Tiny Zijin Yifang, a clothing shop located on Dongsi Nandajie, Dongcheng district, is easily overlooked, pressed between two brand-name clothing stores. It's poetic name - borrowed from the ancient verse "Zijin" in the collection the Book of Songs, written thousands of years ago - hints at what you'll find here: traditional Chinese embroidered designs, qipao and printed Chinese paintings.

No two pieces at Zijin Yifang are alike - even those cut from the same pattern are in varied colors, and one lotus pattern might be painted several different ways. "We just dislike mass-produced factory clothes," storeowner Yang Yi explained proudly. "No more than 10 pieces are made every day. Uniqueness is our principle."

Three young, inspired minds

Wearing a milk-white linen Chinese jacket, printed with a large pink lotus flower (their own product), store caretaker Yang looks younger than her real age, which is 32 years old. As a haigui (sea turtle, the nickname for a Chinese returnee) who studied in Britain, Western culture has had little influence on Yang, who was raised in Dongcheng district. "My real passion is beautiful Chinese things, such as the clothes we make," she said.

Zhou Jie is the designer among the shop's three female collaborators. She has specialized in tailor-made qipao and party dresses for several years. "[Zhou] never ran a clothes store before, as she insists that clothes that come off assembly line lose their originality," Yang told Lifestyle. "She even travels everywhere to select the materials herself. Lots of our clothes are made with silk, and thus Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, as silk hometowns, are the best places to go hunting."

The youngest of the three women, Guo Wenwen, is the painter, a recent graduate of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and the one responsible for the varied reproductions of images like the lotus. All the fabric-dyeing materials she uses are imported from France, resulting in soft textures and long lasting color, Yang explained.

The stitch is back

Embroidery features heavily in Zijin Yifang; Yang pointed to a red silk shawl with bright green silk lining, by way of example. The piece, suitable as a wedding ceremony accessory, features an embroidered peony and butterflies centered in the middle. To stitch the decorations of this 1.5 by 0.5 meter shawl took nearly a month, making its 2,000-yuan price tag look like a relative steal. Elsewhere, a rare form of embroi-dery, called dazi, is seen on a dark blue yarn jacket; very few people are able to do this rounded (instead of linear) form of decorative stitching, Yang said. They hire embroidery craftsmen, most of whom live in the countryside, to craft pieces like this.

Modernity meets tradition

One of the shop's more original items is a long-shirt style qipao that comes to the mid-thigh, made of cotton, silk or linen. The patterns tend to vary between flowers and Chinese water paintings. Three turquoise buttons decorate the back of a rosebud-shaped dress' wide neckline, which is rectangu-lar in the front but tapers to a V in the back. "Our designer believes that the neck is one of a woman's sexiest parts, and she put lots of efforts into that area for the best creation," Yang said.

If shoppers see something they like but it's in the wrong size or color, it's no problem. "We will make another piece that fits perfectly," Yang promised. Like the fit but hate the color? "We have backup materials, and we can tailor to your tastes."

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