As 70-year-old Dr Qin Huilan set foot on the runway of Miu Miu’s autumn/winter 2024 show at Paris Fashion Week last year, she surely had little idea how her 15 minutes of fame would resonate globally, leaving a lasting impact on audiences in her home country of China and beyond.
Her brief cameo, walking through the Palais d’Iéna, was the culmination of thousands of small steps in one woman’s journey from modest hometown surgeon to internationally recognised fashion influencer.
Qin Huilan is as comfortable in streetwear as she is with more formal dress. Photo: Handout
As I soon discover after hopping on a video interview with Qin and her son, Huang Weilai, it’s those little considerations behind the scenes that truly matter when it comes to transcending cultural barriers. Huang acts as his mother’s translator from time to time, he explains, since she grew up speaking her local dialect as a member of China’s Zhuang ethnic minority and hasn’t mastered Mandarin just yet. He was also the one who first introduced his mother to the world via Instagram, taking all her photos and helping to post them online.
“As soon as I arrived in Paris, I immediately put down my things and ran out for a stroll by myself,” says Qin, who had never even visited the city before her fashion week debut. The lifelong doctor found herself “envious” of Paris’ “old-fashioned buildings” and majestic avenues – rare sights in China.
Qin Huilan loved Paris’ historic buildings and wide avenues when she visited the city last year. Photo: Handout
Though she admits now she was “very nervous” about walking the Miu Miu show, you could not tell seeing her on the day. Every step looked self-assured and confident, with the elegance only a woman of her stature could have. Age may be just a number, but the wealth of wisdom earned through experience means everything.
“The whole process was really a fairy tale,” says Huang, “because she signed up for Instagram after first sharing photos on Chinese social media. Only then did a lot of fashion industry people start paying attention.” That included none other than Miu Miu founder and creative director Miuccia Prada herself, who personally requested Qin be cast in the show. “I believe sometimes fairy tales really do exist in real life,” he laughs.
Qin Huilan in Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière. Photo: Handout
Themed “Individual Moments” and consisting of looks designed to reflect the evolution of a woman from childhood well into adulthood, the collection was a fitting way to introduce Qin to the world. The retired doctor is admired for her colourful, eccentric sense of style with wardrobe choices that are considered and elegant, and picture-perfect photos that strike a delicate balance between the candid quality we love from social media and the aspirational styling of our favourite high fashion editorials. In many ways she represents the modern Chinese woman, a sophisticated trailblazer who rose above her circumstances and reinvented herself to become who she is today – a trendsetter in every sense of the word.
Having spent most of her life in Liuzhou – a relatively modest, lesser-known city in China’s Guangxi autonomous region – everything began to change for Qin following what was intended to be a short visit to see her son in Shanghai after the pandemic, when strict social quarantine restrictions kept him away from home. She describes her initial culture shock as equal parts eye-opening, moving and inspiring. “Liuzhou isn’t as prosperous as Shanghai,” she says, “and not as big. My friends there usually think very little about what to wear, and are just busy with their own work.”
