BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Longqingxiang, a Chinese tailor shop brand first founded in 1522, has a history of over 500 years. Mr. Yuan (whose name was lost in history), its founder, had been famous for his excellent tailoring skills for officials' robes during the ruling period of Emperor Jiajing (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty. He even made imperial robe for Emperor Longqing (1537-1572). During the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong, Yuan Shijie, the ninth generation inheritor of Yuan's crafts, used precious materials such as gold threads and Yunjin brocade to make robes and officially changed the name of the shop to "Longqingxiang." At the end of the 19th century, Longqingxiang's tailors went to Europe to systematically learn the making of western-style clothes, and reopened the shop in the 1990s, which has since been majored in making customized western-style clothes. In 2024, Longqingxiang was listed as one of the China Time-Honored Brands.

Li Wei, a representative inheritor of Longqingxiang's traditional western-style clothes crafts, is also a rare talent for body size measuring. Li was enrolled into Longqingxiang in 1996. Since then, he spent day and night studying on every step of making traditional western-style clothes, which often cost him one month or more to practice. Drawing a set of traditional body size pictures usually needs a dozen of days or longer time to finish. On the basis of years of theories learning and practices, Li Wei created by himself a body size measuring method which includes 27 steps. He also innovated on several measuring devices to get more precise data of customers' bodies. Moreover, he concluded the skills during the making of clothes and wrote various working standards for body size measuring, cultivating hundreds of craftsmen in the profession.

Nowadays, Longqingxiang has become a comprehensive clothes making company which offers services from designing, innovation, production to selling. It has also adopted digital technologies such as 3D in material selecting, style designing and body size measuring. Besides applying modern equipment, it keeps traditional handwork and the "27-step" body size measuring method in its clothes making. Every set of customized western-style clothes of Longqingxiang will go through 406 making procedures before reaching the customer. The company also owns 34 patents in outlooks and functions, opening branches across the country and receiving orders from Middle East and Southeast Asia. Every March and August, Longqingxiang holds its Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter new products launches. On Aug. 7 of 2022, it even showcased its fashion designs on the Great Wall. Combining traditional and modern tastes, integrating Chinese and western cultures, Longqingxiang is now leading the trend of Chinese customized brand.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service