The inspiration of this collection was came from the Chinese Dynasty, so the collection is named as ‘Chao’, which means Dynasty in Chinese, and also with a same pronunciation ‘Ciao’ in Italian, means hello, and ‘Ciao’ also means stylish and fashionable in Cantonese.
So, Bettie came up with an idea and named her collection as ‘Ciao’, and want as popular as the common language, representing the collection with Chinese elements in a ‘stylish’ way, to say “Hello” to the world! The clothing of the Royal Court of China has a long history, the craftsmanship, design and technique were the top back to the time, and every symbol and details are representing a special and different meaning. Those become the motivation for Bettie to start her design on this new collection, and focusing in a fusion between the Eastern and the Western Culture.
The highlight of this collection is one of the jacket using the traditional imperial robe craftsmanship, infused with Bettie's design. The textile culture and it's historic imperial motifs. A vibrant multi-coloured pattern, symbolising the prosperity and royalty. The raw edge of the traditional Chinese textile is also one of the key signature of the collection, that wants to simplify and uncover for representing the original to the world and bring everything back to the natural.
The unconventional cut is inspired from the jigsaw puzzle, those simple geometric shapes can have several interesting combinations as well as for the zero-waste purpose. While the process of design was complicated the outcome wants to appear as simple as possible and link everything to the elementary shapes of nature. In Bettie’s design, cutting is minimised but pattern design is maximised. The balance of this is one of the unique elements which she is proud of.