You can’t choose who you fall for, but you can choose how you dress. In Netflix’s hit drama The Early Spring, Jing Boran plays Luan Nian (Luke), the creative director of leading advertising agency Lingmei Advertising. He brought more than 120 pieces from his own wardrobe to the set, alongside runway looks from luxury brands, and took charge of styling the character himself. From fashion-week front rows to his sharply-dressed advertising executive role on screen, Jing’s industry connections and instinctive eye turn clothes into a language of their own, capturing exactly what it means to be “the most stylish man in Beijing.”
From Talent-Show Champion to Acclaimed Actor: A Career More Than a Decade in the Making
Jing Boran first made his debut after winning the 2007 talent competition My Hero. More than a decade later, a run of acclaimed projects has established him as one of China’s most recognisable actors. His breakthrough year came in 2015 as his acting career, variety show appearance, fashion profile and commercial opportunities simultaneously rose. Not only did his starring role in the television drama Love Through a Millennium top the ratings, his performance alongside Andy Lau in Lost and Love even earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 30th Golden Rooster Awards.
From the fantasy blockbuster Monster Hunt, which broke box-office records, to the highly anticipated adaptation Time Raiders and Rene Liu’s directorial debut Us and Them, Jing has built a filmography defined by range. His portrayal of Lin Jianqing in Us and Them proved particularly resonant: the film became so popular in South Korea that its rights were acquired for a remake. More recently, his performance as criminal-psychology professor Jiang Hansheng in the mystery drama Sunsets Secrets Regrets further expanded his appeal and reinforced his reputation as a versatile actor.
His latest urban romance, The Early Spring, is now streaming on Netflix, where it quickly rose to No. 2 on the global non-English TV chart after its debut. Adapted from the web novel of the same name written by JJWXC author Gu Niang Bie Ku, the series is directed by Jiang Jizheng and written by Gao Xiaoxian. Jing plays Luan Nian (Luke), the creative director of Lingmei Advertising, while Sun Qian plays Shang Zhitao (Flora), a newcomer to the workplace. Their relationship unfolds over years, beginning with a romance at the office.
The series has prompted discussion around its power imbalance, but Jing gives Luan’s sharp tongue, calculating nature and tightly controlled emotions remarkable precision. A glance, a pause, the slightest shift in expression: he often says as much without speaking as he does with a line.
Still, it is Jing’s fashion pedigree that has generated almost as much conversation as the plot. In 2015, he became the only Chinese male celebrity invited to Louis Vuitton’s Paris fashion show. The following year, he walked the Cannes Film Festival red carpet in a black Louis Vuitton suit as a brand ambassador and official festival partner. On Qixi Festival in 2019, he appeared alongside supermodel Liu Wen for the first time in Coco Crush’s “This Is How We Love” campaign, before officially becoming a Chanel brand ambassador in 2020.
Since then, he has become global brand ambassadors for Jaeger-LeCoultre, Samsonite and Montblanc, as well as ambassador positions for The Beast Home and HOKA ONE ONE in 2025. His friend Bai Jingting even once joked on a variety show that, if he were going out with Jing, he would need to start planning his outfit a week in advance.
The combination of industry recognition and personal conviction explains how Jing arrived on The Early Spring set with more than 120 pieces from his own wardrobe, alongside runway looks from luxury houses. By taking the reins of Luan Nian’s clothes, he did more than dress the male lead. He gave the character a visual vocabulary, and quietly raised the bar for men’s style on screen.
The Man Who Knows How to Wear CHANEL
Jing Boran is one of the few male celebrities in China who can make Chanel look entirely his own. Male ambassadors remain relatively rare within the house’s Chinese roster, and Jing’s relationship with Chanel has only deepened over the years: from attending its fine jewellery presentation in 2015, to collaborating on the Coco Crush collection in 2019, to becoming an official brand ambassador in 2020. Since then, every fashion-week appearance and brand event has been another masterclass on how to wear Chanel without being overwhelmed by it.
CHANEL’s tweed jackets are instantly recognisable. But without the right balance, they can easily tip into excess. Jing’s approach is the opposite. He grounds the texture and volume with a simple black base and sharply cut trousers, giving the jacket room to speak without allowing it to dominate. And finally accessorizing with A Chanel brooch to complete the look: a precise final note rather than an obvious flourish.
That same restraint runs through his wardrobe in The Early Spring. His accessories never compete with the clothes. They sharpen the silhouette, add character and then disappear back into the whole.
More Than a Brand Look: Making Fashion His Own
Being a regular at fashion weeks and major industry events, Jing is just as compelling when he steps onto the red carpet. At Bottega Veneta, he paired double denim with a striped shirt and black tie, using the layers to give the look depth without sacrificing its clean lines. At Giorgio Armani, he returned to the purest form of Italian elegance, adding a white silk scarf as a quiet accent to an otherwise impeccably restrained look.
Whether he is seated front row or attending a brand event, Jing never treats a runway look as a uniform. He takes what interests him, the neckline, the proportions, the layering, the accessories, and translates it into something that belongs to him. The brand’s attitude remains, but it is filtered through his own presence.
That is what makes his wardrobe as Luan Nian feel so convincing. The character does not look as though he has been dressed by a label. He looks as though he has spent years deciding exactly what belongs in his wardrobe.
Beyond the Traditional Suit: The Urban Creative Director
Jing brings his distinct style to the formal suits worn by employees at Lingmei Advertising in The Early Spring. Rather than relying on the standard black suit, he works in low-saturation greys, earth tones and black, pairing them with broad shoulders, clean tailoring and fluid draping.
The appeal lies in the space between formal and relaxed. A khaki suit worn with a dark-brown printed shirt, for example, captures the cool authority of an advertising creative director without slipping into corporate stiffness. The clothes suggest that Luan understands the rules yet has no need to follow all of them.
Across the series, looks from Loro Piana, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Valentino, Dries Van Noten, Giorgio Armani and Lemaire shape both his workwear and off-duty wardrobe. Together, they establish a new standard for the modern urban-drama leading man: composed, expensive-looking and never predictable.
Softness in the Details: The Art of Less Is More
When the office tension falls away, Luan’s off-duty and at-home clothes reveal a softer side of the same carefully controlled style. The palette shifts towards earth tones and muted shades, with most looks limited to no more than three colours. Nothing is loud. Nothing is accidental.
Texture does much of the emotional work. Ecru knits, light-grey trousers and soft sweaters temper the character’s usual distance, introducing a quiet warmth without making him seem transformed overnight. Accessories remain deliberately spare: a silk scarf, a pair of glasses or a watch is often enough.
For the at-home scenes, Jing wears a grey pyjama set and yellow-striped robe from The Beast Home, paired with black leather Bottega Veneta slides. Even in clothes designed for complete ease, the look retains its composure. His character may be off duty, but he is never careless.
From Buttoned-Up to Letting Go: When Clothes Tell the Story
Jing’s preparation of more than 120 looks for the series was never simply about making Luan Nian look good. The wardrobe is built to move with him, tracking the character’s emotional evolution one detail at a time.
At the beginning, Luan is guarded, controlled and almost impossible to read. His suit is buttoned to the top, his tie pulled perfectly into place. The clothes form a barrier between him and everyone around him.
Then he meets Shang Zhitao, and the armour begins to shift. Collars open. Colours brighten. The silhouettes relax. The clothes do not suddenly become casual; they become less defensive.
A jacquard CHANEL shirt worn at the bar, a pink Dries Van Noten shirt at home and an ecru Brunello Cucinelli coat layered over a half-zip knit each mark a different stage of that change. Together, they chart the movement from restraint to vulnerability, from control to something closer to ease.
Every piece carries an emotional adjustment. By the end, Luan’s wardrobe has become more than a collection of enviable clothes. It is a record of what he cannot always say aloud, proof that sometimes the most revealing way to tell a story is to let the clothes speak first.
Editor
Hillary Huang, Translated by Noella LeeCredit
Lead Image: @jingxiaoxiansheng via Instagram
