Yiqing Yin At Leonard

I love the look, above, from the first Yiqing Yin collection for Paris Fashion House, Leonard, Autumn/Winter 2014 and I’ve put here others that are my personal favourites – see the full collection on Fashionising Runway: Leonard A/W 2014.

All the trademarks of her personal design styling are evident – beautiful draping and cut, exquisite fabrics, purity of line etc. etc – with, perhaps, a slightly more practical, commercial slant for a, hopefully, wider and younger market that Leonard hope to access through her.  In an extract from the NYT on Chinese Designers:

Yiqing Yin, the Chinese-born designer who in January was named the creative director for the French fashion house Leonard, will be featured in Ms. Williams’s book.

Ms. Yin, who was born in Beijing, has probably made more inroads into the European fashion world than any of her compatriots. She left China when she was 4, studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and has been a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne since 2012, an honor for a young designer. On Monday she presented her first collection for Leonard in Paris.

She has a clear vision: “To create the new Leonard woman, who will be cool and young,” she said from her Paris atelier a stone’s throw from Belleville, one of the French capital’s Chinatowns.

Ms. Yin said she remained inspired by China. “My parents were antiques dealers,” she said, “and I was influenced as a young child by the beauty and history of Chinese luxury.”