Although she thinks only a small number of Chinese people on the street know how to dress properly, Yuan Jieying, a 68-year-old retired professor from Tsinghua University, believes China has made major strides in the past 25 years on its way to becoming a fashionable country.

The scholar was one of the founders of the Department of Fashion Design in the Academy of Arts and Design at Tsinghua University, which was established in 1980, as a department of the former Central Academy of Industrial Arts.

"Our most glorious time, in terms of fashion, was the ancient times and the years in early 20th century," she said. "In contemporary times everything came to a stop. So the gap between us and the West widened."

Yuan thinks, in terms of fashion design, China is more than 10 years, or even 20 years behind the West. With a lot of efforts in the past 25 years after China's reform and opening up policy, China's getting close to the world fashion scene, but is still not completely inside it.

"We had our characteristic clothing handed down from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), such as Qipao," said Yuan. "Later there were Sun Yatsen's uniform, and Western suits."

In Chinese films in the 1920s and 1930s, people see actresses in Qipao and long coats with fur collars. In the 1940s, there were full dresses introduced from the West.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, actors in films wore Lenin coats, and women were clad in gray uniforms.

In the 1960s and 1970s, army coats and uniforms in revolutionary "model plays" were most popular. In the 1980s, various styles began making a comeback.

With the introduction of Pierre Cardin in the 1980s came fashion teams, fashion clothing companies and fashion shows. The term "shi zhuang (fashionable clothing)" then came into being.

At first, fashion designs imitated Western styles. Designers then began to put Chinese elements, such as those of ethnic minorities and Chinese traditional patterns, into their designs.

"In the past 20 years, teachers of fashion design went abroad for studies, and overseas fashion industries came into China to set up companies and for investment," said Yuan. "That contributed a great deal to the development of China's fashion industry."

Comments from overseas say that China's own clothing brands are not mature enough, and there is not yet a master-level Chinese fashion designer.

"But we have been working on it step by step," Yuan said.

Chinese designers' works are taken abroad to participate in competitions. The China Fashion Color Association was established in 1982 and publishes fashion colors on magazines and distributes them to Chinese fashion designers.

Yuan said that in the West, once the fashion colors of the year are released, the market and clothing in the stores will immediately follow suit.

But presently in China, only some fashionable people can follow such trends, and change their seasonal wardrobes to match the fashionable colors.

"Ordinary Chinese people still don't quite understand this and may not easily accept it," said Yuan. "People in the eastern part of China have gradually come to understand it, but not in the middle and western parts of the nation."

The retired professor said she sees only a small group of people in the streets of Beijing who both co-ordinate their clothing well, and make themselves look comfortable.

She watches CCTV and Beijing TV, and said she has found anchors dressed improperly. She walks in the streets of Beijing, and sees men wearing suits with sports shoes, and women dressed in a mess of mismatched colors.

Some Beijing high-end clothing stores look good. But most department stores have the same kind of clothing: a whole batch of dark colors for men, and all loud colors for children.

"There should be something fashionable for people with high, middle and lower incomes," she said. "And the clothing in different shopping malls should have their own characteristics."

However, Yuan believes the fashionable sect on the streets of Beijing will eventually gain more recognition and others will follow their trends.

The professor realizes being fashionable or not is not just an economic problem.

"Money is not enough," she said. "It is about people's temperament, educational level and cultivation. Let's take it easy and go step by step," she suggested.

Yuan believes Chinese designers' aim should be to design Chinese national clothing, but with a modern sense.

"I hope that one day, Chinese characteristic fashion designs will influence the world."

(China Daily April 1, 2005)