“My stuff is like, 'You're going to 1 Oak but you're not really going to 1 Oak,'' Shui says:
Author:Beatrice HazlehurstUpdated:Sep 10, 2019Original:Sep 10, 2019Adjusting an upper-thigh grazing hem, breasts barely contained by a lace-up bodice, the fit model's hands come to rest on a waist that, via two strategic cut-outs, is also bare. The effect is walking — or, in this moment, pivoting — sex. Appraising the 'test hair,' an early aughts prom-style updo, the designer's lips form a tight line.
Other industries have long-since learned sex sells, but it was the apparent mutual exclusivity of fashion and femininity that was a personal gripe for Shui. Upon graduating from economics school, Shui entered into a design degree at Central Saint Martins with a Rick Owens devotion and "fear of color" that resulted in consistently obscuring her five-foot frame in swathes of draping black fabric.
"I used to be so competitive but then I realized that everyone's path is different. I always try to aim 10 times higher than what I can do. I don't try to think of what happens after I get recognition, I just try to focus on what's next. I still can't say that I've made it." But the increased attention has come at a high cost. When she set out, Shui aimed to keep her price point as low as possible, but it didn't help that within days of Jenner's appearance in Shui, fast-fashion giant Fashion Nova had created an exact replica for less than a quarter of the price of the designer's original version.
"'Can white people wear this?'" Shui recalls reading on an Instagram post of a Qipao-inspired dress. "I even got a comment saying it was cultural appropriation when an Asian girl was wearing it; I was like, 'Do they know I'm Chinese?' It's a celebration — not a costume or mockery. People are not trying to appropriate something, they appreciate the style.
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