Traditional embroidery promotes ‘China chic’ in global fashion

Xia's company has teamed up with more than 400 world-renowned brands, including Burberry and over 1,000 international designers, boosting the development of more than 400 small and medium-sized enterprises in China.

Since 2017, her company has helped more than 1,700 embroiderers just like Pan to venture beyond the deep mountains to showcase their handicrafts abroad.

Xia still remembers the first time she and her embroiderers walked onto London Bridge and into Buckingham Palace. The nearby tourists all stopped to enjoy their ethnic costumes and folk song performances.

The ethnic minority women, once stuck in China's mountainous areas for generations, became "big stars" that day and attracted many people who rushed to take pictures with them.

"Our handicrafts are well-recognized and loved by tourists at home and abroad, giving us rising confidence," said Pan.

At a bazaar held in Central China's Wuhan a few years earlier, the sales volume of her embroidery products amounted to more than 600,000 yuan (about $87,255) in a single day, she added.

Through creative innovation and cooperation with global designers, the local embroiderers have integrated the old craft with modern fashion items including clothing, high heels, bags, and household supplies, with over 10,000 varieties of products launched so far.

"We will combine standardized product models and our traditional crafts to roll out modern and fashionable products, bringing the 'China chic' from deep in the mountains to the global stage," Xia said.