Art, design and culture is part of a single enterprise
Kai-Yin’s scholarship, vision and accomplishment have seen her become the first Professor, Cross Culture, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. In 2007, she also received the coveted Hong Kong Design Centre’s top international award – the “World’s Leading Chinese Designer”.
“Making history wearable…Kai-Yin is the first to interpret the cultural past in a contemporary sense” - David Pillings, Former Asia Editor, Financial Times
A deep knowledge and appreciation of both Eastern and Western culture and history are the cornerstones of Kai-Yin Lo's approach to living and design. The extensive ranges of jewelry, accessories, textiles, ceramics and lifestyle products she has created carry a personal stamp with universal appeal. They represent her reinterpretations of the rich wellspring of China and Asia's heritage or are inspired by European references. In a language all her own, Kai-Yin’s designs are not only highly wearable and useable, but also stylish and distinctive. The impressive end result is "Truly Timeless Design for Our Borderless 21st Century World".
A lifelong reverence of Western and Asian cultural heritage has given Kai-Yin Lo the perspective and understanding of how to revitalize the distant past for the living present. Echoing what the great designer Issey Miyake said: "Deep inside my heritage I find something brand new".In bridging the gap between East and West, the priceless and the fashionable, Kai-Yin has reshaped conventional views regarding the value of jewellery and accessories.
Some four decades ago, Kai-Yin, then based in New York City, pioneered the incorporation of semi-precious stones and Chinese jades once stored in dusty drawers into ornaments that are appealing and easy to wear with accents and motifs drawn from Europe and the Orient. Her initial collections achieved fast acceptance all over the world.
As jewellery back then was classified as either precious or non-precious, it took up-market stores like Neiman Marcus (USA), Harrods (London) and Mitsokoshi (Tokyo) many months to set up a new department (known as “Bridge Department”) to best display Kai Yin’s collections. As bold as they were personal, her asymmetrical ying-yang designs that harmonies and contrasts, realized in colour stones, are now a fixture in the international design language.
In interpreting her favorite decorative motifs, such as the knots of different shapes that represent renewal and sustainability, these diverse knot patterns in many forms originating in India and China that the Silk Road carried to Persia, Syria, adopting new Islamic variations then to Venice and across Europe testify to the richness of cross-cultural fertilization.