Debra Li

    debra_lidan@163.com

    UNLIKE her employees who were clad in shiny nightgowns and stilettos, Pesdin Kuo wore a simple black sweater with abstract white patterns, a black skirt and a pair of comfortable flat shoes to her company’s year-end party. Instead of pearls, she had a white porcelain necklace in the shape of a string of flowers as her only accessory.

    “I like to be comfortable in my clothes. If I had to put on a night dress, it would feel like I could not be myself anymore, as if I were wearing a dress stolen from someone else,” the chief designer for fashion brand J&NINA said during a recent interview at her workshop in Buji, Longgang District.

    Since Kuo and her husband Dai Mingquan started their brand in 1998, she has always stuck to her principles in design.

    “To me, an ideal woman’s outfit should make her look modern, intelligent, independent and lively,” the 52-year-old Taiwanese designer said. She has based her firm in Shenzhen for 10 years, with more than 100 shops in cities on both sides of the Straits.

    “Of course, I heed trends and incorporate fashionable elements into my design. But my style is rather fixed: simple but not boring, comfortable, and with a sense of humor.” The principles are reflected in her brand name: It’s the combination of the names of her son James and daughter Nina.

    There were often stories behind the themes of her designs, as she drew inspirations from travel, books, music, movies, paintings or even current events.

    “Animal prints and flower decorations have been popular the last two years,” Kuo explained. “So we designed our own unique patterns for tees and shirts. For instance, our spring/summer season of clothes feature pastel colors and patterns of flowers and hummingbirds, whose inspirations came from macarons — my favorite dessert — and Sandro Botticelli’s painting ‘Primavera.’”

    Kuo said she likes to add details to her design that expresses a sense of humor and sweet memories from childhood. “Inside each adult woman, no matter how sharp and efficient she appears to be, there is a little girl who loves rainbows and flowers. That applies to me as well, even when I’ll be 80 years old.”

    Given her belief in simplicity, her designs never feature, for example, a cute bear conspicuously on the front, but instead focuses on small details that might surprise her customers. “Details like a contrast in colors and fabrics in the same outfit sometimes can work miracles,” she said.

    She once traveled to London during a vacation while she was still a design student in Ilan, Taiwan. “London was an interesting place, where guys dressed and acted like gentlemen in the day and drank, chatted and chilled out at pubs in the evening. People there embraced classical music as well as punk,” she said. “I was fascinated by the ease with which they shift roles and the coexistence of contrasting things.”

    Her focus on comfort was a lesson learned during a tour to Paris. “Parisian women enjoyed being fashionable, but they never overdid it. It seemed they just randomly pulled something out of their closet and threw it on, but everything on them suited them to a tee. They taught me that the purpose of clothes is to manifest who you really are.”

    Another trip to New York in 2007 impressed her in a different way. “New York is the most fast-paced city I’ve ever visited. A melting pot of people from all over the world, the city is full of vigor.” That city led Kuo to embrace a sporty spirit in her design.

    With many young talents working under her, Kuo still designs several pieces herself each season. “She just cannot resist the temptation to draw her own designs,” said her husband. And her assistant confirms that Kuo is rather tenacious with her ideas.

    “If I told her a certain design might not be a hot sale, she would insist I make a stronger case with figures and surveys, like how similar products fared in past seasons or with other brands,” her assistant surnamed Deng said.

    “In fact, I would not consider whether this design will be a hot sale when I do it. My primary concern is: Will it look fabulous on my muse?” Kuo said. “When you say an outfit is no good, it must be a problem with suitability. Either the fabric is not right for the climate of the market where you aim it for, or the fabric is not a perfect match with the colors or designs.”

    She would always try out the prototype in secret first, and then have models wear it to get the proportions right, and finally have both thin and plump people try it to see how it works on common folks.

    “A very unique piece may not sell well, but displaying it in the window will absolutely draw customers into the shop,” she said.

    “Every woman is a Cinderella dreaming of her crystal shoes, and a designer can be the fairy who waves a wand and turns them into a princess.” But Kuo agrees that fashion should not fan materialism.

    Like the Parisian women she appreciates, Kuo insists that people should basically wear what suits them. In her wardrobe, 80 percent of the clothes are her own design, and the rest come from the designers she adores, such as Yohji Yamamoto.

    “A fur coat is not for everyone. Just take the brand Exception for example: While Peng Liyuan (China’s first lady) wore it well at public functions, someone else might wear it as if they were wearing a sack or a pile of rags.”

    And, speaking of Exception, Kuo said its story again proves the magic of fashion design.

    “Ma Ke, its chief designer, has insisted from the outset that they do everything themselves, starting with the fabrics. All fabrics used to make Exception brand outfits are of natural materials, and they produce their own fabrics. Exception started as a niche brand and seemed a bit avant-garde at the beginning. However, Ma’s perfectionist approach is finally accepted by the general public and she has become a trendsetter.”

    As to the many young Chinese designers who have won rave reviews in recent years in fashion capitals like London and New York, Kuo believes that they have a lot of spotlight on them primarily because of the rise of the Chinese economy.

    “More people became interested in China and naturally became interested in designers from the country,” she said.

    “To me, an ideal woman’s outfit should make her look modern, intelligent, independent and lively.”

    — Pesdin Kuo, a 52-year-old Shenzhen-based Taiwanese designer