A Hong Kong cheongsam master wants to retire after 75 years

Leaning over a purple chiffon fabric, an elderly Hong Kong tailor wearing thick glasses, carefully stitched with embroidered butterflies, works to transform the shimmering fabric into an elegant high-collared Chinese dress called a cheongsam.

Yan Kar-man, 88, is one of Hong Kong’s oldest master tailors, making the cheongsam – which means “long clothes” in Cantonese – a dress recognizable by its form-fitting silhouette made famous by Wong Kar-wai’s film In the mood for love.

Experts say the gray-haired tailor is among about 10 remaining cheongsam makers in Hong Kong, and there were about 1,000 in the mid-1960s, according to the Shanghai General Union of Tailoring Workers.

But after dressing generations of women, from housewives to movie stars such as Michelle Yeoh and Shu Qi, Yan has decided that he will soon hang up his clothesline – by the end of September at the earliest.

“I can’t see clearly – my eyes don’t work well and neither do I. I have to retire,” he told AFP, leaning closer to the sewing machine to sew on the embroidered trim on the dress.

A dress made by cheongsam master Yan in his small workshop in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: AFP

With about 10 dresses left to complete, Yan was hesitant to give an exact closing date for his tiny workshop located in Hong Kong’s bustling shopping district in Jordan.

Derived from the long robes worn by the Manchus of China’s Qing dynasty, cheongsams dominated the wardrobes of ordinary Chinese women for much of the 20th century, since they were popularized in Shanghai in the 1920s.

High collars, knee-length slits and a streamlined cut evoked a sense of urban glamor, and by the 1960s the dress was everywhere in Hong Kong.

“Women wore them while shopping at wet markets,” recalls Yan, whose walls in his workshop are plastered with photos of pageant queens in his dresses.

Some of his famous clients have even tapped into major life events – such as Liza Wang, a Hong Kong diva known in entertainment circles as “Big Sister” and who has been his client for thirty years.

“I didn’t know it was for her wedding when I made a dress for her with one of the scarves and turned the leftovers into a tie for her groom,” Yan said.

“Critically Endangered”

Born in China’s Jiangsu Province, north of Shanghai, Yan was 13 years old when his uncle brought him to Hong Kong in 1949 to work as an apprentice in a workshop, where it was discovered that the school dropout was a young talent.

A general view of fashion styles and paintings hanging on the wall in front of Yan’s small workshop in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: AFP

At the time, the cheongsam trade was so widespread and stable that Yan recalled that a common design cost “only a few dollars (from Hong Kong)”.

Western fashion became popular after World War II, and the growth of Hong Kong’s clothing manufacturing sector pushed the cheongsam out of the fashion spotlight while driving tailoring shops out of business.

Currently, the traditional dress-making technique is “critically endangered,” said Brenda Li, adviser to the Hong Kong Cheongsam Association.

“Over the last century, cheongsam production in Hong Kong has developed its own style and tradition, combining dimensional cutting skills from the West,” Li told AFP.

“Not many people still wear it or care about it, but we want to keep it no matter how niche it has become because it is part of our culture.”

Although the cheongsam-making technique has been recognized as part of the cultural heritage of Hong Kong and mainland China, Yan said the disappearance of the trade left little chance of his craft being passed down.

“I can’t see clearly. My eyes don’t work well and neither do I. I have to retire,” Yan says. Photo: AFP

“You can’t make a living making a qipao because it’s no longer fashionable,” Yan said, using the Mandarin word for the dress.

The master, who also teaches at an education center near his shop, said his students “are not yet ready to make real clothes for customers.”

Currently, orders typically come from older women who need a statement dress for their children’s weddings, and each dress takes Yan weeks to make and costs several thousand Hong Kong dollars (hundreds of U.S. dollars).

“How many old clients are still in business and how much detail work can you do each month?” Yan asked rhetorically.

“My generation is mostly gone.” -AFP