Hui see Lu Yan: Jump out of the script and live a legend

21st Century Business Herald reporter Bao Hui Shanghai report On October 9, Lu Yan, a former supermodel and now the founder and designer of a clothing brand, was interviewed by the 21st Century Business Herald "Huijian" column at Shanghai Fashion Week, telling her life story.

Born in 1981, Lü Yan was born into poverty, with a face that cannot be regarded as a traditional definition of a Beautiful Woman, if she follows the established life script, Lü Yan may not be able to get out of the mine in De'an, Jiangxi Province, but she has lived out her own legend.

With a height of 1.78 meters, the 18-year-old dropped out of school to embark on a fate-changing journey to Beijing from the body training class in Jiangxi, and at the age of 19, she dared to go to France alone without any foreign language. From running 12 hours a day on the way to interviews and work with fast translation and subway map, to winning the global runner-up in the World Top Model Competition, to returning to China to start her own clothing brand and become a designer, Lu Yan completed her own heroic journey.

In addition to the successful models and entrepreneurs that everyone can see, the identities of mothers, wives and daughters are also very important to Lu Yan.

"Wise See": Everyone has their own mission in this world, what is your mission in life? What does a modeling career mean to you?

Lv Yan: This is a big question, I think for me, the mission of life is to live happily. Before I became a model, I have been growing up in the mining areas of Jiangxi, like a blank piece of paper, the modeling career let me go to Paris, went to work all over the world, it shaped my outlook on life, values, accepted the collision of Eastern and Western cultures, and looked at things more diversely. For example, in the past, when you look at a thing, you would feel that it was black and white, but now you will feel that there is a big piece of gray. Many times no one is right or wrong, but the culture is different and the understanding is different.

"Huijian": I went to Beijing from Jiangxi at the age of 18, and went to Paris at the age of 19, where I can't speak a foreign language, what drives you to go out?

Lv Yan: Just young. Young nature is fearless, and it can also be said that the ignorant are fearless. I didn't think too much about it at the beginning, I felt that this was an opportunity for me to go out, and I didn't think much about what the future would be.

"Huijian": In the process of "going out" from the Jiangxi mine, did you feel the pressure of the surrounding environment? You were very young then, how did you deal with those comments and harsh sounds?

Lv Yan: Young is also the source of being able to deal with the negative pressure of the outside world at that time, your so-called negative comments are nothing more than other people's evaluation of me not good-looking, I don't care much, I don't think this is called negative, I didn't do anything wrong, a person's evaluation of my appearance, everyone's standard system is different, it doesn't have any negative or negative, just say that I don't care. Why should I care more about my friends, family, and people I don't know? If you want to care about the evaluation of the outside world, the first is that the heart is not strong enough, you may pay more attention to your appearance, if the professionalism is good enough, I think it is OK.

"Wise See": Along the way, in the professional supermodel career of more than ten years, when was the climax and the bottom valley, and how did you survive at that time?

Lv Yan: I don't know what highs and lows are, I don't see my life that way, I don't think I have any high light periods and low tide periods. Because I'm going up all the way, I've been learning when I'm modeling, trying different things, like styling, curating, and being involved in a lot of different industries.

Maybe what you want to ask is when I am not popular as a supermodel, but I think that there may be more people who know me now than when I was a supermodel, so I don't have this kind of high and low moment, it is always going up smoothly and slowly, and the expansion of knowledge and insight will make people more and more fulfilling.

"Huijian": In 2013, why did you choose to return to China and transform from model to create your own clothing brand, COMMON MOI?

Lv Yan: I actually returned to China in 2010, I was almost 30 years old, I had lived in Paris and New York for 5 years before, at that time I thought that the modeling career was like this for me, you can't starve to death, but if you want to go up, it is a young people's industry after all. In addition, my language, culture and accumulated contacts are all in China, and I returned to China in 2010.

After returning home, just when I was thinking about making my own brand, I found out that I was pregnant, and the first focus should of course be on the child, so I postponed the idea of starting a business until my son was old enough to attend nursery school. In 2013, it was more natural to turn to clothing. One I want to do, the resources accumulated in my modeling career can also be used, I understand fashion, I know how to walk the catwalk and how to take pictures. I have participated in countless big-name shows, but I still don't know anything about clothing design, fabrics, industrial chain, supply chain retail, so I can learn new things while doing familiar things, which is a more perfect state.

"Huijian": As a brand manager and designer, what is your experience along the way? Will the pandemic have an impact on the company and what are the plans for the future of the brand?

Lv Yan: There are many challenges, to learn personnel, legal affairs, management, retail, many people say that management is particularly difficult, yes, but there are also fun, a group of young teams with your like-minded, bent on doing a good job, is very proud. Maybe for Lu Yan, this brand does not do anything to my life and has no impact. But a bunch of people have followed me from the first day to now, and I am responsible, and I can't give up easily.

For example, when I opened 10 stores, there were only 4 stores each of which were million stores, and I would be complacent. But in fact, 4 stores and 10 stores are completely different concepts, involving off-site management, increasing manpower, the pressure is particularly large, the performance is not as easy as imagined, there are no million stores, today this person comes to tell you to leave, tomorrow that said, will feel that you can't do it. But calm down, sort, one by one to break through, after a year also broke through, it is not so difficult to see, it is a process.

The epidemic makes everyone a little less confident about the future, but from the first day of the epidemic to the present, we have not cut wages, we have not laid off employees, and I am still a good boss.

"Huijian": How to view the rise of domestic brands, will you live stream with goods?

Lv Yan: This is cultural self-confidence, when we become more and more confident, people's appreciation level is improving, and our own brand is also improving. But it is not blind self-confidence, it must be that the domestic products are compared with foreign things, he may be better than others, so he will buy you, not because this is a Chinese brand, this is the real rise of domestic products.

I decided from day one not to participate in the live broadcast, but I will do a daily beat in the office every day, and I am not suitable for live broadcasting. Being willing to try and being blindly confident are two different things, and I don't think I'm fit to do this. Not that live streaming is bad, it's just not the way I want it.

"Wise See": People rarely associate fine watchmaking with fashion very closely, although many fashion brands also launch watch works, but that is still a long way from what we call fine watchmaking. This time COMMON MOI and IWC jointly held the autumn and winter show, this collision is very fresh, how do you think about the relationship between fine watchmaking and fashion?

Lv Yan: Haute Horlogerie can stand up to scrutiny, IWC watches are a century-old brand, it is very strict about every detail. We, a young and fashionable brand, grasp the new trend very quickly. That's why two brands come together, can hit the spark, complement each other, is a win-win situation.

"Wise See": Art is not old, but the stage and life are short, do you have age anxiety? How will you respond? How do you usually maintain your health and body?

Lv Yan: I don't have an age crisis, my friends all know me, makeup without makeup I actually don't mind, because you are strong enough inside, you are confident enough. Like I just told you, you will care about others to evaluate your looks, I will not care, for me I care about doing things well enough, for example, today's big show is not good, if the public response is good, I have enough confidence, I am professional.

Health I think it is a matter of opinion, living habits are very important, to have a good attitude, I have been up every day for many years and months is 6:30, I did not do sports before, but in recent years I have begun to do sports, so that the mental state is better. I had just finished muay thai before I came to the interview. Before such a heavy show, exercise can release the pressure and is an outlet for negative emotions.

"Wise Seeing": Beauvoir said that a person is either born a woman, she becomes a woman. What do you think is true female independence?

Lv Yan: What is female independence? Like me, I am independent, economically independent, generous, and I don't care much about what the outside world says. I feel like any woman should be financially independent, even if you may not need to, but it makes your life full. Today women actually assume more social roles than before, housewives are really not so good, many men say that you are not with a child, I think many women must let her husband take care of the child for a week, let him take care of the parents to take care of the family for a week, you let him try it. For me personally, I feel like it's more tiring than I am working.

I think if a woman wants to be independent, she must first realize that what she does is very valuable, not that I take care of my children at home and take care of my parents, and if I don't go out to make money, I have to whisper, I have to seek perfection, I think this is not right. Women should know that anything you do is as valuable as what he does, and how can he work well outside without her share? In fact, working outside and dealing with adults, you know how to reason with you, children, you try to reason with him, right? This is the perspective of understanding women's independence.

"Huijian": It is inevitable to ask a question, you just mentioned that there are more and more female social roles, you are not only a daughter, wife, mother, you are also an entrepreneur, a model, when there is a conflict between so many different roles, how do you balance and choose?

Lv Yan: I think it is a reasonable arrangement of time. Distinguish what is most important to you at different stages, why I stopped starting a company in the first place, because when a child is born, he must need my care, he is the most important. But he's in school now, like I'm going to do the big show in autumn and winter, and the big show is the most important thing this week, and the son is going to let go. The big show is over, and the son is the first. If your parents are sick today, then your parents are number one. No matter how busy I am, I will definitely take one or two months a year to go on vacation with my husband, and this time is of high quality, not to say how long it will take to stay with him all the time, and if they are together every day, they may have to quarrel. So it's just a matter of time management, not a balance in relationships.

In fact, it is not so difficult, many people say how do you get up so early, I get up at 6 o'clock, get my son up in 40 minutes, let him eat breakfast, get dressed, and send him to the school bus at 7:20. I leave for work at 8:30, and there is more than an hour left in between, which is my own time, so I can catch a play, listen to music, and do something of my own.

Wise See: IWC continues to convey the feminine spirit of self-confidence, freedom and freedom, as a brand ambassador, what advice do you have for young women to find themselves?

Lv Yan: In fact, men should also pursue these. I think young people should try more to break through, it doesn't matter if they fail, failure is actually an experience, and in the process it will enrich themselves. If I had been 20 years younger, I might have tried more of what I liked. The older you get, the higher the cost of your failure, because you have children, you have a family, you are not so free, but young don't care.

"Huijian": Can you talk about your love and family, how you met back then, what was the scene when you first met, how you entered into marriage later, how to keep your marriage fresh over the years?

Lu Yan: My husband and I met in New York, and one of my girlfriends is also a model, and I went to coffee one day, and several people met that way. He and I just met when did not pay much attention to me, at that time in foreign countries are men to chase me, I think this person is so strange, and think this person is particularly good at words and deeds, so he took the initiative to ask him for a phone, he also did not give me a phone, gave me an email address, and then I sent him an email, I am not good in English, write an email is that you have time tomorrow? Do you want to come out for a meal and a drink?

He doesn't live in China now, we've always been Shanghai, New York and Paris, I travel a lot, he travels a lot, so we started in love, and he didn't move to Shanghai after we got married. Let's say he came over two months, or I went over a month, and we've always been like that. But because of the epidemic, for example, he came to Shanghai for almost 11 months last year and just returned to France, the epidemic has made it less easy for multinational families like us to be.

Wise See: What are your experiences in raising children?

Lv Yan: I am definitely not a tiger mother, I think the child's values, morality and body are more important, so my child has been free-range from birth to now, he has never had any cultural class tuition, all is sports, he plays football 4 times a week, basketball 3 times, tennis, 1 swim. The concept of educating children between husband and wife must be consistent, otherwise there will be problems.

Wise See: Now if there is an opportunity to go back to the past to change the direction of a thing, what year do you want to go back to, what do you want to change, why?

Lu Yan: I don't want to change anything, I think my life is very good now, I don't want to travel to the past, now I am more confident, more aware of life, not so confused.

"Wise See": What changes have you changed now compared to the past, and what efforts have you made to change yourself?

Lv Yan: External words, for example, the whole rong is not there, and the inner me is learning all the way and has been changing.

"Huijian": Can you use 2-4 words to position yourself?

Lv Yan: Independent and confident.

Wise See: Where is the main energy spent now? How do you spend your free time? For example, reading books and chasing dramas during breaks, and what is the latest drama?

Lv Yan: The main energy is spent on children, leisure time is to watch movies and travel, I used to travel a lot, a trip is almost a month or two, because the epidemic can not run everywhere, in the country also went to Dali, Lijiang, Guilin, Beijing is to go to a lot of places. The most recent movie was to go to see "Lake Chosin" with my parents.

Wise See: Finally, let's talk about sustainability, do you think consumers will really pay for sustainability?

Lv Yan: Definitely. Protecting the environment is a topic for people around the world, in recent years, there are many extreme weather, in the past everyone lived on the food and clothing line, living is the most important, but as the economy is getting better and better, you are more concerned about the next generation, your future living environment. Young people are getting better and better educated, and they will definitely pay attention to this area.

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