"Our journey from Suzhou to Beijing takes us a few hours on the train, plus unremitting effort over the past eight years," Sheng says. "I hope that more Suzhou brands will have the chance to introduce themselves to a wider audience in the future."

Sheng majored in fashion design at the Suzhou Institute of Silk Textile Technology, now part of Soochow University. After graduating in 2003, he found a job at a leading silk company in Shengze.

His more than six years of experience at the firm gave him the skills and confidence to start his own business as a professional designer.

In 2008, one of Sheng's former colleagues, Huang Qiuting, resigned from the company and started a business exporting and selling low-end silk products online. He convinced Sheng to join him.

Sheng and Huang were both born in Shengze in the 1980s, where silk had been the pillar industry. However, the duo found that the profit margins were tight.

Sheng reveals that, because conventional silk products can be easily imitated, they wanted to create quality products that would set the standard for expertise. To add value to them, the pair wanted to build a brand.