Chinese fashion products see quality leap

Fashion industry is moving towards a "fast fashion" market in need of good quality prt-a-porter ( ready-to-wear) products, the director of "Istituto Marangoni" fashion and design school, Roberto Riccio, told Xinhua in an interview on Monday.

"Just in time" is the buzzword in the new fashion world, Riccio said, as launching new collections one after another is the only way for fashion houses to compete in the market with big international groups.

"My opinion is that, pursued by the necessity of moving fast, the fashion world has less time for research, so it is looking back to ideas and concepts born in the ferment of ten years ago," Riccio said, adding that from the other side, in a frenetic society there is no time anymore for being extravagant and therefore uncomfortably fashionable.

As a result, he pointed out, fashion is suggesting again an elegant simplicity in a celebration of a sort of return to natural womanhood, as we can also admire in the just concluded 2011 spring/ summer women wear fashion week in Milan.

"Fortunately the only things that have not changed are the well- known Italian quality and style," Riccio said pointing out that Italian style originates from the country's artistic and cultural beauties.

It is thanks to its distinguished style that Italy's fashion industry is seeing a quick recovery from the global financial crisis. In the second quarter of this year its world turnover was 14.6 percent up compared to the same period of 2009, while it is forecasted to be an 11.2 per cent up in 2011 compared to 2010.

"However, I can say that China is getting closer to Italy in quality, as I personally touched Chinese fashion products of very good quality. It's not a case that many international top brands are starting to produce in China," Riccio said adding that as director of Istituto Marangoni he is happy to meet young fashion talents seeking the best quality all around the world.

Being the leading fashion and design school in Europe, Istituto Marangoni has 2,000 students in Milan, Paris and London, coming from 75 different countries. D&G's Domenico Dolce as well as Franco Moschino are two of the fashion talents formed by the school in the last years.

"With more than 200 students, the Chinese community is the second biggest after the Italian one. I find that Chinese students have a very good and solid background, they come to our school to perfect, in a stylish European environment, what they already studied in China," Riccio said.

"According to my experience, I can say that young Chinese not being creative enough is absolutely a stereotype created by a series of coincidences, as I find them very open and curious to learn. Once (they have) surpassed the only barrier, which is language, we often see young geniuses after two or three years," he added.

"I myself go to China at least twice a year and I don't hide that I would like to open our school in China as well. I am very sure it would be a success," he said.