Octogenarian designer shares beauty of qipao

Jin Yuxia (right) talks with customers in her workshop in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei province, on June 2, 2021. (Photo/China News Agency)

86-year-old Jin Yuxia has been making dresses, especially the traditional Chinese costume qipao, for more than five decades in Shijiazhuang, north China’s Hebei province.

Jin runs a workshop where 80 percent of the dresses were designed by her. She caught the attention of Chinese net users after a video of her making a qipao for her daughter-in-law was widely circulated online.

Jin became a researcher in the field of physics after she graduated from university, but as her first love was tailoring, she chose to make this field her lifelong career. “I like to stay up to date with fashion trends, but I also think qipao has never become outdated. In fact, I think there is a huge market for traditional dresses,” Jin said.

“Qipao is a treasure of Chinese culture that should be carried forward, and it suits Asian people’s body shape very well,” Jin pointed out. “When I was making qipao, I paid so much attention to the details, including the embroidery patterns, knotted buttons, and side thigh splits. If the dress didn’t fit the customer, I could hardly sleep, and kept thinking about how to improve it,” Jin revealed.

“I hope to show the beauty of qipao using an attitude adopted by scientists while seeking truth,” Jin said, adding that in order to be a good qipao designer, one has to be able to work like an architect who builds, a sculptor who carves, a musician who produces rhythms, and an artist with a strong sense of beauty.

Hanfu, which has a much longer history in China than qipao, has also become chic among the younger generation in China. According to Guangzhou-based market consultancy iiMedia Research, the number of hanfu fans in China is expected to reach 6.89 million this year, and market sales are predicted to hit at least 10.16 billion yuan ($1.58 billion).

An analyst with iiMedia Research believes that young people have helped revive hanfu, and popular shows featuring Chinese costume dramas have also accelerated the development of hanfu-related businesses.