At its peak in the 1980s, the Shanghai textile industry contributed more than 4 billion yuan ($600 million) worth of tax to the municipal government and provided a livelihood for more than 550,000 residents.

Such was the scale of the textile sector that it was even dubbed "Shanghai's mother industry". But the industry began to decline in the early 1990s as the city strove to curb pollution and transformed itself into a financial and high-end manufacturing zone.

Today, textile factories can no longer be found within the city. However, Lyu points out that this does not mean that the textile or silk industry is dead in the city.

"We are simply removing the middle process in manufacturing. The two ends, design and product development, and consumption can still be found in Shanghai," Lyu adds.