Shanghai Seamstress In Australia Wins Top Designers

Shi cunjie has dinner with Collette Dinnigan, a famous Australian designer

Shi cunjie in his own fashion factory

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Shi cunjie

Founder of Australian style Road boutique fashion processing company

In the famous fashion industry in Sydney, Australia, as long as there are problems in mass processing, people can't help but think of asking Joanna Shi, the protagonist of this article, Shi cunjie.

In 1988, Shi cunjie went to Sydney from Shanghai and entered the fashion industry by mistake. Over the past decades, she has processed fashion for more than ten top brand companies, participated in the sample production of world fashion shows in New York, Paris and London. Collette Dinnigan, Zimmermann, willow and other famous brands have become her guests. In fact, she has never formally studied garment processing. Relying on her love and research spirit, she has made many top brands admire with her exquisite craftsmanship.

Today, Shi cunjie loves travel and photography, and travels around the world with her husband. She has gone through more than 100 countries. She appreciates different customs, broadens her horizons and enriches her heart.

Wen / Hu Jie "Self study to become a talent", become an excellent clothing proofer

In 1964, Shi cunjie entered the First Affiliated Middle School of East China Normal University with high marks. Two years later, the "Cultural Revolution" shattered her dream of studying. In 1968, she was assigned to Shanghai Watch No. 3 factory, the predecessor of a small hardware factory, as a punch press.

Shi cunjie likes to dress dolls with rags since childhood. During the cultural revolution, when she was at home, she looked for a cutting book to read and learn. The first time I made work clothes for my brother who went to the countryside, I was quite successful. Later, when I went to work by bike every day, I saw grass green military uniforms or blue and gray people's clothes. Occasionally, she would turn the front of the car and walk around two times in front of the pedestrian. Two days later, a replica of a different fabric will be worn on you.

In 1988, with the trend of studying abroad, Shi cunjie and her husband Xiang Bingxun went to Sydney together. Before that, Shi cunjie was admitted to watch design specialty in 1983, and returned to the original factory as a technical analyst after three and a half years of study. So this time she went abroad, she brought with her watch repair tools and prepared to look for a work study program. However, Shi cunjie was disappointed when he saw several watch repair shops in Sydney.

One day, Shi cunjie saw an advertisement from a women's clothing company for a sample garment worker in the recruitment column of a local newspaper and went to apply. The boss said to her, "you can come to work tomorrow, but the salary can only be paid according to the standards of the clothes workers on the assembly line. After three months, if you can operate the sewing machine skillfully, you will get a pay rise. " In the next few weeks, she tasteless tea and rice, studied hard, and soon understood more than ten kinds of machines, and understood a lot of clothing English vocabulary, and the speed of sample making was faster and faster. However, just as the boss was about to raise her salary, she said goodbye to him.

Shi cunjie went to another company. On the first day of the trial, Kent, the boss, unfolded a very complicated cut of the jacket. After carefully looking at the photos of the front and back of the sample, Shi cunjie spent more than an hour pinning up the cross rotating cutting piece on the left and right sides with dozens of pins. After he had a clear idea, he began to sew on the sewing machine. Four hours later, the finished product was put on the mannequin, which was exactly the same as the photo. Kent said to Shi cunjie, "as long as you can help me, you can tell me the salary you want." After that, Shi cunjie learned that 18 people had tried before her. Some of them turned around and left, while others struggled for several hours. Finally, they had no choice but to leave. Shi cunjie stayed, earning twice as much as his first job.

Kent, the boss, is a designer who loves fashion art, but his hands-on ability is too poor. He has to ask for help in cutting samples and buttons. Shi cunjie's skillful clothing making technology and serious working attitude meet his needs. Kent often said to Shi cunjie, "these clothes are priced at a $1000 or 2000, which is worthy of your exquisite slow work."

　　 2. Exquisite craftsmanship wins the favor of top brands

Shi cunjie is not willing to work for others forever. In order to lay a good foundation for her future business, she worked as a model worker in several famous Sydney wedding dress shops, leather clothing factories and swimsuit companies. At the same time, she tried to start her own clothing business. She once designed uniforms for Sydney racecourse. Her first batch of orders was 200 pieces. From design and plate making to materials and tailoring, she did all by herself. The profit of this batch of orders is considerable, and what's more valuable is the comprehensive improvement of professional skills.

In 1993, Shi cunjie registered to set up her own boutique fashion processing company style road, specializing in OEM for high-end brands in Sydney. At that time, there were no less than 20 high-end fashion brands in Sydney. Among them, Collette Dinnigan, the designer of the same name, was the most well-known brand, and the unit price of a dress was as high as $2300. Shortly after starting a business, Shi cunjie called the company twice to ask for order processing, but they were all rejected.

In the first half of 2000, Sydney's high-end fashion industry put its own production capacity to the maximum, ready to make a lot of money from the September Olympics. Realizing that this was the only chance to join Collette Dinnigan's foundry, Shi cunjie summoned up the courage to make a third call. The voice on the other end of the phone was more friendly than the previous two, and within two minutes, the next day's meeting was arranged.

With her client summary books and company registration documents in recent years, Shi cunjie enters Collette Dinnigan's studio. Faye, the product manager, gave her a casual reception on the phone. But as she turned pages and pages through the materials she had brought, she made the processing records for seven top fashion companies in Sydney, which made Faye look at her with a new look. Faye took a dress full of beads from the hanger and handed it to her: "your first job is only these five dresses. Of course, we also have a large order of one or two hundred pieces, but we can't do it for you because the fabric is too expensive."

Two days later, five dresses made by Shi cunjie were sent to Faye and Faye was completely convinced. But the next order to Shi cunjie was only 20 or 30 pieces until one day at the end of October.

Collette Dinnigan has 75% customers in Europe and the United States. Orders received before the end of September each year must be completed in early December to ensure that customers receive them before Christmas. The dress, which sold the first and ordered 220 pieces that year, is not complicated in structure. It is inlaid with a 5cm wide sky blue soft satin belt on the waist. There are five 1cm high parallel pleats on the front of the belt, which is very elegant and noble. However, it is very difficult to make the five parallel pleats well. Several processors have tried before, but none of them can satisfy Faye.

One day, Shi cunjie went to the company to get the zipper. Faye saw her and said to her in a very sincere tone: "you should know how to make this belt. Help me think of a way."

With samples and a belt cloth, Shi cunjie went straight to a professional company providing high-temperature setting pleat service. An hour later, the fabric was set to eight parallel 1cm pleats. Shi cunjie ironed the three extra plies with an iron and folded them inward. After adjustment, they were sewn onto the sample.

The next morning, Faye got the sample, showed a rare smile and hugged Shi cunjie excitedly. Three weeks later, 220 perfectly sewn dresses began to be airlifted around the world in batches. To show her gratitude, Collette specially invited Shi cunjie to dinner. Shi cunjie has finally reached the pinnacle of Australian fashion processing industry, becoming Collette Dinnigan's main processor.

　　 The harvest of wealth, but also the harvest of friendship

With more and more orders, Shi cunjie constantly advertised. The outstanding workers she recruited were doctors, accountants and teachers in China. Shi cunjie honored them as guests of honor and became good friends. Because she always treats people sincerely, many car clothing experts have cooperated with her for more than 10 years, and a Hong Kong elder sister with the best technology has followed her for more than 20 years, and has always been faithful to her.

Shi cunjie also met a large number of excellent fashion designers. What moved her most was the French designer loreal St. Clair, a noble single woman in her late fifties. Shi cunjie began to process her brand in 1995. They appreciated each other and got along well. However, four years later, loreal suffered from lung cancer, and the company, which had been well managed, fell into chaos, and therefore owed Shi cunjie a $5000 processing fee. One afternoon, Shi cunjie went to see her with her account book. While loreal was saying sorry and reaching for the checkbook, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest and fell down at her desk“ It's important to save people! " Shi cunjie quickly called the emergency call and poured water and sweat for her until the rescue personnel arrived, and then left empty handed.

A week later, Shi cunjie received a call from Oreal's daughter Arielle. She first politely thanks Shi cunjie for her rescue, and then sobs to tell her that her mother's life is only a few weeks, and that she still has a lot of painstaking efforts to complete the design has not yet changed from the drawing to the actual, which has become her daily concern in the sickbed. Arielle asked Shi cunjie to help complete the sample. Shi cunjie agreed. She worked all night to get these complicated samples out in a week. A friend helped Shi cunjie to give an idea, and took this opportunity to ask the other party to pay off the processing fee in arrears, but Shi cunjie did not do so. Arielle came to pick up the clothes and, in addition to the good sample wage, paid an extra $1000 in cash that she had left in her pocket.

The next week, Arielle acted as a model, wearing the artistic crystallization of her mother's painstaking efforts on her. She walked from behind the white cloth curtain in the ward to her mother on the hospital bed. At this time, Loreal's face, which had just been injected with pain killer, showed contentment.

It is such a clothing processing business that makes the first generation immigrants like Shi cunjie realize their entrepreneurial dream; It is this business that makes Shi cunjie gain wealth and friendship.

(source: Xinmin Evening News)

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