Local flavors

Photo provided to China Daily

Now, the glamour and passion has faded somewhat, along with the big names, and the event has taken on new meaning for domestic designers and organizers.

"The mission of Shanghai Fashion Week is to drum up support for local fashion," says Shao Feng, vice-secretary-general of the Shanghai Fashion Week Organizing Committee.

"What is national is international. Only by having our own designers, brands and fashion weeks, can we be called an international fashion capital," Shao says.

Chinese designer Wang Chuqiao believes the fashion week now serves as a "fair platform" for novices to gain experience.

"To compare a decade-old fashion week with the veterans of Europe is not fair to the new one, and doesn't help," says Wang, the co-founder of domestic fashion brand Neither Nor.

Neither Nor's womenswear was established in 2001 and has gained momentum by having a store in a quiet Shanghai neighborhood.

Shanghai designer Ji Cheng believes the absence of world famous designers turns the spotlight on domestic designers.

"I guess most people know me because of the fashion week," says Ji, having returned from London with her latest ready-to-wear collection, Teaism, which she showed at Shanghai Fashion Week.

Inspired by the rituals of Chinese tea making, the collection received plaudits at the show.

Ji, a graduate of Istituto Marangoni Fashion and Design School in Milan, Italy, describes her style as "oriental elements" featuring "asymmetrical cuts, a fusion of leather and chiffon, and disassembly of Chinese fine embroidery".

"Chinese fashion designers, most of them, are talented, creative and diligent," says Xu Xubing, a professor from Shanghai Donghua University, the city's best known school of fashion and design.

"What we need now is a well-established support team to relieve the designers from the problems of managing their brands, talking to media or pandering to customers," he says.

Contact the writer at xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn, Zhu Lingqing contributed to the story.