Overworked office drone Lin Xiyue quit without hesitation after her boss dangled the ninety-ninth empty promise of a promotion, packed her bags, and headed back to her hometown. The good news: No more cramming onto the subway. The bad news: She inherited a state-owned lingerie factory on the verge of bankruptcy, along with millions in debt. The factory’s “youngest” machine was older than she was. Its “latest fashion” was the synthetic-cotton underwear her mother had worn as a young woman. And its “most hardworking” employees spent every day figuring out how to clock out on time and go look after their grandchildren. Everyone expected her to make a laughingstock of herself and urged her to file for bankruptcy and sell the land to pay off the debts. Lin Xiyue: “Thanks for the suggestion, but I’m going to fight for a little longer.”
And so...
She turned the old factory into a livestreaming studio and transformed its dusty warehouse into a popular photo spot.
She rounded up the factory’s “older auntie model squad,” average age fifty-five, and dressed them in lingerie inspired by updated cheongsam designs. Their confident showcase in front of the camera went viral overnight!
She incorporated intangible cultural heritage embroidery into her products, built her brand around Eastern aesthetics, and made it all the way to international fashion week!
The distributors who once wouldn’t give her the time of day were now crowding outside the factory gates, begging to work with her. Her former boss, who had laid her off, came crawling back hoping to negotiate a buyout.
Lin Xiyue smiled and turned him down. “Sorry, I’m out of your league now.”
#Career-driven heroine transforms a business, live
#I sold grandma’s generation’s taste to Gen Z
#As long as you don’t lose heart, there’s always a way through
