The China fashion week is not just laying on a feast for the eyes of "fashionists". It has also proved to be a big platform for textile and garment traders the world over. One year on since China joined the World trade organization, the country's fashion industry is stitching its way into a new era.
There are almost 30 name brand fashion shows in seven days. Enough for a week－long fashion extravaganza, but far from enough for China's entire fashion industry.
The 30 companies that put on shows are the only ones in China that are willing to, or can afford to, build their brands by strutting their stuff down the catwalk. The fact is only a few Chinese garment companies are ready for the challenges and competition brought by the foreign brands, as most are still manufacturing rather than busy building a brand.
Roger Tredre, editor in chief of WGSN, said: "Clearly, the technical and design expertise are here, the main problem is the marketing expertise. Learning how to build and create a brand which have impact on the international market, that takes marketing expertise and know-how and a lot of wiliness to invest in the areas like publicity and advertisement and sort of long term program to build a brand.”
BO TAO is the only company that arranged two shows this year, so they could showcase their spring and summer 2003 collections. The BO TAO brand was created a decade ago and has grown into one of China's top 10 clothes brands, sporting over 120 outlets nationwide.
However, to survive in the coming climate of competition, the company has expanded their business by launching a personalized design service to target high－end customers.
The president of BO TAO said:"It's really hard to keep competitive. It is a time of integrated marketing and sales, the same as the whole garment industry. It is not like ten years ago, when with investment of several hundred thousand yuan, you could create a brand. Now, it at least takes 3 to 5 million yuan to build a brand."
China has been the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of textiles and clothes since 1994. In the year 2000, China's trade volume for textiles and clothing accounted for almost 15 ％ of the world's total. This is a figure that is expected to get even bigger over coming years as export quotas are gradually being lifted by 2005 in accordance with WTO protocols.
Wilma Lagarrigue, French journalist of Fashion China Magazine, said: "I believe, by that time, three years from now on, you will have 50％ of the world market for textile and fashion or even more. China is the biggest production base, the biggest plant of the world."
President of China Fashion Designers Association Wang Qing said: "Since China's accession to the WTO, if you still depend on the simple manufacturing and exports, the added－value for clothing products is very low. So we have to be innovative in this area, protect our own intellectual property to make sure our clothes products are competitive in the world market.
It is still argued that WTO accession is good news for China's textile and garment industry. But some may agree that technical innovation, marketing expertise and systematic reform need to be woven into the fashion industry unless it wants to go the way of the Emperor's New Clothes.
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