The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
She’s investing $20 million in young designers… and she’s only 27 years old
Meet Wendy Yu, the Chinese billionaire setting out to revitalise British fashion. By Victoria Moss. Photographs by Phill Taylor
Introducing Wendy Yu, the Chinese billionaire rubbing shoulders with Samantha Cameron and pouring money into London fashion. By Victoria Moss
Being a millennial billionaire comes with its own set of problems. After her photo shoot in a decadent and chaotically decorated east London town house (think stuffed dogs on Marie Antoinette daybeds), I am shamelessly pawing over 27-year-old Wendy Yu’s gobstopper ring – a chunk of tanzanite surrounded by thick waves of diamonds. It’s the size of a flattened Lindt Lindor chocolate truffle. While she does have numerous trinkets from Cartier and Bulgari, the thing is, buying off the rack isn’t always that ‘creative’ an endeavour. It’s a problem Yu has solved by working with favoured Chinese jewellers (this ring is by Bao Bao Wan) to design her own pieces, allowing her to add in an ‘oriental touch’, as is her preference.
She cuts a neat figure, wearing a sky-blue Victoria Beckham blouse and printed Erdem silk pencil skirt, with her shoulderlength dark hair loose. Her face lights up easily, and with bright eyes and a wide smile, she’s immediately endearing.
The following night, she’s back on more regular territory hosting a Chinese New Year dinner in the heady red-damaskwalled opulence of the King’s State Apartments in Kensington Palace. For Yu, who admires Diana, Princess of Wales, there could be no more fitting a venue in which to exert her desired influence over the fashion industry. In attendance are Samantha Cameron, models Eva Herzigova and Erin O’connor, Alexa Chung, Angelica Cheung, editor-in-chief of Vogue China, and Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council. As well as notable designers from the London fashion scene, including Erdem Moralioglu, Mary Katrantzou, Simone Rocha and Alice Temperley.
Yu has been at the Palace for events before. Her Instagram feed (she has 88,500 followers, as well as a million-plus following across Chinese social-media platforms Weibo and Wechat) features a shot of her with Prince Harry at a Sentebale fundraiser, as well as her ‘coming out’ at the 2016 Queen Charlotte’s Ball. Her debut at the ball was covered in the Channel 4 documentary Britain’s Billionaire Immigrants ,aperhaps naive decision that painted her as a Barbie-loving, welldressed socialite rather than the entrepreneur and philanthropist she is now positioning herself as.
However, she does indeed collect special editions of the doll. ‘It’s a bit of a childish hobby. I have about 150.’ This is not mere kitsch decoration – Yu has a longterm ‘vision’ to eventually open a fashion museum in China. The Barbies (many of which are designer versions) will become part of the archive.
Imagine if Tamara Ecclestone had been raised by a tiger mother and you have an idea of Yu’s intent. The dinner at Kensington Palace marked the launch of her company Yu Holdings, a platform that aims to progress her lofty ambitions to become a cultural, creative, philanthropic and business conduit between China and the rest of the world.
She is a founding member of the V&A Museum’s Young Patrons’ Circle, in the Academy Circle of Bafta and the youngest serving patron of the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Trust. She supports numerous charities and organisations including the British Museum, London Design Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, amfar and the Naked Heart Foundation as well as Teach For China, an initiative that provides education in poor rural communities in China.
Yu has previously made successful investments in Didi Chuxing and Tujia, China’s versions of Uber and Airbnb respectively, and has earmarked $20 million to invest in emerging business this year. The first recipient was Mary Katrantzou, the London-based Athenian fashion designer in whose label she has taken an undisclosed stake. Yu, who cites Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg and Victoria Beckham as mentors, is not messing around.
At 15, despite having scant knowledge of English, she decided she wanted to go to school in Britain. She started at an international school in London and, within three months, could understand 80 per cent of what she was hearing in lessons. She subsequently attended two boarding schools, Royal Russell School in Surrey and Taunton School in Somerset. On leaving for the UK, Yu’s father determined the character traits he wanted her to come back with. ‘To be a loving person and always think about how to contribute to society and your family; to always think about how you can improve yourself and be self-reliant; to not be afraid of hardship and to be determined about what you want, then set your mind to it.’ No pressure there, then.
In London, Yu found herself enthralled by museums, galleries and Harrods, honing her cultural and consumer interests. She went on to study fashion management at the London College of Fashion, prior to taking business courses at Oxford, Cambridge and New York’s Columbia University.
Yu is hugely influenced by her father: a first-generation university graduate who changed his family’s fortunes
Yu’s father told her, ‘Always think how you can improve and be self-reliant’
dramatically with the launch of a business aged 27, which became
China’s biggest door manufacturer.
His own father came from poverty, yet was an intellectual who published more than 30 books, leading to his imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution. ‘My grandfather taught my father and uncles to be humble. He would always say, “Dream for the bigger dreams and pursue bigger goals and bigger missions.”’
She grew up in a house decorated with fountains designed by her father in Hangzhou in the Zhejiang province on China’s eastern coast. Her mother – an English graduate – would listen to BBC radio, sparking an interest in British culture. Yu would read about the Princess of Wales, while being schooled in a traditional Chinese Olympic maths programme. She later won a gold medal in the English National Senior Maths Challenge, and shocked her Cambridge graduate teacher by completing problems without the use of a calculator.
‘My mother was definitely a tiger mother, I have her to thank for that,’ laughs Yu. ‘She’s involved in the family business and she invests as well, but more on the private side – real estate and stocks.’ Given their extreme wealth, could she have simply chosen not to work? ‘Absolutely,’ says Yu. ‘My parents would be fine about it, but then I wouldn’t have my independence. They would
‘My parents would be fine if I didn’t work, but it’s not inspiring. I would hate life’
expect me to marry someone with a similar background. It’s not inspiring. I would hate life like that.’
Instead, she has forged an international existence. While nominally based in Shanghai, Yu travels to London and Hong Kong – where her 14-strong team is based – every month. She has recently employed what she describes as a ‘more holistic approach’. Abroad, she is in full business mode; at home in China she has time for twice-weekly trips to her Chinese doctor, as well as daily guidance from her fortune and fengshui masters, aromatherapy, acupuncture, meditation, gardening and flower arranging.
‘You need to learn to manage your mind, emotions and brain. If you choose to look at things from a more philosophical approach, there is always a positive outcome from every situation,’ she enthuses. Yu credits visualisation with helping her to define and achieve her business goals. ‘With investments you do logical analysis, but business is also intuitive. My fortune master is super-intuitive, she has the third eye and can foresee the future in some ways.’
The designers and organisations she works with will be betting on this third eye. Yu is able to offer unique, tailored insight into what rich Chinese millennials want to spend their trust funds on. It’s a verdant market, there for the taking: in its 2017 report, Bain & Company cited this moneyed demographic as being the driving force behind the pick-up in China’s domestic luxury market. It’s no wonder Samantha Cameron – who launched her label Cefinn last year – turned up to Yu’s party. Money talks.
‘My generation has completely different shopping habits,’ says Yu. ‘People born in the 1960s and ’70s buy into established brands such as Dior and Chanel. For them, it’s about showing status and where they fit into society. But my generation isn’t into logos – it’s not cool, it’s too obvious. [And] we prefer to shop online. We’ve become very interested and hungry for young, emerging designers.’ This is the opportunity Yu will help open up for Katrantzou, who she sees as being able to create a fully fledged leading lifestyle brand. Everything in China can be done online, and this is how millennials exist. Yu says that she can leave the house in Shanghai with just her phone. That’s all she needs to buy what she wants and get around.
Not that she has time to shop. Her own wardrobe acquisitions come via close designer relationships – she commissions Katrantzou and Chinese design talent Huishan Zhang to create custom pieces, as well as being one of Net-a-porter’s ‘global ambassadors’, which means that each season they send over 100 pieces they think she’ll like to choose from. Or she’ll send a screenshot of something she fancies to her personal shopper, who will then dispatch it to wherever she is in the world. ‘My team will line it all up and I’ll pick the outfits I like. It’s much easier and more convenient. In a store you can be influenced by the sales assistant; this way you’re at home with your team, who give very honest feedback. They’ll say, “That is really nice,” or, “That looks shit.”’ When choosing more statement or couture pieces (she has vintage Dior, Balmain, Lanvin and Yves Saint Laurent, purchased from the discerning couture trader William Vintage), Yu has her future fashion museum at the back of her mind, too. ‘I’ll think, “Is this part of history?”’
Yu’s financial and societal judgement is as shrewd: she placed small bets on both Brexit and Trump’s presidency. She cites Paypal founder Peter Thiel, ‘He is a great believer in going against the public when investing. I’ve learnt a lot about the value of risk management, but when you bet on the common trend the possibility of a return is not that great. When you bet against it… I’m not a fan of Trump, but I’m very logical. Business is business.’
She has a strong sideline maintaining a glamorous public profile, although Yu insists, ‘It’s not only about looking nice. That’s not my real value. My real value is to make good investments, first of all, and second, to help designers and move the industry forward in the ways that I can.’
Yu attends fashion shows complete with her own photographer in order to document it all across her social-media channels. For her, this is simply how her generation communicates. Chinese millennials are online: if you want to influence them, you need to be there too. She credits her British education with giving her a wider view of women in the world. ‘If I had stayed in China, I’d be more of a stereotype, thinking, “Girls should [only] do this.” Now I’m a feminist.’
It’s unlikely she will give up before achieving her goals. Last year, with little training, she completed the Barcelona marathon. It took her six and a half hours. ‘The guy running next to me was wearing an Eiffel Tower costume,’ she laughs. ‘I thought, “If he can run in that, I better do it.”’