The Villa story

One year into her job working in Shanghai and Sara Villarreal was ready for a change. The combination of her finance background, enthusiasm for fashion and recognition of potential opportunities inspired her to start her own business in one of the city's most fashionable areas. The avid fashion fan says she was surprised to see international designers, particularly those from the United States, featured often in Chinese fashion magazines and media while there were few - if any - outlets to buy the clothes in China.

That was when she started The Villa, which opened in the fall of 2009 and recently celebrated its second birthday. With backing from her family and a team of women well versed in the fashion world, Villarreal was able to open her store to feature primarily American designers.

"American ready to wear is a much more wearable take on fashion, meaning that it very much accommodates an American woman's lifestyle," says Villarreal, who was raised in Texas and attended university in Los Angeles.

American women are very busy and tend to like items that are more suitable for that kind of lifestyle, she adds. While it is casual, American ready to wear designers add a fashionable spin.

"It doesn't mean frumpy or shapeless," she says.

With some of the richest women in the world hailing from China, there is demand here for very work-oriented fashion - day-to-day clothing that can take women from the start of their day to the end.

"I think it echoes the lifestyle of American women," Villareal says. "I do see myself as this person who is bringing a Western or American sensibility about fashion to China."

European fashion houses are already well-established in China, but now wealthy Chinese women have more choices for the clothes and designs that they buy.

While Chinese women are branching out beyond what is considered conventionally stylish, The Villa has also provides opportunities for American designers to know Chinese consumers better.

"The more pertinent exchange that you see is teaching American designers about a culture and group of people that they really have very little familiarity with," she says.

She doesn't think American designers have paid enough attention to the Chinese consumer, a sentiment she says Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, echoes.

Villarreal met Wintour last year at a state dinner for President Hu Jiintao in the United States. The Villa owner says Wintour emphasized that one of her causes in the coming years was to try to champion American designers who invest more energy into understanding the Chinese consumer.

"It's on her radar, and if it's on hers then it will be for a lot of other people," she adds.

Those designers that are eyeing the Asian, and more specifically Chinese, market are eager to learn about the differences between the US and these markets, she says. When she opened the store two years ago, she didn't think the designers she was working with appreciated the magnitude of those differences.

"They're a lot more keen and eager to learn about the sort of things my clients would like to see in the store," Villarreal says. "They want to know what performs well and what doesn't, what my clients like to do and who they are."

Yigal Azrouel is one of the designers that The Villa has carried since its opening and has seen the market and interest for a broader range of style grow.

"What I love about China is the excitement about fashion, not just clothing," says Azrouel, who adds that he has a more international presence.

"It's refreshing to have a market that you don't see resistance for price," he adds. "Of course value has to be there but the price ticket doesn't affect them if they find something unique and special. They seem to like over the top."

By cooperating with the designers at The Villa, he's been able to break into what can seem to be an overwhelming market, but he knows there's still a lot of room for further expansion.

"I have barely tapped into the market, but the opportunities that you hear about today are reaching the second- and third-tier cities much faster," he says. "China is certainly not just Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong."

Azrouel acknowledges that when new markets first open, consumers are initially label-driven and like to flash logos.

"As (China) continues to mature as a market, it will only become more open to trying new and unique brands," he says.