Lv Yan: When supermodel becomes fashion designer

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CGTN

Dark hair, single eyelids, and flat face with freckles – Lv Yan’s unique traits would be considered unattractive by Chinese standards ten years ago.

Lv was repeatedly told that she was ugly and could never be considered a "beauty". Her unique traits kept her apart from other girls with the usual, popular aesthetics.

Lv Yan /Photo Courtesy Jiemian.com

But the girl, who was considered to be her family’s ugly duckling, was spotted by French modeling scouts in Beijing, who asked her to go to Paris, turning her life upside down.

Lv Yan, born in 1981 in a small mining village in De’an County, Jiangxi Province, decided to go to France despite that she could not speak French or English at that time.

Her decision has led her to become one of the biggest names in the fashion world and the first supermodel to represent the beauty of Chinese women in the 21st Century.

Lv Yan /Photo Courtesy www.brjt.cn

She started her modeling career in Paris and in 2000, she won second place in the Supermodel of the World competition, the highest finish of any Chinese supermodel.

She later appeared on the covers of best-selling fashion magazines around the world, such as Elle and Cosmopolitan, and soon became the face of several luxury brands such as Hermes and Benetton.

After years of being in the fashion industry, Lv began designing her own clothes.

Lv Yan /Photo Courtesy Haibao.com

Now retired from modeling, the 36-year-old has reinvented herself as a respected fashion designer. Her label Comme Moi is the first Chinese brand to collaborate with The Woolmark Company for a specifically wool-based range in 2016.

/Photo Courtesy Lv Yan

This week, Lv’s brand line made its way into Alibaba’s TMall, China’s leading online marketplace. Lv’s designs are inspired by the fashion and lifestyle of the 60s and 70s – when young women first believed they could be more than housewives and entered the workplace, making that time of positive thinking and individuality.

“Someone who can walk the runway, handle the kitchen and can cope with everything comprehensively, would be considered a real woman,“ Lv said.

CGTN