Chinese fashion designers need to connect to international customers

On the one hand, the government needs to tighten the enforcement of intellectual property rights laws. Besides stemming the flow of copycats, this will help innovators reap the financial fruits of their hard work. On the other hand, families, schools and workplaces need to cultivate thinking outside the box, which is critical to the creative process.

In order to produce pioneering ideas, it's important that Chinese culture evolves so that people are encouraged to be different, said Eric Lee, Shanghai managing director of JWT, one of the world's leading advertising agencies. "Otherwise," he said, "there would be no way for us to contend with outside competitors."

Meanwhile, Chinese designers need to more intimately understand their consumers. Domestic design schools can help by further widening and deepening the training they provide.

Design schools need to inspire students to look into the wider world, where consumers of all ages, colors, backgrounds, personalities and interests live, said Jane Rapley, former head of London's Central Saint Martins School of Arts and Design, one of the world's top design schools.

"If they read newspapers, if they listen to contemporary music, whether that be pop music or contemporary classics, if they go to films, if they read books, if they listen to social debates, 'What is the population concerned about, interested in', that's the way they build up a tacit knowledge about what's happening around them.

"It will help them design things - clothes, accessories, furniture, cars - that their target community wants to buy," she told me in Beijing last year.

At this point, industry insiders say, Chinese designers already have the professional knowledge and technical skills their jobs require. What's lacking, they say, is the ability to create products that connect with people's hearts, their dreams and desires, and to effectively communicate the distinctiveness of their products to consumers.

This is due to the fact that right now, design and branding are not a fundamental part of the Chinese management process, said Christine Losecaat, managing director of British consultancy Little Dipper.

As the Chinese design industry matures, and as more Chinese brands compete in the foreign market, China should find the path to truly become a design and innovation center. The emergence of designers such as Huishan Zhang is providing important pointers.

Contact the writer at tiffanygtan@gmail.com