Panache By Jane

Natalee Blagden

Jane Zhu is no ordinary qipao maker. The 29 year old Harvard grad holds a degree in Abnormal Psychology, and her motley list of previous jobs includes investment banking for Morgan Stanley. Just two years after opening her luxury qipao atelier in Shanghai, Zhu is reinventing herself again.

The Qipao By Jane label has been synonymous with quality, attracting brides-to-be from all over the world. Now Zhu’s breaking into new territory with daring detailing atop her perfectly fitted custom creations: gleaming silver zippers, paper cutting, decorative buttons, and skin-baring slits running the length of the body.

“As soon as I drew the qipaos with the zippers,” Zhu recalls, “my assistant, who went to a technical design school, said ‘Oh, no, that won’t work. You can’t put silk together with metal zippers! And you’ll never find any shifu to make them for you.’”

Zhu persevered and “they worked out, I think, pretty well, because just the idea of putting [visible] zippers into a qipao is pretty new. I think they make the dresses much, much more modern.” The shiny sliver zips snake around the body, but the clothing is simple to put on or remove. “They just peel off in one piece, like a banana,” Zhu tells us.

Most memorable, of course, are the sensual, slightly revealing dresses with the S-shaped slits winding around the body. “The only woman I’ve had order something with the slits is a British girl who was visiting China. For the Chinese,” Zhu explains, “The orders are often for weddings … For them it’s not just another party dress, it’s something more formal.”

Zhu’s most laborious new technique is jianzhi, Chinese paper cutting. The process takes about 200 hours to produce five dresses bit by bit, treating the silk to harden it, then carving, then embroidering each piece on. “I think in the future I’ll try to find a way to get the same effect, but that was one of the central features of this collection. Because I like Chinese things. I like them to be really, really Chinese.”

“All the feedback I got back was positive, but I suppose nobody would give me negative feedback to my face,” Zhu laughs cheerfully. “In terms of the Chinese media’s response it’s been really good. People have been calling for photo shoots and I’ve been lending the dresses out,” in China, Singapore, and LA. “It’s been really, really great.”

After launching her first collection Jane Zhu finally feels “much, mush more like a fashion designer. I don’t blush when I say that to people anymore, when they ask me what I do,” she says, giggling mid-sentence.

During our interview, Zhu radiates depth and intelligence. We ask how she feels about working in a superficial industry. “Um, I love it!” she cries, hesitating for only a nanosecond before blurting this out, unabashed. “I love the fashion world! You don’t need it to survive, but you also don’t need books to survive. You don’t need poetry to survive. They’re these extra things, but they do bring a lot of joy.”

Sometimes when “the big things aren’t going right”, when she hears about wars and terrorism and strife in the world, Zhu admits she does think: “‘Well, I’m not doing much, as much good for the world as I could.’ But then,” she grows animated, “then, you get a piece of mail from one of your customers and it was her wedding and she is so happy and you know, her husband cried when he saw her in the dress, it just makes me feel good,” she gushes. “It’s small moments of happiness. I think that’s what makes it – that’s what fashion is.”

Zhu’s first collection was presented at Shanghai International Fashion Week, but her dresses sell all over China, in Singapore, London, and New York. She plans to continue to produce new collections “If not every season, at least every two seasons.” Keep your eyes open for some Zhu near you: she divulged to TALK that opening a shop in Beijing may be her next big move.

Unit 103, Building 8A, 50 Moganshan Lu. Tel: 6245 3678. Web: www.qipaobyjane.com. Email: [email protected]