Breaking Out The Fine China
The mainland's new rich have the homes, now they need
to decorate them (no, yellow curtains do not go with purple
carpet). Style guide Chen Yifei shows the way By
CRYSTYL MO
Stephen Shaver for Asiaweek. Chen, who made his name as a
painter, says mainlanders need to "connect art and
life".
Holding up a white ceramic cup, designer Cecilia Shi Kirkpatrick
points to a flaw in the glaze. "Do you see this bump?" she asks
a factory manager. "Oh, that's nothing!" the woman replies.
"That's within our guidelines, completely acceptable." Kirkpatrick
shakes her head and patiently presses the manager on why "good
enough" is no longer good enough. "I find that so often, Chinese
manufacturers are lazy about quality," Kirkpatrick says. "I
want to teach them that it is important."
She has had this conversation many times in dusty factory towns
across China over the past year. Kirkpatrick is a designer-cum-quality
control expert for Layefe Home, a pair of homeware outlets run
by Shanghai entrepreneur Chen Yifei. To other retailers, the
average Chinese consumer is a yokel to whom they can peddle
knockoffs and factory seconds. But Chen and Kirkpatrick believe
China's expanding ranks of young, middle-class home owners are
ready to start filling their abodes with tasteful furnishings.
They see an opportunity for a distinctly Chinese "lifestyle"
brand that embodies mainland sensibilities just as Ralph Lauren's
bedsheets and table settings captured the boomer generation
in the U.S.
Chen, a onetime artist whose realist oil paintings fetch upwards
of $200,000, says he's the man who can explain China's new bourgeoisie
to themselves. He's got a lot of explaining to do. Decades of
poverty under austere communist rule have turned the country's
living spaces into one big factory dormitory. Even Shanghai,
noted for its gorgeous architecture, can be likened to a 1,000-year-old
egg, its rich patina belying the foulness beneath the shell.
"Shanghai seems beautiful from the outside," says Chen, 55.
"But if you really delve into the center, you see it is missing
something. It is missing a combination of life and art, function
and form."
Into the vacuum Chen has thrust Layefe Home, opening stores
in Beijing and Shanghai on Oct. 1. The flagship outlet, located
in Shanghai's upmarket Xintiandi district, showcases products
that are entirely Asian - hand-embroidered bed linen, glassware,
vases, lacquered wooden trays and fine porcelain from Jingdezhen
in Jiangxi province, whose kilns supplied dining sets to imperial
tables for centuries.
Lured back from New York to develop products for Chen's venture
and manage the Shanghai store, Kirkpatrick, who was born in
Shanghai, relishes the chance to bring contemporary style to
the motherland. Her designs are pared down to a Ming-meets-modernism
simplicity. "People's lives are getting better, but in terms
of home living there's a lack of taste," says Kirkpatrick, 42,
who cites as influences Giorgio Armani, Japanese-American sculptor-designer
Isamu Noguchi and Calvin Klein. "What I'm trying to do," she
says, "is make life better for everyone. When people come home,
they will have more beautiful things to look at."
Bauhaus may or may not translate into a solid balance sheet.
Chen, who in 1999 launched Layefe as a clothing brand (the label
is a riff on his name), spent about $240,000 to build the new
stores and for inventory. He's gambling on the timing, given
that even China's rapid-paced economy is slowing. He isn't alone.
IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings giant, operates two fast-growing
China outlets (Kirkpatrick says comparisons are inevitable but
"we are a level higher and our concept is more bold"). Choices
are multiplying for mainland consumers. Dozens of local publications,
websites and television programs have introduced features on
interior design and home products.
Even the government is encouraging home ownership, phasing out
the system in which state enterprises built housing for workers.
In Shanghai, a tax break on mortgages triggered a 150% surge
in home loans over the past two years. More than a quarter of
residents in the city own their apartments, compared with less
than 5% four years ago. Many are like Calvin Sui, a Beijing
systems engineer who hired an interior decorator to lend class
to his new home. "I pursue perfection in my life," Sui says,
"so I wanted a professional."
Sui is the kind of affluent Chuppie Layefe is aiming at. "The
Layefe type of lifestyle is ultramodern, ultra-fashionable,
ultra-cool," says Richard Chen, Chen Yifei's Western-educated
son who is chief financial officer of the business. "The time
is right because the apparel sector is already very competitive.
If you look all over the world, the home market is getting hot
right now."
Hot, and crowded. Singapore designer Choon (he goes by the single
name) opened a homewares store in Shanghai's Xuhui embassy district
in July, featuring original designs in ceramics, premium cotton
sheets, elegant flatware and scented candles. He is already
fending off competition from copycats. "Over the last six months,
seven or eight similar shops have opened up within a 15-minute
walking distance," says Choon. "It's quite amazing!"
Layefe is braced for imitators, even though it keeps its prices
reasonable - from $1.20 for note cards to $100 for crystal
vases. "In six months, somebody will be knocking it all off,"
predicts Kirkpatrick with a sigh, "offering similar products
for much cheaper." Layefe's managers know the way to fight off
the imitators is to insist upon quality and to build the Layefe
brand. "The Chinese have always dreamed of living in beautiful
homes like the western homes they see on TV," says Richard Chen.
"We are fulfilling their fantasies." And with a little good
fortune, vice versa.
Commentary
2003-12-06
Coming soon to the commentary column--behind the scenes stories of the how the articles are really put together--the difficulty in getting anyone to accept an interview in China, the political sensitivities, the great stuff that got cut because of space, and much more about the joys and frustrations of writing in China
