Local Designers, Fashion Houses Showcased As Fashion Editors, Buyers And Models Converge In Capital City
Celebrities like film star Gong Li took part in the opening events at this year's China Fashion Week in Beijing
This week, the fashion world turns its collective eye toward Beijing, where China Fashion Week kicks into gear. This year, with more than 40 shows planned, representing more than 50 labels — many of them created by domestic designers — China Fashion Week is expected to put extra emphasis on China’s rapidly developing fashion industry. As the Global Times notes, this weekend’s industry preview started the show off with a bang:
According to the president of China Fashion Week, Wang Qing, “This year’s event will prominently feature domestic talents and brand names.” Events such as fashion week are a great chance for these domestic brand names to gain international visibility, something that will become increasingly crucial as these domestic brands fight to build their Mainland consumer base and compete with the major domestic labels that have dominated the China fashion scene for the last twenty years. With many foreign fashion houses abstaining from China Fashion Week, mainly because of the global economic slowdown, the stage is set for independent, designer-owned labels from throughout China to gain their share of the spotlight.
As the Global Times article points out, this shift indicates that China’s fashion market is developing from a simple export market to a demand-driven, more domestic-focused model: