China's enduring symbol of haute couture

A woman in Qipao. [Photo/VCG]

Before establishing HanartQipao in 1998, Zhou made his fortune by mass producing and exporting qipaos. That year, he was introduced to Chu Hongsheng, a qipao master, and accepted Chu's suggestion to "make perfect dresses, instead of lots of dresses". Chu still works at HanartQipao today.

Less than a year later, Zhou got to know Xu Shikai, an embroidery expert whom he later hired. This was when he decided to combine Xu's embroideries with Chu's dresses and this has since proved to be a winning formula. In fact, Zhou's qipao is so coveted that people have even resorted to stealing them.