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| NINA BERMAN / REDUX |
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Hung Huang • Interpreter of Style
It's a safe bet that Hung Huang is the only style magnate who chose her career because she was "sick of hinges and pistons." Until the fashion world came knocking, she spent most of her time in gritty Chinese factories keeping track of the assets of her small Beijing-based investment firm. Then, in 1998, another of the firm's investments, a two-year-old women's magazine called Look (now
I-Look), started to flounder, and Hung gladly offered to forsake assembly lines for runways.
She wasn't the only woman in the country craving a little glamour. Having endured decades of fashion by politburo decree, Chinese women were dressing up again. The time was ripe for a magazine that could help first-time shoppers navigate the exotic sea of chic. These days, Hung spends her time wooing advertisers for what has become one of China's most successful homegrown glossies as well as publishing Chinese versions of Seventeen and Time Out. "Our readers don't just want shopping advice," explains Hung. "They want to understand what's happening internationally on the cutting edge."
Hung is perfectly suited to be a cross-cultural interpreter. Raised by a mother who translated for Chairman Mao and a stepfather who was China's Foreign Minister, she was sent to the U.S. at 12 and educated at a Manhattan private school and then Vassar. She dresses like a New Yorker—all black save for an Anya Hindmarch tote, tucked discreetly under her desk. And the site she has chosen for her offices is a sprawling former factory. Only this one churns out style, not pistons.
—By Susan Jakes |
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