Tall, leggy and beautiful, Dana Li aspires to establish the first internationally recognized high-fashion brand based in China. Her background in both marketing and fashion buying, not to mention her mastery of English and Italian (on top of Chinese) make her a figure to be reckoned with in Beijing’s fashion scene. Though she was born in Shanghai and studied fashion in Milan, she chose to launch her brand in Beijing. Here, she explains that decision, as well as how she plans to achieve her big dreams.

When did you first become interested in fashion and design?

I’ve always been fond of fashion ever since I was a little girl. When I was still a student at Shanghai University, the most famous high-end mall in Shanghai [Westgate Mall] held a competition to find a host/youth ambassador to represent their image, as well as serve as a bridge between the public and the mall. I was chosen over 2,000 other candidates. I worked there for a year and a half, and during that time, I got the chance to get in touch with all these luxury brands, which later inspired me to want to work with fashion.

How did you go from working at a Fortune 500 company to owning your own boutique?

After I graduated, my father wanted me to work a white-collar job. I was very filial, so I started working at Motorola – first as a business development executive, and then in marketing and communications. I learned a lot, but I honestly didn’t like the job. I’d always wanted to work in fashion, but I didn’t have any real experience, so I felt trapped. After five years of being confused, I decided to quit.


I went to Milan to study fashion buying at the Istituto Marangoni, and after one year, I was selected to work at the Versace headquarters. I started off as an intern, so I actually had the chance to do stuff in the store. The customers come in everyday, so you learn how to serve them and become familiar with the inventory – all of which was very important experience for me to draw on as a buyer later on. Eventually, they hired me full-time to help handle the Chinese retail market at their newly launched headquarters in Beijing.


After working for Versace in Beijing for maybe seven months, I decided to quit. I’d already learned a lot of things, mostly about retail, but I still had that desire to do something more fun, more creative. I’d been thinking about launching my own fashion brand for some time; I believe that China needs a fashionable label based in China, with good value for money – meaning good quality and good design, but not too expensive.

The concept of high-fashion based in China is still quite new – can you explain the process you went through to get started?

I just launched the brand and store in March. Even though traffic is not heavy in Village North, we’re doing very well. My goal is to launch an original, international fashion brand based in China, with everything made and designed domestically. I hope that in a couple of years, we’ll be ready to branch out to the international market. That doesn’t mean we simply host a fashion show in Milan or Paris – it’s not difficult to do that, you just have to spend money. I mean having an international buyer come by and purchase our collection; in other words, genuine recognition from the international market. Right now, there are very, very few Chinese brands recognized by international buyers. If you go to Barney’s, you’ll never find any local brands, which I think is very sad.


But the market is starting to improve. Of course, lots of things still aren’t established, so I’ve had to do everything myself, including finding the suppliers who can meet my requests to exclusively provide the fabrics I want in small quantities.


Aside from the fabric suppliers, we’ve had to train people involved in every step of the process, from the pattern to sample makers. I’ve had to let them know why we’re doing this, convince them that the Chinese fashion market is changing and sophisticated enough to appreciate our designs. Nowadays, some of the young people aren’t stable and just want to make quick money. So we need to try to educate them, and make them realize we’re really doing something meaningful this time.

How do you adapt your designs to the Chinese market?

My experience in marketing has taught me the importance of listening to market requests. If I just did things I personally liked, that the market didn’t like or didn’t recognize, then I wouldn’t succeed. I constantly observe the customers and talk to my staff, but meanwhile, I still keep to my principles, my quality and my brand image. I’ll never sacrifice quality. Our customers get the same quality clothes as they do from luxury brands, but for half the price.


But one of the major reasons why I wanted to launch Eldi is that when I was working with Versace, I’d see the European model wearing the sample and want to place an order. But when I’d try on the samples myself, I’d feel the patterns and designs were all made for European models. Our bodies are different, so sometimes the pattern looks different on us.


When I design, I use the Chinese bust form to make the patterns. From the design to the pattern and colors, I have Chinese ladies in mind. Versace wouldn’t always use colors that match well with yellow-toned skin. Laowai very much like nude colors. That works well for Russia, a big market for Versace, but not so well with Asians. I always try to think about what colors will look good on Chinese people.

You use a lot of different textiles in your collections, from sequins to leather – what fabrics do you most enjoy working with?

I use a lot of silk and viscose jersey. These fabrics are very feminine, very sexy and very glamorous, with perfect quality. It’s also easy to dye, and for making lightweight dresses with details like draping and pleats. The jersey I’m using in my collection, specifically, is very special. I can say that because none of the local brands is using it; we’re the only client of this fabric company in China. They sell the same top-quality, silk jersey fabric that several high-end European brands use. The fabric company chose us exclusively – they have confidence in us. Our quantity at the beginning was quite small, but we’re also collaborating with some other Italian companies to gather up different styles of these fabrics.

How’d you decide on Sanlitun Village North as the location of your label’s very first store?

In the future, I think that Village North will be one of the most popular high-end shopping malls in Beijing. I really like the environment, plus the company that runs it is very professional and good. I love the other brands that are going to be here, like Lanvin, Balenciaga and Fendi – I’m very happy to establish my reputation amongst them.

Eldi. Daily 11am-7pm. B1/F, NLG-21, Sanlitun Village North, 11 Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District. (6416 1762) 朝阳区三里屯路 11号三里屯Village北区地下一层NLG-21单元