A fitting love

Before joining Levi's in 1998, Kitty Yung, now general manager of Levi Strauss & Co China, seldom wore jeans. The graceful Hong Kong woman with a soft voice preferred elegant and feminine dresses. But now she owns 86 pairs of jeans, including a well-designed long denim dress she bought nine years ago in Europe.

"I bought all of them myself and wear every pair," Yung told China Daily last week at the newest Levi's store in Beijing. "When I just started working in the jeans company, I was totally lost. I had no idea how to choose denim or even what to match it with. I could not understand why girls could love such 'rough' stuff. But the longer I worked here, the more I feel in love with denim."

In 2001, Yung was appointed general manager of Levi's China and finally brought the original American jeans label into the Chinese mainland. She has seen Levi's business grow rapidly and witnessed the opening of its 501st shop in Beijing's Oriental Plaza last week.