Currie Lee: Fashion's green advocate
- By Elsbeth van Paridon
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 24, 2012
When you're in love with fashion, there are, of course, the standard iconic designers you admire or would just kill to get one (cash) mere sock from. Think Chanel, Lagerfeld, the late McQueen, Ford, and so on. I personally also take great interest in Stella McCartney for taking on the immense challenge of creating environmentally friendly collections, urging fashionistas across the globe to RE-use, not AB-use (I wear vintage, so I support that). Even though China is not yet too well-known for its environmental friendliness, Stella does have an Asian counterpart who has a studio at Beijing's ever-cool 798 Art District and a shop in the city's ever busy Sanlitun area. Her name is Currie Lee and her brand is Dim-sum of all things Asian (D-SATA). I would like to grasp the sky-blue Marni tuxedo jacket by the lapels in order to present to you this bold woman and her fashion credo.
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| Currie Lee, the diva herself |
New York, Seoul and Beijing – all are combined in the one designer that is Currie Lee. As the daughter of South Korean globetrotters, she spent her youth in Canada, America, South Korea and China. Though cutting up her mother's vintage items to modelize her Barbie dolls (mom must be a very nice woman – I'd faint) ignited her passion for fashion, she grew up to become a lawyer for a New York-based law firm. However, just as in the cases of many aspiring Chinese design students, Lee found that her dream of pursuing an artistic career was brushed aside by her parents, who feared that such an occupation might "sully" the family's name. Apparently, "designing is a hobby, not a job". Born into a family of doctors, politicians and professors, who would not put up with any creative mumbo-jumbo, she was shamed into being "at least a lawyer". Even today, some Chinese magazines still introduce her as "a lawyer (with degrees from Beida and Tsinghua, thank you very much) who also designs."
Lee felt trapped in her NY job, but she retained her passion for fashion and was not quite ready to throw in the Hermes scarf just yet. Instead, she packed her goodie bags and set off for Beijing to chase the fashion dragon (same here; unfortunately I can't draw a pleated skirt to safe my life). As a little girl, Lee was dolled-up by her grandmother and mother in skirts and jackets which were customized to fit her from their own "up-cycled" vintage tweed, chenille and Chanel suits. Herein lie the roots for her love of all things vintage. Bored with accessories mainly flaunting oversized logos, she decided to revisit her collection of classic Bottega Veneta clutches. She wanted to grasp that old flair of the long-gone Hollywood studio era in unique modern pieces that an Angelica Cheung could instantly sniff out like a bloodhound due to their designs and materials: exquisite yet discreet. Thus, D-SATA was born.
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