Ooh la, la. Those naughty Chinese communists and their wild fashions. Leggy models posed and pouted around the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday as the party prepared to take on Paris fashion houses on their home ground.
President Jiang Zemin is making a state visit to France in the autumn, as well as visiting Britain and Portugal, and mainlanders are preparing the ground with 99 Paris, seven days of Chinese culture, supported by Unesco.
Among the events being staged in France is a dazzling display of fashion and design showing off the best of Chinese materials and style. Wednesday saw a televised rehearsal in Beijing in the cavernous building which may yet be renamed the People's Cat Walk.
In a theatre where aged veterans annually applaud the latest ideological breakthroughs in Marxism, long-haired arty types mingled with ambassadors, willowy models and other glitterati.
Chinese designers are hoping that the Mao suit could yet make a fashion comeback among all those Left Bank intellectuals.
Butch male models sauntered around in well-cut and tightly buttoned suits in black and blue.