THE world's biggest permanent fashion showcase, in Amsterdam, plans to create an Asian floor for the growing list of Hongkong and regional firms now selling own-label garments.
Mr Fetze Pylman, managing director of the Amsterdam World Fashion Centre, hopes to sign up five Hongkong firms this year.
Mr Pylman said more and more Chinese and Hongkong companies were developing own-brand labels as they lost Western customers to Vietnam, Indonesia and India where manufacturing was cheaper.
He said: ''Chinese companies are fighting back by making own labels, changing from assembling to marketing.
''Now they want to be closer to the market, so many manufacturers in Hongkong and China have to be in Europe to listen to what's going on there and transfer that demand back to the plants at home.'' He listed Amsterdam's attractions as low rents, utilities and communications, a multi-lingual environment and a flexible attitude towards trade.
Although the floor would cater for the entire region, Mr Pylman said the focus would be on Hongkong.
''Hongkong has the best Asian quality of fashion. It is always ready to market itself. The trend towards own labels will continue here, because of the lessons learned from assembling clothes for labelled brands in the rest of the world,'' he said.
