Young Chinese designer makes New York Fashion Week debut

A model presents a creation of LEAF XIA Fall/Winter 2019 collection during the New York Fashion Week in New York, the United States, on Feb. 13, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese fashion designer Leaf Xia surprised and amused her audience at the ongoing New York Fashion Week (NYFW) on Wednesday with her namesake brand's latest womenswear collection with feline cuteness, making a successful debut at the top global fashion event.

In collaboration with Hello Kitty, the iconic Japanese brand featuring the cartoon image of a cute cat, the 10-minute show displayed more than 20 vividly colorful outfits in oversized shapes and covered with a kaleidoscope of cartoon images and collages.

Holding Hello Kitty dolls in their hands, models turned the finale of Xia's show into a teenage girls' party with energetic strides, vibrant poses and sweet smiles, captivating the hearts of viewers, most of whom are also Hello Kitty fans.

Xia told Xinhua after the show that by using romantic colors and cute styles, she wanted to demonstrate that sweetness could also be powerful for women.

"It's a sense of overcoming hardness with softness," said Xia, referring to the ancient Chinese wisdom. "When I was designing this collection, these colors actually gave me a lot of courage."

Born in east China's Jiangsu Province in 1992 and raised in metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai, Xia graduated from the New York-based Parsons School of Design in 2015 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts before went back to Shanghai to launch her brand. She has been invited to hold runway shows for three times at the London Fashion Week, another global fashion extravaganza.

Xia is among nearly a dozen young Chinese designers who have sprung up in the global fashion arena in recent years. In her opinion, this is "something meant to be happening" as the country has enjoyed rapid economic and social development in the past decades.

"In the past, a lot of brilliant Chinese students majored in maths, but as the country develops, more talent in art will emerge," said Xia.

She said that a lot of excellent students in globally renowned design schools today are from China. "We Chinese are born with the desire to excel, and we have a great taste in art owing to the long history and rich culture of our country," she added.

Usually staged in February and September, the NYFW is ranked among the fashion world's top four along with the Paris, London and Milan fashion weeks.