It is like an oven in the sprawling attic space at the top of the main building of Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts (Cafa). The west-facing building has a huge glass wall that, even with most of the windows open, acts like a giant magnifying glass, concentrating the June sunlight and making life uncomfortable for the 50 people huddled inside.
Under stark fluorescent bulbs, the finale of what could pass for China's version of reality-television show Project Runway is being fine-tuned. Models, their eyeliner and foundation melting in the heat as their samples hang ready on racks, kill time with playing cards. Downstairs, in the lobby, engineers are testing the sound system and spotlights for a graduation show unlike anything the Cafa has held before.
Tonight, the most established art academy in China will unveil the work of its first graduates in fashion design. Four years of study will culminate in the exhibition of their graduation project, titled Deconstructing the Qipao, which required students to reinterpret China's most iconic fashion item (the qipao is a type of cheongsam). The results are hardly recognisable. From a futuristic silver version that combines three garments into one to a dress that looks like it has been put through a shredder, the creations are predictably ostentatious and dramatic - typical of young designers flaunting their individuality.
The stakes are high for these students. Some will see their creations stocked around the world in the boutiques of Shanghai Tang, the financial backer of tonight's show. Call it a short cut to success, but in a country with a reputation for knocking off winning designs rather than creating them, tonight is all about fostering creativity and allowing original ideas into the market place.
Fashion, it seems, has become a gauge of China's rapid growth. While the country is undoubtedly a manufacturing powerhouse, with apparel and textile exports exceeding US$95 billion last year, design knowhow and marketing capability have remained firmly in the hands of foreign fashion houses. It's not difficult to find, say, a Paul Smith or Hugo Boss shirt, or even a Ralph Lauren jumper, that's made in China but a walk around an upmarket shopping mall in Beijing or Shanghai reveals the increasing domination of luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Prada and Christian Dior. The nation's burgeoning middle class are no longer content sporting counterfeit goods; they are paying top dollar for the real McCoy.
Fashion weeks in Beijing and Shanghai aspire to parity with those in Paris and Milan, and help quench China's new-found thirst for style, as the country gets used to being a major player in the global fashion industry. Last month, Beijing played host to the Asian Fashion Federation, an event that drew more than 300 up-and-coming designers from around Asia to exchange ideas about fashion, culture and society.
But while China is seen as the promised land by foreign fashion brands, it still has a long way to go
