Nicely Made in China (NMiC) would like to wish all our readers and loyal sponsors (Beijing-based travel agent Travel-Stone, joint ventures & mergers specialists Palazzari & Turries and Shanghai Trio – corporate gifts, handmade crafts) a very happy new year of the snake. May this year bring you and your loved ones happiness, health and good fortune.
Today umbrellas, like many other products, are often manufactured in China. In 2007 that’s where New Zealanders Scott Kington – who studied marine biology at Auckland university – and Greig Brebner – a mechanical engineer – the founders of Blunt Umbrellas, took their idea for a revolutionary umbrella. In the following interview Scott Kington tells Nicely Made in China (NMiC) how he and his partner launched the company Blunt Umbrellas.
K’o-ssu – also written kesi – or Chinese silk tapestry, is a complex traditional Chinese weaving technique which had its heyday during the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties. Today there are less than 100 people working across China in this area. Frequently used to make clothes for imperial families and to reproduce famous Chinese paintings, nowadays this little known craft faces extinction due to lack of demand. However, there are signs of renewed interest, and to learn more about this precious technique, Nicely Made in China travelled to “textile town”, Nantong in Jiangsu province, to visit a young K’o-ssu maker, Mr. Wang Haoran.
Bubble-Mood is a new Shanghai-based fashion brand created by 3 young Parisian entrepreneurs in 2009. Olivia Gurdjian, one of the 3 creators of the company arrived in China in 2006 after media studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. She quickly realised that Shanghai was the perfect place to start a fashion business. With her business partner Margaux Painvin and her husband Lucas Gurdjian, the trio created Bubble-Mood which is now attracting an increasing amount of attention from fashionistas. In the following interview Olivia tells Nicely Made in China (NMiC) how it all started.
As December exits, we once again welcome January, full of new hopes and plans. It is time for Nicely Made in China to look back on the past year. 2012 has been a good year for Nicely Made in China (NMiC): the search for quality products has led 55,000 visitors to our website in 2012 (up from 51,000 in 2011) and on December 11th, NMiC received its 100,000th unique visitor.
This year our readers were treated to our wide range of stories on: furniture (flatpack, bamboo, specially designed for children as well as antique furniture in a museum – thanks to Juliette Salabert who runs the Alliance Française in Tianjin), fashion design (ranging from urban street-wear, retro-chic, technological, to designer legwear), interior decoration, high-end eyewear and product design. We also paid a second visit to The Chinese Timekeeper, the Hong Kong-based watchmaker, for an update on their activities.
Nicely Made in China staff would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all its readers, sponsors, supporters and fans.
We also would like to thank our loyal sponsors, Shanghai Trio, Parentheses, Palazzari & Turries, Travel Stone and Rouge Baiser, without whom it would be impossible to bring you the best of Chinese products week after week.
There’s nothing worse than getting a stain on your favorite garment and not knowing how to clean it. In the following article Virginie Fournier – owner and main designer of Shanghai Trio – and one of Nicely Made in China’s partners – gives Nicely Made in China readers a few tips on how to keep delicate and favorite articles in good shape for a long time.
Boukje Koch (a Dutch designer in her 30’s) is this week’s Nicely Made in China’s (NMiC) guest. Boukje landed in Jiangsu province 7 years ago with a Master’s degree in industrial design and another one from the Arnheim dance academy. Today she’s at the helm of the Guangzhou-based Ask4me Group, a design company which not only designs, but also organises the engineering and manufacturing of products for clients from Europe and now, more and more from China.
China – and the world – have changed since we launched Nicely Made in China. That is why we feel the need to look back and see how the companies and people we’ve featured during those 2 1/2 years have fared.
We start this series of updates called What’s New with the Hong Kong-based watchmaker The Chinese Timekeeper (CTK). We met the owner Adrien Choux recently to discover what’s new for his company.
Hong Kong-born fashion designer Carrie Chan, 32, got her Master’s Degree in Fashion Design in 2008 at the University of Westminster in the UK after a few years as a fashion and lifestyle journalist at the South China Morning Post. Then, in October 2011 she launched the first RI.by.CARRIE collection and made a name for herself with leg wear and hand printed tights. Nicely Made in China (NMiC) met Carrie in her Hong Kong studio at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in Shek Kip Mei.
