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Vice Blog

DESIGNED IN SHENZHEN

Lychee Park in Shenzhen

London Fashion Week isn't all high octane glamour. The Shenzhen exhibition and fashion shows at Vauxhall Fashion Scout were all part of an effort by the Chinese government to change our perception of their garment industry from made in China to designed in China, aka "earning one dollar an hour blows and one billion of us want to do something 'creative' now like lazy westerners." China's Ambassador to the UK's wife, Madam Hu Pinghua, gave a pretty funny speech where she gloated about the "Shenzhen Miracle" that brought the town from a fishing village to a "modern big city in just 30 years time." The Chinese Embassy basically bought out the exhibition space for a day to hold this socio-economic PR exercise, and then LFW threw in a couple of catwalk shows as a bonus (though seriously, we already gave them Hong Kong).

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The standout for me was this French Revolutionary Cancan dancer outfit by maker, er, designer, bLlUuEe

Then it was time for the show, which, thanks to excellent communist organization, was only delayed by about 15 minutes instead of the usual half an hour at the rest of the LFW shows. The first part of the show featured designer Haiping Xie who combines nods to traditional Chinese prints and architecture, with modern cuts. All the dresses were pretty epic and shiny, like nice modern pagodas that I would wear.

The second part of the show was preceded by an elegantly shoe-horned tourist video for the city of Shenzhen (just in case you were wondering, the average age of the residents of Shenzhen is 30 and it has an excellent cost of living ranking). The rest of the outfits were supposed to reflect the "folky" side of Shenzhen that, presumably, the mass construction and innovation that is the "Shenzhen Miracle" erased a few decades ago. It was pretty blah.

When leaving, all guests were given a goodie bag that didn't include chocolate or perfume but this Shenzhen Investment Guide.

NICOLE KAI