Hats off to city's own milliner

Li Shan has carved out a niche in the fashion industry, Chen Nan reports.

Beijing's 798 Art Zone is known as a hub for galleries, art spaces and independent fashion designers, as well as restaurants and coffee shops, attracting a large number of tourists from home and abroad.

Amid the zone stands a workshop launched by Chinese hatmaker Li Shan, which serves more as a small museum of Li's brand Shine Li, showcasing her hat artistry and craftsmanship.

Li spends much of her time there developing new products. A large glass display case features vintage hat-making tools, including a century-old instrument she brought from Paris, which allows for precise head shape measurements.

Growing up with her grandmother, who was a skillful worker at a shoe and hat factory, Li recalls that she loved observing her grandmother operating the sewing machine, transforming a piece of fabric into a wonderful hat.

"The sound of the sewing machine that my grandmother used is still vivid in my memory. I often fell asleep listening to that sound, which is a rhythmic, steady hum," says Li, who, from a young age, was filled with curiosity about hatmaking. Her parents didn't expect that this little girl would eventually pursue fashion design as her career.

A graduate of the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Li, now a top hatmaker in the country, chose to create her own brand in 2009, instead of working for a large fashion company, since she believes that hat design embodies her imagination and pursuit as a designer.