Models wearing Yi costumes in Shen's shop, June 17, 2020.[Photo/Xinhua]

Before the 1990s, when clothes shops were rare, Yi women needed to make clothes for their family members with needle and thread.

"My mother told me she had brought home a lot of food by embroidering for a wealthy family," Shen said, adding that the delicate works of her mother helped the young lady of the family secure a long-anticipated marriage proposal, as dexterous hands were expected from any Yi woman who looked for a fiance.

Shen has been fond of needlework since she was young. She sewed a pair of cloth shoes and a halter top for her younger brother when she was eight years old. Her own clothes were embroidered with patterns of birds, trees, stars and sheep horns -- inspirations from her life -- which were admired by her neighbors and classmates.

She became even better skilled after a horse kick accident injured her waist and confined her to bed for years during primary school.

"I kept sewing in bed, hoping that I could support myself with my needlework just like my mother, even if I couldn't stand up," she said.

Shen did not sell her works until the late 1980s when a foreign couple found her wearing a beautiful Yi costume in the street and then bought 11 pieces of her designs for 37,000 yuan.