From a Mountainside to Mix Selection: Our Founder's Story, as Told by SCMP

We're honoured to share that South China Morning Post recently profiled the woman behind Mix Selection, Huang Xuanni, and the path that led her here.

Huang grew up in rural Binzhou, Hunan province, the sixth of seven children in a family that prized sons. As SCMP reports, she often ate alone and was, at one especially difficult point in her childhood, left on a mountainside while ill before a passer-by brought her home. She went on to study animal science at Hunan Agricultural University, then moved to Shenzhen for a job in logistics after marrying — a marriage that ended in divorce after a period of hardship.

In 2015, with just 50,000 yuan (about US$7,200), Huang and a friend bought a batch of small-sized women's clothing and opened a shop on Taobao, photographing the pieces herself. Early momentum gave way to a serious setback in 2017 — a five million yuan debt and the loss of many customers. Rather than walk away, she spent the next years studying brand management, business and design.

In 2020, that groundwork became Mix Selection: a brand built around quality materials, elegant fit for petite frames, and a neo-Chinese aesthetic that blends traditional silk craftsmanship with modern design. By late 2023, our neo-Chinese dresses alone had crossed 8.7 million yuan in sales, and Huang cleared the debt from those earlier years in full.

What SCMP's piece captures well is the part of the story that doesn't show up in a sales figure: showing up for customers directly, on social media, day after day, until a following became a community. By 2025, that community had grown to nearly two million, and Mix Selection's annual sales had surpassed 250 million yuan (roughly US$36 million).

Huang put it simply in the piece: "Just hold on a little longer and there is hope."

It's a line we think about often here — and it's part of why Mix Selection exists in the first place. Read the full profile at South China Morning Post.