Brand builder returns in triumph from French fashion scene

Xie Feng says his designs have a strong European influence, but that they also contain Chinese elements. [Photo / Provided to China Daily]

Designer realized a dream but now concentrates on China's market

For Chinese fashion designer Xie Feng the idea of his clothes appearing at a Paris fashion show was a "dream". But seven years ago the founder of Jefen not only realized that dream, but he also became a pioneer as the first Chinese designer to show at the French capital's famous fashion week.

Now he is pushing his clothes among China's fashion-conscious crowd and sees a growing audience for Chinese design worldwide.

Although Jefen was registered in Italy in 1998, the 2006 Paris Fashion Week was the first time Xie took his brand to the European market.

It was a defining moment for the Chinese fashionista, who had long imagined his designs being strutted along a Parisian catwalk.

"Before going there I had regarded it as a personal dream. But standing there, watching people look at my clothes, I realized it was a sign that it is time for Chinese brands and designers," he says.

Xie, who formerly worked for Japanese fashion house Nicole Company for almost 10 years, has shown his designs eight times at Paris Fashion Week and also expanded his business with a strong focus on the emerging Chinese market.

China was in fact Xie's original market for the Jefen brand. Despite registering in Europe, its first sales were in China, where it targeted "independent women" between 30 and 40, with Italian wool, silk and linen fabrics that were "comfortable and noble".

Xie promoted Jefen then, and still does, as a high-end Chinese brand, in part because he did not want it to become confused with Italian brand fakes, which litter China's clothing markets.