Despite her pioneering contributions to the Chinese fashion and business worlds in the 1980s, few people know much about fashion influencer Song Huai-Kuei (1937-2006), widely known during her lifetime as Madame Song. The people she helped to find success on the mainland, including Italian fashion designer Pierre Cardin, received most of the media attention. Even for those in the industry, like Chinese supermodel Cici Xiang, Song’s name rarely comes up in conversations.
But M+, which runs until April 2024, shines a spotlight on this little-known individual. The exhibition highlights how, when China reopened itself to international trade in 1978 after the Cultural Revolution—a time when economic activities came to a halt—Song played an instrumental role in cementing East-West cultural exchanges and revolutionised China’s fashion landscape as an artist, businesswoman and fashionista. She was also pioneer who trained China’s first group of runway models, so it made sense for Xiang to moderate a talk at M+ in July when the exhibition opened.
