Arete Studio is a Shanghai-based contemporary womenswear fashion brand that adopts a stance of thoughtfulness and empowerment towards living up to one’s full potential. Designs are inspired by the founders’ formative years in New York shaped with Chinese heritage, seamlessly integrating a fresh new category of East/West design into technical craftsmanship with cosmopolitan ease and effortless styl
e. Arete’s mission is to promote new vision of international fashion that speaks to modern women who play many different yet important roles in life. As such, Arete’s silhouettes and materials strike a delicate and unique balance between the hard and soft, strong and graceful, feminine and masculine. Arete’s Head Designer Christina Liao is a Chinese-American fashion designer born in the United States and raised in San Francisco and Taipei, graduating from the Parsons Design School. In New York City, Christina designed for renowned international design houses, including international Ready-to-Wear label Yigal Azrouël, and subsequently global American luxury and lifestyle fashion brand Ralph Lauren for eight years. During her time as a Ralph Lauren designer, Christina was responsible for the majority of the Lauren by Ralph Lauren Woven’s Sportswear business, honored with the company’s Creativity Award, helped launch the Lauren Jeans Company product line, and worked on the label’s 2008 Beijing Olympics ceremony uniforms for the United States athletic team. Christina’s world perspectives bring a remarkably cosmopolitan and strong design aesthetic to modern women everywhere. Ready to share her effortlessly balanced and stylish designs to Shanghai-based fashion brand Arete, Christina joined the label as Head Designer in August 2015. Founder and Managing Director Jasmine Ting was born and grew up in New York City, graduating from Columbia University with a degree in Economics. She worked in proprietary trading and investments while in New York, and moved to Asia in 2009. Jasmine attended Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, after which she settled in Shanghai to work with Alexander Wang as an Executive Assistant in 2011. In 2013, Jasmine launched womenswear designer brand Arete.