Designer with a Sense of Culture
Written by Wang Fangqing Sunday, May 16 2010
Snapshot: Li Hongyan
SHANGHAI, China — Li Hongyan (Helen Lee) is a Shanghai-based fashion designer and cofounder of the local fashion brand INSH. Her designs have appeared at a string of local and international fashion shows, including Vancouver Fashion Week, Swedish Fashion Week, and Creative Fashion Designs in Denmark. 
Attending high-profile fashion shows has not only promoted Li as a fashion designer worldwide, but also brought her growing business opportunities. This year, for example, she has been invited by the Danish shoe maker ECCO Sko A/S to design a series of outfits for its upcoming footwear show in China. She will also open a new store this year at Tian Zi Fang, a famous art street in Shanghai.
Li, a 34-year-old Shanghai native, is a graduate of the Shanghai operation of Raffles Design Institute, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Raffles Education Corp. and the largest private education group in Asia. Prior to the establishment of INSH in early 2003, she worked as a designer at the Shanghai office of Itochu Corp., one of the largest conglomerates in Japan.
Aside from the young fashionistas-targeted INSH, Li debuted a couture line under her own name – LI HONGYAN – in 2007. The same year, she married a Canadian artist.
Womenetics: What inspired you to start a fashion business?
Li Hongyan: Actually, my original intention was to be an accountant since my parents thought it was a decent job for a girl. I studied accounting in a local university for almost two years. I did it well, but I never really enjoyed it. I wanted to do something different.
One day I visited a friend who was studying at Raffles. I was instantly impressed by the creative environment in the school as well as my friend's work. I realized this was the school where I wanted to go and study, so I quit accounting and went to Raffles.
Womenetics: What does INSH mean and what's so special about it?
Li: INSH means IN SHANGHAI. When I was still a college student, my friends and I had been dreaming about building our own brands. By then, the logo I (heart) NY had been pretty popular among young Chinese, so we thought, how about I (heart) SH, especially since we are all Shanghai natives and we love our city? 
We used the name for a while, but later we thought it was too tacky. So eventually we changed it to INSH.
INSH is all about Shanghai. The T-shirt collection, for example, is famous for the unique original printing, which is inspired by Shanghai slang. We usually pick up some funny slang words, such as Ao Zao Xing (posing), and create an image for it, so people would know what the slang word means in an interesting way. The T-shirt collection has long been our star among foreign tourists and local young people.
Womenetics: What is the key to running a successful business in the highly competitive fashion industry?
Li: Creative ideas and practical designs. INSH has different lines including T-shirts, jackets, dresses, and purses. We are very clear that our customers want to wear our items often rather than once a year, so we make sure every piece of INSH is good for mix and match.
Womenetics: Who is your favorite designer?
Li: I used to like Dolce & Gabbana because of their amazing color matching skill. I also liked Marc Jacobs for his urban chic. Now I've learned to appreciate good designs regardless of who the designer is.
Womenetics: How to deal with the inevitable counterfeits?
Li: There is no way to fight against it at the moment. I'm lucky that most of my income is from buyers abroad rather than domestic retailers.
Womenetics: Is it hard to find qualified Chinese designers?
Li: Very, very hard. I've been recruiting designers for years, but I'm still the only designer in our company. It's not that China has no gifted designers, but that most young people do not have the patience at work. For example, as a designer you have to be familiar with all kinds of fabric, and the easiest way to gain the knowledge is through collecting fabric samples. But none of the young people I recruited wanted to do it. They simply told me they had applied for the job "designer" because all they wanted to do is designing. 
Fortunately my husband is able to help me a little since he is a porcelain artist. Sometimes I put his ideas into my design, and they all work quite well.
But lacking of talents has seriously affected my business. I have many plans, including launching new product lines and new stores, but they cannot be done only by myself.
Womenetics: What does Shanghai culture mean to local young people as Shanghai – a city of immigrants – is gradually losing its features during the fast development?
Li: Shanghai has always been an attractive city to me, but indeed, it's loosing some of its features during the development. For example, you rarely hear local young people speak Shanghai dialect, and they are only into foreign brands.
We hope young people will rebuild some connection with the city through our brand and learn to appreciate creative local designs.
Wang Fangqing (Frances Wang) is a freelance reporter based in Shanghai. For the past four years, she has been writing for a variety of English language publications, including Tobacco Journal International, Soap Perfumery & Cosmetics and Securities Industry News, reporting business trends in Asia. A Chinese native speaker, she is also fluent in Japanese and English.
