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While “made in Italy” is an expression of our Italian pride, and the quality and passion we put into producing certain products, “made in China” usually means in our imaginary (and sometimes for a reason) the direct opposite. Not Yuzhe Studios‘ made in China, though. Yuzhe Studios is a young brand that is (and can be) proud of its Chinese production. Yuzhe Studios celebrates fashion design at a slower pace: each garment is unique, made with skilled craftsmanship. Each piece is valuable for the way it was designed, created and produced. To discover a brand with such a profound concept, that is so simply beautiful and modern, although in contrast to a certain modernity we are used today, was such a good surprise. Even to touch some of their clothes, which are personalized with your initials, all hand sewn. I interviewed the two girls, creators and entrepreneurs of Yuzhe Studios – Yuzhe Sun (YS) and Alex Lee (AL) – and their words are a true inspiration. For fashion and for life.

What sparked your interest in fashion?

YS: I have been doing drawings since I can remember, so during my time in school and later in university it was always very natural to be pursuing courses to do with illustrations and design. It was not an conscious choice to go into fashion, I just wanted to do something creative, but somehow my studies took me towards fashion and I really enjoyed it, so here I am.

AL: For me, fashion and creative industry was not so obvious in my life until quite late. I was always interested in fashion, but did not consider it for a career. For my undergraduate course I actually studied International Business and Economics, but during my course I had an exchange year in Hong Kong Polytechnic University – they have a famous fashion and design school. This is where I met a lot of fashion students and I took a course in Fashion Merchandising. This led me to consider a postgraduate course in Fashion Buying and Merchandising at London College of Fashion.

Why did you start Yuzhe Studios?

AL: We started the studio for two main reasons. Firstly we wanted to create clothing with meaning, what I mean by this is our concept that every garment is uniquely and delicately crafted at the studio in Shanghai, by in house artisans and seamstresses. So a piece of garment is only made when someone orders it, we do not have stock sitting in a warehouse waiting for someone to buy – we do this because we feel it adds more value and meaning to a garment if the wearer knows the piece of garment they are wearing is uniquely made for them. Also we are very specific with quality and craftsmanship so we like to control everything in our studio to make sure the quality standard is up to our demand. The second reason is to develop the idea of ‘Proud to be Made in China‘, with the creation of high quality garments with a strong emphasis on craftsmanship. More on this below.

How would you define Yuzhe’s style?

YS: I think it has taken the first few seasons for us to really know the style of the studio. But we are much clearer now and much clearer going forward. The studios’ style is a strong ruggedness and masculine feel. Again we did not go for this on purpose, but it just developed organically towards this style. I think we developed towards this style because contemporary lives (including our own lives) are now faced with a tougher and harsher environment, and we try to reflect this idea with a ruggedness aesthetic style

What are you fascinated by at the moment and how does it feed into your work?

YS: I would not say ‘at the moment’, but hand craft, hand work, craftsmanship is a constant fascination for us. In all our collections you will always find something that is hand made or hand crafted, and this human aspect is what really gives the garment life.  Due to the nature of uniquely crafting each garment with a lot of hand work details, no garment will be exactly identical – this really gives the garment character and we really love this!

How has your work evolved since you began your own label?

AL: Like above, our style has become much more clearer. But we have also gotten feedback from our customers and stockists – I am not saying we follow every feedback we get, but it gives us a good direction of which part of our work our customers love the most and we try to highlight these aspects more for the future.

Why did you choose China to establish your brand?

AL: We both have a Chinese background. Yuzhe was born in Qingdao and raised in Shanghai before moving to UK to study. I was born in the UK, but my family was originally from Hong Kong and I regularly visit Hong Kong to see family and friends when I was young. So we both have a strong connections to China, and we both feel that the current ‘Made in China’ negativity is unfair. Historically China was the place for amazingly crafted goods that Europeans would ship home. We would like to be part of the movement to try and de-tag this negative preconception, because there are many artisans, craftsmen and seamstresses that are highly skilled and create amazing products – but they are being tarred with the same brush. We want to create a Made in China that we can be proud of.

Yuzhe Studios is a “slow brand”, what does it mean to you?

AL: We feel everything in fashion and the world generally are getting faster, louder and bigger constantly – collections are getting bigger and collections are being produced more often. The internet is main culprit of creating this constant demand for newness and creating stuff just for the sake of creating stuff. This makes our current lives very noisy and busy, companies are constantly trying to get your attention. We try to contradict the above with a slower pace. We only create two collections a year. We only update our instagram feed when we feel we have something to say. We create each garment individually (as explained above), so every garment takes time to create. So this is what it means to us to be a ‘slow brand’.

What is the biggest lesson that you have learned since you started your company?

YS: Designing and making the garments are very important aspect of a fashion company, but the biggest lesson is another part of starting any company and that is getting out there to make the relevant connections. Understanding the importance of connection is vital, because the fashion industry is so huge and complicated, so without the correct connections, I don’t think we would have a studio at all.

AL: For me, the biggest lesson is to keep expectations on the ground. We have been promised by companies and individuals of this and that. A lot of the time nothing comes of it or the outcome is nothing like what was promised. At the beginning I would get so excited by these opportunities, but now I have learnt to keep expectations low until we actually see the outcome.

Where can we buy Yuzhe?

AL: You can buy directly from our website. We ship globally. In China there are stockist in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Qingdao and Guiyang. We have a stockist in Nagoya Japan and London UK. If you need our stockist information then please email us at info@yuzhestudios.com

What are your goals for the future? Do you plan to go internationally?

AL: We just want to carry on doing what we do — and enjoy — plus have fun along the way and hopefully gain some recognition amongst the people who connect with our studio. We don’t plan on only catering for the Chinese market. We attended the Paris SS17 trade show in September to find suitable international stockists who will ‘connect’ with us; ones who feel right and fit with our identity.  We don’t have any ambition to become the next huge global fashion brand, but instead would like to keep our studio relatively small and niche, I always say “I would rather be 6,000 people’s favourite brand than a brand 60 million people know.”

 

Here is Yuzhe Studios Spring-Summer 2017 lookbook, enjoy!

 

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