Gallery: The highs, lows and disasters at Shanghai Fashion Week

With the Shanghai World Expo on the horizon, the focus of this month’s fashion week was China’s emerging designers.

“We tried to promote China’s new lesser-known designers this time around,” says Amanda Cen from the Shanghai Fashion Week Organization. Unfortunately the fledgling, unknown designers failed, for the most part, to catch the eye of fashion crowd in attendance.

The highs

The week got off to a good start with French fashion house Leonard. The light, floaty mini and maxi dresses in ethnic and floral prints were a hit in a palette of earthy browns, cobalt blue and splashes of neon.

Other highlights included the elegant wedding-cum-evening gowns from Shanghai’s fashion stalwart Jenny Ji (the sea of butterflies released from the opening model’s hat also sparked “ooohs” and “ahhhs” from the crowd).

A trio of Thai designers, Headquarter, showcased a mix of elegant feminine dresses in simple cuts in crepe silk, jersey and taffeta, and young Shanghai-based design group Bunka/Toka also put in a commendable effort with their dip-dyed neo punk looks in earthy tones (although we can’t see the "men in leggings" trend ever taking off in Shanghai).

Big names

Three-year old local design house Backstage, formerly known as Impression 8th, upped the ante for their gothic-esque all-black Autumn/Winter 2009 show and invited Shanghainese celebrity Zheng Xi Yi to attend. She quietly slipped in and out unnoticed except for her flaming red hair. We wonder whether she’ll be stepping out in one of Backstage’s Halloween-esque evening gowns in the future.

Shanghai editor of iLook magazine, Charles Chen was there to scout out the new design talent. He cited womenswear designer Simon Wang as his favorite of the week (who took part in a group show alongside Qipao by Jane, Coming and Rachelle).

“It was really cool and very ready to wear,” he said.

He also praised local designer Rachelle’s women’s collection. “It was well put together and had a pureness and simplicity for spring, similar to that of Bottega Veneta.”

The week ended on a disastrous note with a show from local Chinese label Casilino who sent out far too many looks down the runway, from the cute 'n girly to the downright gaudy –- the lacy zip-up leg warmers seemed every fashionista’s nightmare.

If there’s one lesson that could be learned from the week, it’s the notion that less is definitely more.