Tea straps

"I have designed for more than 10 years and this time is so different. I have never had such personal interactions with my customers. They can feel my stitches and threads, and I feel their surprise and happiness. I can't even call them 'customers' any more, they are more than that," Yu wrote on her blog after hearing that one of her customers liked her lingerie so much that she teased, she wouldn't let her husband hold her.

A Beijing native, Yu was already known for translating Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and Raymond Carver's short stories that greatly influenced China's literary circles in the late 1980s and early '90s. She was an editor of foreign literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences before moving to New York with her husband in 1996.

Yu then enrolled into the Fashion Institute of Technology with very little knowledge of the industry.

After graduating in fashion design in 1999, Yu worked for top-notch lingerie companies in the United States, providing designs to such brands as Maidenform, Elle Sleep, Vanity Fair Sleep and Vera Wang Princess.

While working as a fashion designer, Yu continued to write. Her first novel, Love of the 1980s was published in 2009. Then came Beauty Within: Notebooks of a Lingerie Designer from New York in 2011, and Taste and Flavor of New York in 2012. All of the books are in Chinese.

While Yu has been following her heart in straddling the realms of translation, designing and writing, she has been careful to keep a steady source of income. For instance, when she decided to quit her job as a full-time designer and start her own label, she made sure she had freelance projects for support.

She also worked as a part-time translator to support her studies in New York. Yu says her success at the time was partly due to "the openness and prosperity of '90s New York".

She has a word of caution for aspiring designers, though. "If you really want to do it, give it a try and see if you can. Make some clothes, knit a sweater, and if people like it, you have better reasons to start," Yu says.

She is also an avid promoter of the lingerie culture, which is still nascent in China.

Her next book, Lessons in Lingerie, deals with the subject and will feature illustrations from emyli yu. It is due out next year.