中国时尚界的未来不是梦

每每提到时尚一词，人们总是不自觉地想到米兰、纽约、巴黎、伦敦，却鲜少有人想到中国的北京、上海。可见，在时尚、服装设计方面我们和大国还有显著的差距！看看我们都做什么吧。

"There is a simple reason--I love things about fashion. In the future, China will take a lot of place in the fashion." Jasmine Ji is taking a fashion design course at the Raffles-BICT International College in Beijing and she says she knows exactly what she wants and that there is no looking back.

"I want to manage a company about fashion, and I want to do some camera about fashion things."

This is just an example of the many fashion hopefuls in China hoping to break onto the world stage with their own designs. The country's contemporary urban clothing scene is quickly developing, as many young Chinese have cultivated a sort of obsession with brand names. However the fashion industry here is still in its embryonic stages and hungers for world class designers to bolster its development.

"What I have observed on the streets is that the Chinese really care about the way they look. I could say that they invest a lot of money in their appearance, in their clothes, in fashion. They really want to be stylish, that's why our fashion department has so many students."

Catalina Calin is a Romanian fashion designer, one of the many brought in from Europe to oversee the training of fashion and design students at Raffles. She is a resident designer and a fashion design tutor. She says that bringing in Western tutors will help young designers to better understand Western, and namely, European fashion, and help the Chinese industry develop more quickly.

"We encourage our students to be creative and we are promoting our students in important industry events. Because European fashion is very popular in China, this is very good training that they have here with us. Through the course, students are able to experience European culture firsthand, which serves as a preview of what is expected of them if they do venture into the world of fashion."

With branches in Shanghai and Beijing, Raffles aims to help put China on the map fashion capitals of the world, according to Vincent Rondia, the institute's academic director. He agrees that the foreign tutors play a major role in bringing legitimacy to the Chinese fashion sphere.

"Most of us have extensive international experience doing what we do. So when we come here we bring this background and network, which we transfer to the Chinese students who are able to gain new cultural insights without even leaving China."

And Rondia's thoughts on this trend?

"Beijing and Shanghai will come out very strong on the international stage, without a doubt. Already we are seeing an increasing number of Chinese designers going abroad and becoming relatively well-known on an international scale. People are still excited about China I mean, after ten years you get blase with things—it just sort of becomes natural [that you are living in China] but every time you go back home and you hear everybody saying with excitement ‘oh you are in China', it's a reminder that there is still excitement out there, that there is still a lot of unknown. It's bound to happen.

"Now, the question is no longer is it going to happen? or not even when it's going to happen, it's how its going to happen. What would be the quality out put and what would be the influence on the international arena. And that's where we are aiming. When is that going to happen? I don't know, because in China things can go really slow or super fast depending on the situation."

Thoughts well put, just as the many fashion statements seen on the streets of China. There has been a scramble among major foreign brands to capture the vast Chinese market, evident in the number of foreign stores emerging throughout the country.

And it is for this reason Raffles institute aims to help upcoming Chinese designers to be part of the international fashion community and to build a network, both which are imperative to becoming a major name in China and on an international level, according to the school's special events and relations manager Jason Chen, who jokes about how fashion has evolved in China over the years.

"Fifteen years ago, people wore only a few colors and patterns but now, people wear tens of thousands of patterns and colors."

According to Chen, who says the school now has over 500 students enrolled in different design programs, Raffles is interested in cultivating students in all areas of design—not just fashion.

Students here have been given a chance to showcase their designs in major fashion events across China, including the Miss World China pageant.

And in the backdrop, a young generation of Chinese designers, like Jasmine are hoping to make an impact on the country's fashion industry.

For CRI, I am Nillah Nyakoa.