Runway dream

Alicia Quarles (left) presents a dress by Zac Posen during New York Fashion Week; right: A model walks the runway at the Opening Ceremony Fall 2014 Runway Show at Spring Studios in New York. Agence France-Presse

In Vogue

J. Mendel Fall 2014

"I wasn't used to the life there, nor the language. It was hard to keep up with school. The instructors don't use textbooks, so we didn't know where to start," says Wang Qing, adding she is finally getting comfortable with school life.

"Studying in London has helped me find my own style and improve my ability to study independently, which you can't really learn from schools in China," says Hu Yingqi, a third-year student.

"Also, in China we were asked to learn from established works. In CSM, design is more about personal experiences. But I do need to think about commercial aspects once I graduate. In school you can create whatever you want. But in the real world you also need to think whether the market will like it."

Looking forward, most of these young designers plan to develop their careers either in the United Kingdom or the United States before deciding whether or not to return to China.

"Probably the US," says Hu Tianjia. Compared with London, she says there are more job opportunities in New York.

For Qi, where she will go next depends on where opportunity takes her. To study fashion design, she went to Shenzhen in Guangdong province for a pre-undergraduate program run by a design school from London. But through weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, she found out about Wang Hao and headed north to Beijing to take a shot at CSM.

Now at the age of 20, Qi has already completed two shows in fashion week before going to CSM this fall. She has also been doing a variety of gigs on the side, including selling cars, to gain more exposure.

Zhang Yang contributed to this story.

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