Garments industry must shed pretense

Some time ago I visited Isetan, an upscale department store in Shanghai, and saw small boards near the doors of many garment shops. The black-and-white boards gave the brand names and places where the garments were made. Basic though the information may seem, it could go a long way in helping China's consumers and its fashion industry both.

It's an open secret among industry insiders that less than 20 percent of the foreign-sounding brands sold in many department stores are really foreign. Broadly speaking, stores in China have four types of "foreign" brand garments: authentic foreign brands, foreign brands licensed to Chinese firms, brands registered by Chinese firms abroad but operating solely in China, and thoroughbred Chinese brands that sound foreign.

Though this applies to all segments of garments, men's wear is the best example of the rules of the retail market game. That's because men's wear is more about quality, and less about design (which varies little), and it's difficult to sell them at a higher price without giving them Western names, Italian- and French-sounding ones being the most popular.