China's influence on style is becoming global, says French fashion maven

Dider Grumbach

(BEIJING, April 9) -- "In a nutshell, China's fashion has gone from nothing to something," said Dider Grumbach in an exclusive interview with Beijing2008.cn. "Fifteen years ago, style here was monotonous. Everybody looked the same. Today is different. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, old or young, everybody wants to reveal their personality in the way they dress. There's a sharp contrast with how things were before."

As the president of Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, one of three entities that governs the French fashion industry, and a frequent visitor to China since the early 1990s, Grumbach can speak with authority when he states that China is now a part of the global fashion community. "Many Chinese designers are working in France. At the institute of fashion in France where I am president, there are a lot of talented Chinese students," he said. "What's more, many Chinese labels, such as JEFEN and Exception, presented collections at Paris Fashion Week. Both of those labels were hits last year. I believe more and more Chinese designers will stand out in international fashion circles in the future."

Dider Grumbach

Of course, says Grumbach, China's fashion industry still has lots of room to grow and there are still many challenges ahead. Known worldwide for its production capabilities, China hopes more and more customers from other countries will look for the words "Designed in China" instead of just "Made in China," something Grumbach says may happen faster than some people think. "Japan didn't have its first international brand,Issey Miyake, until quite a long time after it entered the international market," Grumbach explained. "Issey Miyake had access to European and American markets in 1973, by then it was already a 20-year-old brand. China has already entered the global market, but developing an international brand is an unavoidable process. I think the process will be faster for China than it was for Japan -- we're in the age of information now."

The fashion industry is changing, says Grumbach, in part because of the Internet and in part because an increased desire from customers for quality and creativity rather than just low prices. Increased access to information will provide Chinese companies with new methods for marketing their labels worldwide, which means entrepreneurs and designers need to be ready to compete on a global scale. "I think in the future we won't have to prepare for Fashion Week three months in advance, we'll be able to display new collections [through the Internet] whenever it is convenient for the customer," he explains. "High quality clothes displayed at a show, in July for example, can be ordered as soon as a customer wants it. This is a little difficult now, but that's the direction we're headed."

"Today, fashion is a global entity, no longer constrained by the boundaries between countries." he emphasized. "We can no longer talk about "French fashion," or "Chinese fashion," or "Indian fashion." We can really only talk about global fashion."