In 14 years, Lu Yan has transitioned from China’s first supermodel walking international catwalks into a fashion designer. She now owns the label Comme Moi which has collaborated with The Woolmark Company, an Australian firm, in using merino wool for her clothes.
A fashion designer for the past four years and now 35, Lu Yan’s shop is located at a trendy French concession in Shanghai. She explains her choice of merino wool for Comme Moi clothes because the material is high quality, warm and functional, ABC reported.
Offer to Model in Paris
When she was 18, a talent scout saw Lu Yan, who grew up in Jiang Xi, a small village in China. She met two French agents in Beijing at a hotel lobby and asked her if she wanted to model in Paris. At that time, she accepted the offer because she needed money to survive even if she could not speak English or French.
Although Lu Yan’s features were not traditional Chinese such as wide doe eyes and feminine feature that people call her an ugly duckling, she persisted and modeled for 10 years in different parts of the world. She returned to China in 2010.
Acting or Fashion?
Even if her family wanted Lu Yan to pursue an acting career, she opted to go into fashion business, and with 30 employees opened the Comme Moi design studio in South Shaanxi Road in Shanghai. She once judged at a Woolmark fashion show which led to a business arrangement with Australian Wool Innovation for whom Comme Moi makes China Rogue-branded winter clothes.
Since then, other Chinese women had followed the footsteps of Lu Yang in embarking on an international modeling career. One of them is He Cong, a 20-year-old Chinese model who was cast by Rihanna for the singer’s black-and-white athleisure collection for the fashion brand Fenty, W Magazine reported.