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.
Although most of this output has been for export, young Chinese entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to bring at least some of these Western brands on to the Chinese market. And local Chinese retailers hired European and American designers as consultants to instill greater sophistication into their collections and educate local staff.
Of course, Beijing's fashion boom has also been fueled by the emergence of an affluent urban population. To be sure, my informal polling of local Chinese lady friends suggests that even these females tend to be frugal, preferring to buy knock-off brands or inexpensive Chinese clothes.
However, for rising numbers of people, including ones with ordinary incomes, nothing but expensive foreign designer brands will do. These acquaintances include a petite and attractive 20-something former software engineer now studying for an MBA at a broadcasting university. This delightful young lady, who had been earning 5,000 yuan a month, once told me she mainly buys mid-level brand clothing.
These women can now appear stylish not only in well-known foreign brands, but in the haute couture creations of up-and-coming Chinese designers based in Beijing. Their emergence is an extension of the capital's lively avant-garde art scene. A close symbiosis exists here between fashion and contemporary art, particularly at venues like the 798 Art Zone, which is frequently used as a fashion shoot location.
Liu Lu is one of the capital's most prominent young fashion designers. She spent two years in Paris before moving to New York to study at the elite Parsons Design School and then won the Golden Thimble Award in 2006.
Eschewing the mega-malls, Liu has opted for more independent outlets to sell her clothes, including her own shop in Sanlitun's Nanli Patio. Since this place is close to my Sanlitun apartment, I recently paid it a visit.
What I saw there dovetailed with the Internet profiles of the designer. Liu's haute couture creations did seem, to my neophyte and untrained eye at least, to be inspired by everyday life - according to the designer, the concept for her "Love the '90s" collection sprang from an old shoulder pad jacket in her mother's closet.
Moreover, these clothes, along with the ones I saw at the Sanlitun shop of another rising designer, Yunxi, a woman from Inner Mongolia, were outfits that could be worn not just by fashion models but other women as well. While they're certainly not for everyday wear, they could be donned by any reasonably attractive lady at a formal or semi-formal social event.
That could not be said for the outfits I saw at a recent fashion show featuring the fall/winter line of a big-name fashion brand that is part of a foreign fashion conglomerate. A Chinese acquaintance put me on the show's guest list and, having never been to such an event, I was naturally curious and keen to go.
The models, who were all foreigners, walked down the catwalk to the tune of techno music and the last movement of the Mozart Reqium. They sported what could be called Mongolian fur chic - chunky fur shirts, caps and coats. They were clothes that could only be worn at an outrageous costume party. The same was true for the leather outfits that were also modeled. One model wearing such garb also sported a pair of antlers.
Of course, none of the people attending the event cared much one way or another about the over-the-top nature of these outfits. They were there to imbibe the wine and champagne, which flowed freely. And I bumped into some familiar faces from several earlier fashion-related events I had attended - these people, mainly attractive young ladies, clearly did little else in their evenings.
Welcome to the new Beijing.
