Embrace Changes in Your Life
My Interview with Caroline Chan, A kids wear designer in China
Caroline Chan is a kids wear designer currently working in China. She has been working in fashion industry over 16 years and nearly half of it attributes to kids fashion. She was graduated from FIT in New York City majoring fashion design. She worked for some great companies including the world famous one LEVIS. Now she goes back to where she was born and grown up. Sheâs now working as a kidsâ wear designer in Guangzhou ,China. I got the chance to know her because we are from the same city in China and I met her in New York Fashion Week when I volunteered there. She showed her astute and determine in that fashion week that I was so impressed by her work there.Â
Now sheâs working as a kids wear designer and I think itâs a life change for her.I get the chance to talk to her about her industry experience and her life. How did her life really change and what changed her. And her attitude towards what sheâs currently doing.
 Why would you choose Kids wear to pursue your career?
Actually I was a womenâs wear designer before I became a kidsâ wear designer. I worked for some great companies and studios before this. After around 10 yearsâ polishing I felt like my passion was gone. All I left was the like routine of a day. I resigned my last job from Levis and took a break, which is also because I have my baby. I got pregnant. After everything settled down I got the chance to sit down and rethink the whole thing. Looking at my little girls and thinking. I knew I need more time to be with her and I canât do those âroutineâ again. So when I went out to seek a job again these criteria were always in my mind. And I found kidsâ wear design is this kind of job. And hereâs my life.
I believe sometimes changes just happen so fast. You canât tell itâs good or not. You need time to prove it. The change happened on her I can tell that does give her a better life and help her jump out of âroutineâ.
How old is your little girl now?
Partly. When she was still little babies I made all of them. But now sometimes she doesnât like what I have for her.(laugh)
 I can tell her eyes were laughing too when talked about her daughter. I am pretty sure thereâs always a reason for someone to do something, and for her career, I am sure the reason is her little angel.
 What level do you think you know kids?
No I l know little about kids. Who knows them? (laugh) Kids always do crazy things that we canât understand. No one can know what they are thinking. Even my daughter I canât know much about her. I spend pretty much time staying with her but I canât tell whatâs her favorite color because she changes so fast. Sometimes she watches a cartoon and she loves pink, and sometimes sheâs in the wood and she says green is her best love. Kids just change so rapid and so much when they are growing up. I canât catch up with them.
What is the biggest difference between kids wear and adultsâ wear?
The quality. Others are almost the same as what I have done in adultsâ wear, but the quality standard is very different. We have the quality control teams in both Kids wear and Adultsâ wear. There we have a standard what we can use to finish the garments. The fabric, coating, buttons, zippers. The standard for adultsâ is loosen. You can put plastic on it. You can put metal on it. Whatever you think could make it look good is appropriate. However when it comes to kidsâ wear, a lot of materials are on the ban list because they could be harmful to kids or they could do damage to them. Like the beads, you canât take the risk that kids could swallow them by accident. Even the fabric, you canât use those fantastic coatings or resin on their garments. You need to be very careful when you design for kids.
As far as I know, in kids wear industry the quality control has a really high standard. People inspect every single yarn on the fabric. Many new technologies are not allowed to use on kids wear until they have been used on adultsâ garments over 5 year because they must be ensured their safety. When there are so many limits and kids wear designers are still creating gorgeous collections, they deserve us to hail.
 Do you prefer girlsâ wear or boysâ ones?
Girls ones because I can just put them on my daughter.(laugh) But actually they are the same. You need to pour the same passions and efforts inside.
Do you agree you can do any crazy designs you want on kidsâ collection?
1. How do you consider the point of view that most kids wears are from the adult collections, they just change the size without any design change?
That is not true. Even though for the most of time on the market you will see the situation you mentioned that they look the same, actually there are so many different when you look close or dress them. The first is the materials, they canât be the same because of different standards for both. So even they look the same but they are different. Secondly is the designing details like the buttons or stripes. Most of the companies have their unique design on the buttons or similar designing details, which is significantly different from adultsâ collection. And of course colors, we use more vibrant colors on kidsâ wear and less black. We want kids to be positive navigated. So given to all these factors and limits, in big companies they might even âstealâ ideas from their kids wear collections to their RTW.
How do you think about the current trendy print of floral? Do you think itâs good on kids wear?
I mean, I think thereâs no limit on the style of kids wear. There are tons of rules on fabric or materials but no on designs. Kids have such great variety that they can handle everything.
Of course I do. I love what I am doing.
 Of course she does, or she canât make decisions fast even itâs a life changing one. Everyone should love what they are doing. Itâs passion that drives us move forward. Life changes constantly, just like kids. All we can do is to embrace every change happens in our life and become a better person than the previous âusâ.
