MILAN, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese design is in the spotlight at Milan Fashion Week, one of the biggest indicators of global fashion and design.
An exposition, which runs from Feb. 20 to 24 at the National Museum of Science and Technology -- one of the multiple locations for the fashion week to roll out across Milan, displays the autumn/winter collections of seven emerging Chinese designers, preluding a key collective fashion show at the newly inaugurated fashion hub of the museum.
What's more, the event marks the official launch of Xi'an International Fashion Town. The fashion town, built in the ancient Chinese city, is meant to offer Chinese and foreign designers an inspiring environment for working and doing business.
The event was organized by Xi'an International Community Construction Development, Xi'an Tande Real Estate, and CHIC Group in cooperation with the Italian Camera della Moda (Chamber of Fashion) and Italy-China Foundation, among other local partners. And the creations of the young Chinese designers on show may serve as a trailer partly for what is designed to happen in Xi'an.
Alexstorm, F/FFFFFF, Scale 79 Studio, Mukzin, Vmajor, Zynggati, and Lanneret are the young brands.
"As a source of inspiration, I look at the current way of life of young people in China and in the world, and I pay attention to popular paintings, movies, or TV works concerning arts, and then transform these inputs into design language," Alex Liu, Alexstorm's chief designer, told Xinhua before the show.
On joining the Milan Fashion Week on Feb. 19-25, Liu said, "Italian fashion is advanced and romantic; its craftsmanship and fabrics are the elements I like most."
CHIC Investment Board Director, Marcello Tsai, has noticed multicultural elements in a trend in young Chinese designers.
"The new generation of Chinese designers is more aware of the mixture of cultures, and especially of the mixture of contemporary design brands and Chinese culture," Tsai said on the sideline of the show.
"They are also much aware of the young people's way of thinking, and attentive to the different forms of arts ... So, I guess they draw their inspiration from all of this," he added.
Moreover, F/FFFFFF designer Zac Zeng believes young people in China are showing a growing interest in fashion and style.
"They always want to be special and attractive, and they like to find their own style in order to be different," he said.
Serving the young talented designers and young clients is a key direction of the international fashion town in Xi'an. A joint venture between CHIC and Xi'an Gaoke Group, the 3.1-sq-km center is expected to offer "a living environment, international fashion life, and a world-class innovation area."
"The most important aspect is that it is meant to be a global fashion scene working in both ways," said CHIC investment CEO Helen Tu.
"On the one hand, we aim to help Chinese designers go more global and go more abroad. On the other, we would support Italian and international brands to enter China, and do business there," she said. "China needs to change from 'Made in China' to 'Created in China', and I think this is what we are doing."
In fact, major fashion weeks around the world, not only at Milan, have in recent years seen more and more young Chinese designers. Their works are culturally inclusive, as was most recently demonstrated at New York Fashion Week by Vivienne Hu's new collection, which she said was inspired by Lewis Carroll's novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."
Among the examples is also Taoray Wang, a brand established by the Chinese designer Wang Tao, which has attracted career women in particular for its feminine and Chinese cultural touches. The brand rose to fame after the Jan. 2017 inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump during which his younger daughter Tiffany wore a coat of its collection.
