China touch for NY catwalk
NEW YORK: The image of Chinese fashion, still in the West associated with cheongsam dresses and Mao jackets, has been brought up to date by a catwalk show in New York.
The show by Cabbeen, a hugely successful menswear label in China, which now plans to go global, marked the first time a designer from Chinese mainland had taken part in New York fashion week on Sunday.
The collection, by the 35-year-old designer Cabbeen, featured faded jeans, "vintage" look T-shirts, customised blazers and designer trainers all key elements of popular contemporary men's casual wear in New York, Milan and London as well as in Cabbeen's native Guangzhou of Guangdong Province.
A model walks the runway at the Cabbeen Fall 2007 fashion show in New York. The Guardian |
China is already a powerhouse of production in the fashion industry, the base for more than half the world's textiles manufacturing. Increasingly it makes clothes for European and American labels, and has a fast-growing interest in fashion.
When Chinese Vogue launched 18 months ago the first issue demanded a second print run within a fortnight, and all copies still sold out. The appetite of the growing Chinese middle class for luxury goods already has Western labels such as Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton competing for Shanghai's prime retail locations. China is increasingly restless with its role as the manufacturing arm of other countries' fashion brands.
Cabbeen, launched in 1989, now has 300 stores on the Chinese mainland, and is favored by fashion-conscious young Chinese celebrities. The style is international and expensively casual.
On the catwalk faded jeans were worn with rock'n'roll T-shirts and pinstriped blazers, a look already much favored by boy band members and successful off-duty young.
Cabbeen maintains a distinct identity using Chinese elements; there is a mandarin-collar velvet blazer but worn with white jeans and trainers; traditional pink cherry-blossom embroidery, but juxtaposed onto a suit jacket.
"The Chinese are often viewed as somewhat stiff and conservative," says Cabbeen, "and so I am always trying to relax that."
The Guardian
(China Daily 02/09/2007 page19)
