Mayumi is a Japanese fashion designer who has fallen deeply in love with qipao. She wears them, studies them and now she designs them. Later this year, she will organize a special show to make a glamorous presentation of her own qipao collection to Shanghai's fashion-conscious consumers.

  Mayumi, in her home studio, is dressed in one of her qipao creations.

"My qipao is different from those sold on Changle Road or Maoming Road," says Mayumi who prefers to use this name in her design work. Perched on an antique Chinese chair and wearing a slinky, maroon qipao, she adds: "I combine a lot of Japanese culture in my qipao while retaining traditional Chinese handmade craftsmanship."

From the loop button to the fabric, Mayumi's qipaos seem fresh and different because they are imbued with Japanese elements. She uses Japanese embroidered cloth and the patterns usually found on fashionable kimonos. The loop buttons almost transcend imagination - they are shaped like sensu, the Japanese folding fan used in kabuki theater.

Worn by movie stars and fashionistas, qipao has been adopted as a symbol of Chinese identity in the world of international fashion and no other style of dress is as versatile or possesses such a fascinating history.

"Qipao can display the modesty, softness, beauty and temperament of Chinese women," says Mayumi, speaking fluent Chinese, at her rented French-style villa near Huaihai Road M. which is also her working studio. "Any woman wearing a qipao has no other choice but to show off a graceful and refined manner because they have to hold in their stomach and keep their back and neck straight. You can't slouch in a qipao. It forces you to be graceful."

Mayumi started to become aware of the qipao back in Japan but realized she knew little about its history. The styles and types of qipao sold in Japan don't vary much and Mayumi - a former television hostess for NHK, Mainichi TV and Yomiuri TV - began to rethink her career path.

"What kind of job will I do for the rest of my life?" she says. "It must be something I love. When I came to China, I realized that qipao is the thing that consumes me and deserves all my energy."

She came to Shanghai to study Chinese in 2000 before enrolling in Donghua University to study fashion design. She says the reason she went to Donghua was because it was the only one which promised to teach her the art and craftsmanship needed to design qipao.

However, the course didn't teach all that Mayumi had expected and six months before she was due to graduate she left to take qipao-tailoring classes outside the university. She thought it would be better to seek out the veteran qipao tailors of Shanghai to gain more about know-how about the craftsmanship she would require.

"I didn't want to waste my time," she says. Mayumi's bookshelves are lined with books related to the history of the qipao. The qipao evolved from a loose, long robe worn by Manchu women in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) into the fashionable dresses worn by stylish women in 1930s Shanghai. Later, the qipao became China's national dress for women and a symbol of a unique Chinese style.

Manchu women wore the qipao with trousers underneath and the embroidered sides of the trouser legs could be seen through slits in the skirt. In 1930s Shanghai, the qipao was worn with silk stockings.

The material of the Manchu qipao was heavy satin, silk or jacquard fabric with intricate embroidery. Today, the material is light and thin with printed patterns and simple designs. Influenced by Western style, the waist has become slimmer and the skirt shorter, the sleeves narrower or even totally removed. It was these fundamental changes that have transformed the qipao from a modest to a sexy outfit.

Many people are predicting that the day of the qipao will come again. Today, wearing a qipao has become a classic style of dress for many Chinese women. Its versatility ranges from being a respectable traditional dress for restaurant hostesses to a proud icon of Chinese fashion for upperclass ladies, from celebratory attire for a bride at her wedding to a glamorous dress worn by foreign movie stars.

Actually Mayumi wears a qipao almost every day.

"Despite its undisputed elegance, some people say that wearing a qipao is just not practical for career women," Mayumi says.

"I wear it so that I will know when wearing a qipao may make people uncomfortable and that is when it may need some alteration. I try to make my qipao as wearable as possible for today's career woman."

Her first collection to be shown later this year will have more than 30 qipaos all designed by herself. Occasionally, she designs qipao for her friends but she hasn't started selling them yet. After the show, to test the overseas market, some of her qipao designs will be taken to Paris. As a Japanese, Mayumi says she can never forget or give up her own cultural traditions. This loyalty was inculcated into her from childhood.

"In junior high school, we were taught to make summer kimonos," she says while performing a simplified tea ceremony. "In fact, Japanese clothing has a long connection with Chinese fashion. The kimono was greatly influenced by garments worn in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

Nowadays, many Japanese young people have forgotten their roots." The diversity and popularity of qipao confirm its place in modern society and it also serves as a unique symbol of Chinese identity. However, now Mayumi is attempting to make qipao more international.

"I'm working on the theme of combining Japanese cultural elements with the qipao design," she says. "Maybe after this collection, I will blend the style of qipao with a variety of cultural elements from different countries. This could be wild but interesting."

(Shanghai Daily February 7, 2005)