽约仍有一家店──它又搬家了，今年晚些时候将重新开业，在欧洲和迪拜也有专卖店。在亚洲，除香港外，还在北京、上海和东京等城市有专卖店。

“上海滩”驻香港的执行主席雷富逸(Raphael le Masne de Chermont)说，我们的服装从完全的中式演变成了些许的中式，在服装设计上更加微妙，所以服装款式比过去更现代、更时髦。

六年前，雷富逸接管“上海滩”的时候，旗袍和唐装占该公司销售额的一大块，顾客主要是西方人，几乎没有中国顾客。雷富逸说，现在该公司在全世界的顾客中约有40%到45%是华人，而六年前只有20%。他还说，中国传统旗袍和唐装只占公司销售额的4%。

“上海滩”的新设计包括：带有皮草边兜帽的皮制锦缎大衣，用小水晶所串成龙图案装饰的斜纹软呢裙，以及用玉石装饰的开襟羊毛衫。

雷富逸说，在最新的三个服装系列中，我们已经开始向更加现代的中式设计演变，“上海滩”在这个潮流中，有点像是中国的火炬手。