Mixing with Beijing's fashion glitterati makes my head spin

In the not-so-distant past, when everyone here wore drab unisex shirts and trousers, to say "Beijing" and "high fashion" in the same breath was at best an oxymoron and, at worst, a very bad joke.

However, the capital now boasts a very lively fashion scene and, on most evenings, its fashionistas can take in a show with models donning the latest cutting-edge foreign and homegrown clothing designs.

This rapid transformation was spurred by China's 2001 entry into the WTO. China had already become a leading textile manufacturer but its WTO membership led trendy, mid-sized Western specialty clothing companies to shift production to the Middle Kingdom.