A Wensli silk scarf adds a distinctive color to the professional attire of Christine Lagarde, IMF president, at the B20 and G20 Hangzhou Summit. (Photo/Xinhua)
During the G20 Hangzhou summit, IMF president Christine Lagarde chose a Chinese brand to add a distinctive touch to her attire.
Winning the favor of the financial fashion icon was a Hangzhou-based silk brand, Wensli. Lagarde wore it exclusively at her appearances in Hangzhou, while on most international occasions she wears only Hermès.
"She recognizes our design and appreciates our products," said Li Jianhua, CEO of Wensli Group, a major silk products provider for the B20 and G20 Hangzhou summit, in an interview with CCTV News. "She bought three scarves and said she would wear more Wensli scarves in the future."
Celebrity effect has proved a golden opportunity for the company. Many national and international leaders and dignitaries have worn its silk clothes on formal occasions, including the 2014 APEC meeting in Beijing.
But Li's wife, Tu Hongyan, chairwoman of the company, has a long-term vision. She is committed to building a time-honored brand in the global Chinese silk culture market.
The chairwoman, with black short hair and elegant makeup, wears a floral-patterned yellow and brown silk scarf to accent a fitted blue dress. She sits on a splendid sofa, leaning against Chinese-painting decorated silk-made cushions, with a rather European air. She speaks in a fast, determined, but soft tone, and sometimes wears a business-like smile.
"We have paved our way in China's sericulture industry over the past ten years, but we need to keep one thing in mind -- brand building. There is only one brand, 'made-in-China', and no sound Chinese local brands," said Tu. "But you see Chinese consumers are willing to pay a higher price in order to enjoy a wider selection of goods when overseas, so [we] manufacturers need to produce high-quality goods to meet their tastes."
Tu is used to being in the media spotlight; taking questions from journalists is part of her life. On the eve of the B20 and G20 summit, she has given a large number of interviews "to better promote the brand".
Her affection for silk products derives from the commercial environment in Hangzhou, a major silk production workshop in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, and up until now, a major manufacturer in the global sericulture industry, equivalent to Lyon in France.
Tu Hongyan is descended on her mother's side from a silk production family in Hangzhou dating back to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279).
Her mother, Shen Aiqin, set up the Jianqiao silk factory in 1975, and managed to turn it into a giant group with several billion dollars' worth of assets over the past four decades.
Shen sent her daughter to Japan where Tu spent one-year in a textile company after her college graduation in the early 1990s, a time when Japan was gaining a reputation for good-quality textiles and other products.
"I learned the spirit of craftsmanship there, and I've applied it to everything in life, to my products and my company," said Tu.
After returning, Tu did every single job in her mother's company until she took over the business four years ago to focus on one thing -- brand building.
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China is now globally the biggest producer and exporter of raw silk and silk yarn. It creates 70 percent of the world's high-end raw silk, a major material in women's fashion.
Many Hangzhou-based silk factories and companies elsewhere in China have long done OEM (original equipment manufacturer) production for foreign brands, as has Wensli over the past 15 years for Prada, Gucci and Dior.
