Liu Wen | Sebastian Kim | Muse Fall 2010 | 'Dynasty'

When Sebastian Kim delivered the sultry, restrained and sophisticated beauty of Liu Wen for a Muse Fall 2010 editorial called ‘Dynasty’, he wasn’t thinking of Dallas. Perhaps the end of the Qing dynasty in the 1850s, when a new courtesan-led culture emerged in the Foreign Settlements of Shanghai. The new girls exhibited a conspicuous consumption of modern goods and a flamboyant lifestyle, one suddenly emulated and envied by traditional Chinese women.

Styled by Katie Mossman, Liu Wen honors the lineage of China’s beauties, who became one with the journalists and intellectuals in the new cosmopolitan playgrounds of Shanghai. We think a novel like ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ provoked this rouge-drenched, Liu Wen sensual splendor for Muse Fall 2010. Such sophisticated, erotic beauty is positively unAmerican.