Shanghai Fashion Week, attracting Chinese and international designers, buyers and celebrities, gets underway next week.

It opens next Thursday and closes on November 6 at several venues. The China Fashion Awards for 2005 will be given out.

Shanghai Fashion Week, as in the past, will continue to introduce international designers and promising local talent to the China market and to global buyers. Seven international brands, including Paco Rabanne and Lagerfeld Gallery from France, Elena Miro from Italy and Doina Levintze from Romania, will present their latest designs in Fuxing Park.

"Designers' Hallway," an exhibition designed to promote young local designers, will be held at the Shanghai International Exhibition Center from October 29 to 31. Famous Chinese designers, such as Lu Kun, Chen Wen and Liu Huili, will attend.

For the first time, the annual fashion week will hold a forum on management of luxury brands. Guest speakers will include Patrice de Place, senior official of Mod'Art Int' Paris, and Rita Palumbo, public relations director of Milan Fashion Week.

The final competition of the Oriental Model Contest will be held on November 6 to wrap up the fashion week.

Also, the China Fashion Awards will announce this year's winners on November 5. Organized by local TV channel Channel Young, the gala event has invited famous international Chinese-American designer Vera Wang, who will stage a solo show; Italian photographer Paolo Roversi and Dennis Chan, chief designer of "Qeelin," the renowned jewelry brand.

(Shanghai Daily October 21, 2005)