It is no longer a secret that the Chinese urban middle class has massive spending power, and it is this very fact that attracts international fashion brands towards China. While this is true, another new trend is slowly coming to light with the launch of the annual Shanghai Fashion Week. This new trend is called "Made in China."
While the annual Shanghai Fashion Week is used by many international fashion brands as a stage to flaunt their latest and most dynamic designs, Chinese fashion designers are also starting to gain fame and international attention thanks in part to this massive fashion gathering.
Chinese fashion designers are grabbing the opportunity to strike it big in what in the fashion world is considered the "Big Four." These are four premier cities that are well-known as top fashion outlets in the world. These cities are Paris, New York, Milan, and London.
This year's Shanghai Fashion Week has helped put the "Made in China" brand into the limelight. The Shanghai Fashion Week has been running through for several years now, despite this, most of the expo's previous iterations highlight only the top fashion brands in the world.
This year, Chinese designers and brands are headlining the show and are grabbing all the attention they deserve. On the show's main stage, well known artists have tapped the power and popularity of commercial brands in order to gain prestige points, and also take advantage of the mass market partnership that it offers.
Among the top partnerships during the Shanghai, Fashion Week was the one formed between Budweiser and the fashion brand Private Policy which is based in New York. Although the brand is based in New York, at the heart of it are two Parsons graduates namely Siying Qu and Haoarn Li.
Converse, one of the most recognizable shoe brands in the world, formed a partnership with London-based designer Feng Chen Wang who is well known for his line of men's designer clothing. The two are slated to create a line of the capsule collection.
The "Made in China" idea is making it big this year. One of the foremost drivers of such idea is Fake Natoo, a leading designer of women's wear. At this year's Shanghai Fashion Week, Fake Natoo's Zhang Na unveiled her Reclothing Bank brand. For this particular collection, Zhang made use of upcycled materials and fabrics that are environmentally friendly. In the past, Zhang has collaborated with several international brands including coffee maker Starbucks, as well as local food delivery brand Ele.me.
