In China, Dreams of Bright Ideas – Edward Cody

From the Washington Post:

Wang Wei is busy trying to think up something new. In the next three months, he has to create an alluring, original haute couture collection aimed at a Paris show that could prove crucial in his quest for recognition among the deans of high fashion.

“It may take me 10 more years to catch my dream,” Wang said, acknowledging that he is not yet a name on the runways of Paris or Milan. “But I have taken the first steps.”

Wang, 34, an artsy individualist whose shaggy hair hangs over his shirt collar, does not look like a model for China’s buttoned-down Communist Party bureaucrats. But with the swishy dresses he dreams up for rich women abroad, he is exactly what they say they want Chinese people to become: innovators playing on a world stage. [Full text]