STREET snaps taken during each year’s Shenzhen Fashion Week are the most discussed topics among Shenzhen residents and this year an 83-year-old granny wowed the audience and photographers with her elegant and fashionable dress.

    The “Fashion Granny,” named Qiao Hong, is a sculptor who moved to Shenzhen with her husband in 1984. She performed in an individual show at this year’s Shenzhen Fashion Week that wrapped up Thursday.

    Unlike most senior women that keep a low profile, Qiao is keen on being in the spotlight of the fashion show’s runway with her elegant light yellow traditional Chinese outfit.

    Born in Nanjing in 1935, Qiao was raised in a wealthy and well-educated family. Her father, Qiao Qiming, is a graduate of Cornell University and a well-known agricultural economist.

    With an early exposure to Western culture, Qiao was inspired by her foreign tutors to practice sculpture with soap and make costumes for her dolls, which led her to pursue sculpture and fashion design. Qiao said that she had not given up dreaming about beauty and hoping for a bright future even during war time.

    Qiao moved to work at Guangzhou Sculpture Institute after graduating from China Central Academy of Fine Arts, the country’s top college for fine arts. After working in Guangzhou for 23 years, Qiao and her husband relocated to Shenzhen with their two sons in 1984 and reached the apex of their careers in the city. While her husband, Teng Wenjin, was involved in making the sculpture of Deng Xiaoping in the Lianhua Hill Park, Qiao was taking charge of sculpting works that interpreted the city’s unique spirit.

    Qiao is also the honorary president of Shenzhen’s association of female painters. (Zhang Qian)