Written by Iris te Wieske

Qiu Hao: “Don’t ask me about inspiration, image is a simple way of saying complicated things.”

China is one of the most fast rising countries in the fashion industry. While most Chinese people are still focused on buying international luxury brands, there are emerging more and more local alternatives for customers who want something that reflects their individual style. In the new Shanghai, emerging fashion designers create garments that range from the culturally literal to the conceptually commercial, and target both mass and class and everything in between.

This brings us to Qiu Hao, who is widely regarded as one of China’s most influential fashion designers. Innovative fabrics and quality tailoring with an eye to the future of luxury is the subtle signature of his extravagant and conceptually driven designs. With this style Qiu is very different from all the other Chinese designers. But as he says, “not all Chinese designs have to be about bright colors and dragons.”

Qiu Hao was born in 1978 in the city of Taicang, nearby Shanghai. He studied interior and space design at Suzhou University, from which he graduated in 2001. This period is still clearly reflected in his sensibility for the composition of spaces, that is present in all his creations.

After his graduation he launched his first ready-to-wear collection called ‘Neither Nor’.

Then, in 2003 he opened the first ONEBYONE Boutique in Shanghai with his partner QiaoQiao, but he wants more. That is why in 2004 he went to Central Saint Martins in London, to study Fashion Womenswear. After his graduation in 2006 he returns to Shanghai to officially establish his own eponymous label ‘QIUHAO’.

Things are going well for the Shanghai based fashion designer. In 2011, Qiu Hao was nominated for the ‘Breakthrough Designer Award’ at the Global Fashion Awards by WGSN.

But rather than expanding his brand internationally as soon as possible, he chooses to slowly develop his brand in China first.”I want to expand my business internationally. But I want to keep doing my design and management in China. Getting into the international market is a big investment, I think I need more time to be ready for this expansion.”

According to Qiu it is difficult to operate a small business in a market that is accustomed to working in huge volumes. To combat this, he operates his own manufacturing lab with 13 employees and is slowly beginning to scale up in order to begin selling his collection abroad.

“For me fashion is about understanding. When we have more information about fashion, which means our knowledge about fashion will be higher, the market will become bigger.”

Qiu Hao is one of the most impressive voices coming form the Far East, so no doubt we will hear more from him in the future.