The story unfolds in absorbing, convincingly re-created settings: Paris (including its notorious sewers), Cairo, Shanghai and Ceylon.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

Her first major step was in 1993 when she opened a three-story, 10, 000-square-foot Jil Sander store in Paris in what had been the Vionnet couture house on the Avenue Montaigne.

WSJ: Fashion Designer Jil Sander Makes a Comeback

On a narrow road of mostly boxy structures, the Gouws' four-story home looks from the outside as if it could have been airlifted from Paris, with a stone-colored facade, neat rows of elegant windows and ivy all over the fence.

WSJ: Western Splendor in Hong Kong