Chinese Females in US Fashion industry: discrimination or “redemption” in the future?

When Angel Chen, a Chinese designer, firstly mentioned the idea of “wear art” and set up her brand ANGEL CHEN in 2014, the whole fashion industry was shocked about the combination of human and wildlife elements in garments. Shortly, a bunch of invitations and interviews came to Angel Chen, appreciating this Chinese female new star in fashion industry. Then in 2015, a Shanghai-based ready-to-wear brand called SHUSHU/TONG was born focusing on feminine styles, and it took them three years to catch VOGUE NYC’s attention and started to appear in various international fashion weeks. Four years later, Chinese designer Yuhan Xu launched her first series of handcrafted garments after her graduation from Royal Academy of Fine Arts and named the brand L.XÚ YUHAN (Xu 2). The successful birth of this brand was marked by Karen Mok wore the gold embroidered cheongsam designed by Yuhan Xu attending an advertisement. However, not all Chinese fashion workers are as fortunate as those examples. Jingna Zhang, who recently became one of permanent fashion photographers in VOGUE NYC, spent nearly five years struggling in the fashion industry and finally obtaining her “redemption”. Every year, thousands of Chinese females graduate from fashion schools in the US and launch their fashion brands or graduation design to the public, but only small portion of work can “survive” in competitive market. This paper will discuss how gender and race discriminations result this kind of situation and give some successful examples that broke single stories.

It was convincing for me that Jingna pointed out stereotypes that westerns assumed most Chinese people lacking of creativity, critical thinking and practical skills because of Chinese relatively conservative cultural background, and eventually employers pushed them away from US fashion industry (Zhang 1). It is true since the birth of US citizens, they have been educated to express their ideas in freedom, but this can be rarely achieved in China because of local political systems and education. Thus, when US fashion companies recruit new members, they will rather use natives instead of “old-fashioned” Chinese.

Based on Jingna’s description, the discrimination on Chinese can be the first barrier to knock down the door of fashion industry, but the second obstacle can be even “fatal”, which is gender discrimination (Zhang 1). As a female, there is a strong resonance between Jingna’s article and me. “Why she did not come back home to get married, have children and deal with households”, “Are all Chinese women seek for a peaceful family life after graduation and finding a job”, “Women had better do what they should do instead of wasting their time in offices”…are sentences that not only Jingna but also myself have experienced from time to time. Male gaze and unequal women rights have been problems in fashion industry for decades. The time when Coco Chanel launched her first series of garments and broke the heavy fashion “shackles” on females, there was large male population blaming on Coco’s “absurd” behaviors, while this was a milestone for females to fight for their own rights in fashion realm. Fashion lovers continually thank Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano and groups of male designers for their contribution to fashion industry, but it took years for fashion industry to appreciate Vivienne Westwood, Vera Wang and groups of female designers’ efforts and achievements. It was researched that the main consumers of fashion industry were females, but the main contributors of it were males, while the appearance of this situation was due to the unequal treatment that females receive in fashion industry. It was impressive that when I had my internship in Fashion Week last year, the doubts I received as a female worker hit myself so hard, similar to experiences of Jingna.

Although race discrimination on Chinese females in US fashion industry is too stubborn to be broken down in short period of time, remarkable efforts and contributions have been achieved frequently. Growing and being raised under a conservative cultural circumstance does not mean Chinese will forever be “slaves” of socialism and they express unique thoughts and achieve creations from time to time. For example, in Yuhan Xu’s recent design, she used colorful organza to combine British court dress styles with traditional Chinese cheongsam, arguing that Chinese fashion workers are continuously attempting to make progress. It was proudly observed that in 22FW international Fashion Week, a bunch of excellent new faces came from China such as YIRANTIAN based in Shanghai and RUOHAN.

Except race discrimination, Chinese females continually seek solutions to break down gender discrimination. Compared to the story of Calvin Luo, a Chinese male fashion designer, who instantly became the founder and editor of ROUGE FASHION BOOK, an international fashion magazine, and successfully set up his own brand called CALVIN LUO after his graduation from Parsons School of Design, both Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang, SHUSHU/TONG designers, spent full three years to chase for the success after their graduation from London College of Fashion. Observing the efforts done by Angel Chen or Yuhan Xu, both of them settled down in famous art institutes for years and worked days and nights on illustrators, photoshops and handcrafts. Academic background and impressive internship experiences seem to be the most useful weapons for females to fight against those single stories about women. “Kind”, “gentle”, “indecision”… should never be shackles fettering women’s freedom and rights in fashion industry. As an outsider of fashion industry who have been interested in the realm since the childhood, the only way for me to break through barriers of fashion industry and realize the dream is through hardworking and graduating with a solid academic background. It is relatively cliche to discuss the essence of degrees and certificates, but the truth is that without those “bureaucratic” paperwork, opportunities will just fly away. That is one of reasons why I am now in the University of Southern California and seek for internship opportunists outside class.

Overall, every year, thousands of Chinese females graduate from fashion schools in the US and launch their fashion brand or graduation design to the public, but only small portion of work can “survive” in competitive market. Although single stories hit those Chinese girls so hard, they still expect one day that VOGUE NYC can offer them places in scriptwriting and styling; that NYC Fashion Week can provide them opportunities to show their graduation work; that Parsons School of Design can recruit them as one of fashion professors… Jingna is never the only one suffering from years of pain of rejection and climbing out of the “abyss” eventually. As a Chinese female who studies non-fashion related major in LA, I can predict the amount of efforts and how harsh will be to chase for my fashion dream. The expectation is that whether one day, single stories can be broken down with more love and welcome for Chinese females to work in US fashion industry and insist their passion till their end of life in this community.

Citation:

About Us. XÚYUHAN. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2022, from https://www.lxuyuhan.com/pages/about

Jingna, Z. (2022, May 18). My experiences as an Asian female photographer in fashion — jingna zhang fashion, Fine Art & Beauty Photography. Jingna Zhang. Retrieved September 10, 2022, from https://www.zhangjingna.com/blog/vogue-viewpoint-experiences-from-asian-female-fashion-photographer