New York, February 5:

The image of Chinese fashion, still in the west associated with cheongsam dresses and Mao jackets, has been brought up to date by a catwalk sh-ow in New York. The show by Cab-been, a hugely successful menswe-ar label in China, which now plans to go global, marked the first time a designer from mainland China had taken part in New York fashion week.

The collection, by the 35-year-old designer Cabbeen, featured faded jeans, ‘vintage’ look T-shirts, customised blazers and designer trainers — all key elements of popular contemporary men’s casual wear in New York, Milan and London as well as in Cabbeen’s native Guangzhou. China is already a powerhouse of production in the fashion industry, the base for more than half the world’s textiles manufacturing. Increasingly it makes clothes for European and American labels, and has a fast-growing interest in fashion.

When Chinese Vogue launched, the first issue demanded a second print run within a fortnight, and all copies still sold out. The appetite of the growing Chinese middle class for luxury goods already has western labels such as Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton competing for Shanghai’s prime retail locations.