Smooth as silk

Kesi, a traditional form of embroidery and weaving in China, has become a key word for the 2009 collection of NE Tiger, the top haute couture brand in China. Kesi makes the most expensive silk products in China. It is extremely time consuming and complicated, as it usually entails the intricate weaving by hand of decorative designs and brocades, sacred iconography or calligraphy.

At last year's Wenjiu auction, a silk kesi quilt with Buddist scripts from the Emperor Qianlong period (1735-1796) was sold for 65 million yuan ($9.5 million), the highest price for a Chinese silk product ever auctioned.

According to Zhang Zhifeng, the art director of NE Tiger, the brand's kesi collection has support from Wang Jialiang, who is among the fifth generation of a family of kesi practitioners that made clothes for royalty; and Wang Yuxiang, the master responsible for the survival of kesi skills that were on the brink of extinction