Xie puts the 'me' in mesmerising mode

Xie Siyu hopes his suits can be more subtle, sophisticated and "me". Photo Provided to China Daily

Fashion designer Xie Siyu is bold and brash about his ambition: to dress up the country's dandies or, as some would say, playboys. The 29-year-old's ambition has been achieved, four years after his bespoke suit brand, Allen Xie, was started in a signless, nameless apartment-turned-space in a central Shanghai high-rise. The country's young superrich are increasingly driving their Porsches or flying first-class to this Baroque-styled environment with white and blood-red chandeliers and starry night blue velvet carpet. Here they experience something their London counterparts have been enjoying for centuries on Savile Row, at a price that could be as high as, if not more than, purchasing a ready-to-wear garment from the likes of Zegna or Armani.

"The difference (from world-famed luxury houses) is that they don't have me," says Xie, half jokingly, fitted in a chalk-striped navy blue suit, or what he calls a "classic Allen Xie", occupying a cherry-colored vintage sofa at his Shanghai studio.

Above a designer or a tailor, he positions the "me" as a brand manager, who manages to innovate something "more playful but in a classy way" than others in the market. Translated into visual effects, the use of wide-spaced stripes, stern shoulder lines and, perhaps most importantly, fine cuts.

Indeed, the law school graduate from the University of Sheffield in Britain and son of a computer science engineer boasts little to do with the fashion industry, except his longtime keen interest in "anything related to beauty", "a fruit of (his) early exposure to the works from museums and art galleries all over the world while traveling with (his) father".

"I was born with a talent to tell the extraordinary out of the ordinary, though I don't have the know-how of the makings of 'extraordinary'," he explains.