8 years ago, my grandfather passed away, I was there to help going through his belongings. An old photo of a cheongsam-clad white lady and an old-fashioned cheongsam dress wrapped in a piece of faded floral fabric aroused my curiosity.

I asked my nanny who the lady was. She paused for a while, as if she was falling into memories, then she recalled, nearly 70 years ago, a young lady from America encountered a young tailor in a cheongsam shop near the Shanghai Bund. They soon fell in love with each other, but the difference of their social status, the opinions from the public and even from their respective parents had always been a unbridgeable gap.

For some reason, the lady left Shanghai without saying goodbye, maybe she just could not see the relationship going anywhere. Her sudden disappearance really made the tailor suffer. One year later, he chased her footsteps to America only to discover that the young lady had became a wife and a novelist. He chose not to present himself, instead he headed back to Shanghai, and wishing things would work out for her. Living in agony, the young tailor decided to open up a cheongsam store in memory of their romance.

Working in the cheongsam store, the young tailor got many chances to know young ladies, and to start a new relationship. Though he didn’t, let alone the blind dates he had turned down.

It was not until 7 years later, the tailor got married and started a family of his own. Nanny took a deep breath and continued, and that young tailor was your grandpa.

I was shocked, I have always known my grandfather as a culture enthusiast and a retired Chinese teacher, but how could he possibly be a cheongsam tailor? And what’s about the waiting? Why 7 years? In traditional Chinese culture number 7 stands for a closure and a fresh start, could it be that he was waiting for a closure?

During 10 years (1966 - 1976) of the Chinese cultural revolution, everything related to traditional Chinese culture including cheongsam dress were strictly prohibited, and were massively burned or ruined. Teachers, traditional Chinese physicians, cheongsam tailors, artists etc., were publicly humiliated. Grandpa’s cheongsam store must have been forced to shut down by then, though he had saved the cheongsam dress privately, it might have cost the man his life.

Being a culture lover and a fashion designer myself, I am now even more proud of my grandfather. I have this strong feeling that I have the obligation to preserve and to help more people to understand, and to appreciate the beauty of Chinese culture.

Since the end of 2010, I started to gather a group of culture lovers and professional fashion buyers. We spent almost a year and a half to get in touch with cheongsam tailors, original Chinese fashion designers, and fashion brands with Chinese elements. With their support, the online Chinese clothing store that named after my grandfather’s cheongsam store “雅致旗袍铺” elegente.com was able to launched in September 2012.

Robes Rouge

2013.1.1