Da Xin Textiles is more than just a two-story cloth store on Dongsi Dajie. It is a place that takes pieces of the past and weaves them into the present.
Fading flower patterns bloom on the big red gates, the wooden staircase creaks under one's feet, and worn-out Chinese New Year pictures are randomly pasted on the wall.
Middle-aged saleswomen chat with customers and tailors. With long rubber rulers hanging around their necks, they sit, sew or stroll among the rows of cloth.
An entire wall of the shop is covered in hundreds kinds of buttons and fasteners, including the classic Chinese handmade cloth fasteners, modern shell buttons, cool shining metal claps and even plastic buttons popular in 1960s and '70s.
The 1,000-square-metre sales hall is another wonderland. Numerous rolls of silk, polyester, cotton, flax, even hand-dyed cloth, occupy the most space, only leaving a few narrow pathways for customers.
The second floor of the shop provides more nostalgic services cotton fluffing, and handmade quilting and weaving, which have almost disappeared from daily modern life. A double-sized quilt made of the latest cotton fabric costs 180 yuan.
As most cloth shops have disappeared in Beijing, it seems a miracle for such an old store to survive in the city's most bustling business zone.
"Most of our customers are white collars or embassy staff," said Wang Yuqing, manager of the store. Looking at the foreigners crowding at the silk counter, he said: "Our busy season has started now. As the weather are turning cold, many foreigners will come to make their new Christmas dresses."
Now 53-years-old, Wang started the business 20 years ago with seven unemployed young men from his neighbourhood. "At that time all we had were two handcarts and one broken warehouse," he recalled.
Wang gradually developed the small and unknown state-owned shop into a big chain store during a time when the cloth market was shrinking and most cloth shops closed in Beijing. In recent years it is said that Da Xin has exceeded Ruifuxiang, the renowned 100-year-old cloth store, to become the biggest and most profitable cloth store in the capital.
"I am always thinking of making something new from the old industry," said Wang. Da Xin was the first cloth store providing private tailors, who would visit customers' homes to give special guidance regarding clothing styles. The shop still supplies tailors with translators to the homes of foreign clients. Wang also installed a wooden loom in the shop and now sells the once cheap handmade cloth at high prices. The shop is also the first cloth store to organize fashion shows to attract young customers.
It is said that Da Xin will soon make another first record by having computers help customers choose cloths and dress styles. After inputting the customer's data, such as figure, face picture and the chosen clothing style, the computer will give a three-dimensioned picture to help them make decisions.
"For us, Da Xin is a fashion venue," said Ding Xue, a young woman who is the frequent customer of the shop. She brought in the latest fashion magazine and asked the tailor to make an evening dress "just like the style Zhang Ziyi wears."
"It is our way to dress differently, " she said. "You know it usually takes several thousands of yuan to get such a dress, but here several hundred yuan and three days of waiting is enough."
Her tailor Xue Xinjian has much experience in dealing with such demands. He patiently helps Ma compare the qualities of different cloths and give advices. "Your shoulder is too thin and a round neckband may be better," he suggested.
Xue is regarded as the best tailor in Da Xin for making Western-style clothes. Tailoring since he was a teenager, the man speaks fluent English and was a tailor in the Untied States for one year.
The owner of the button counter, Zhao Yuanzhi, made his name in the past two years by opening the first button chain store in Beijing. His website Button World is the first web shop to sell only buttons.
"I have never thought of the old store as outdated. For me, it is a knot that connects the past and the present,"he said.
