YIQING YIN HAUTE COUTURE – Spring/Summer 2016

YIQING YIN - Spring/Summer 2016

February 5, 2016

By Marcellous L. Jones

Photos Courtesy of Yiqing Yin

Paris, France – In her debut as a grand couturier, Franco-Chinese designer Yiqing Yin presented her first officially labeled collection in Paris’s rue Ecole de Medecine. The room was packed to full capacity with clients, journalists, television cameras, photographers and well-wishers. All had come to be witness to this magical moment. And per her usual, the couturier did not disappoint.

Grand couturier Yiqing Yin

Designing with softness, gentleness and delicateness is the strategy that grand Yiqing Yin used to earn her way to the haute couture label. And that is exactly what she uses in the presentation of her Spring/Summer 2016 collection. The silhouettes are young, sexy and fresh. They feature many looks with pants. She uses inventive and attractive laces in modern ways. She does use it to create entire ensembles. Rather she uses it as embellishments in her garments. This results in a more contemporary use for it and avoids making the silhouettes look dated and old-fashioned.

During an age where we find cutouts in nearly all collections, Yin creates the illusion of that in her draping. Soft colors mix with fur, leather silk organza and chiffon. The result is an intoxicating fusion of long dresses, wallet skirts, jumpsuits, and micro tops. However no doubt can exist as to the excitement in her jumpsuits. They are the most sexy element of the collection with their spaghetti straps.

One may guess rightly or wrongly that a corset is hidden inside her pastel grey gown. It is short in the front and has been created from a bustier form. It is in silk with a longer asymmetric back.

This collection is a triumph not only for Yiqing Yin, but also for the world of haute couture. She is the first woman to have the right to present a collection under the haute couture label since Anne-Valerie Hash in January 2008. And though French, she is the first woman of Asian origins to also become a grand couturier since the legendary Japanese designer Hanae Mori.

This is further evidence of a growing class of female couturiers making their way through the ranks of haute couture. And by doing so Yiqing Yin is doing her part to make sure that their voices are heard loudly and that their visions are seen and represented.