Korean Fashion Show
                                                  in Shanghai
- 125 firms showcase clothing for men, women and children

Review in Shanghai 2005, the 3rd Republic of Korea grand textile fashion show, took place in Shanghai March 23-25 organized by the Korea Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI). Attending the international event from the Korean side included Cho Hwan-ik, vice MOCIE minister, Kyung Se-ho, chairman of KOFOTI, and Park Sang-ki, Korean consul-general in Shanghai, along with a score of Chinese dignitaries.
Around 125 textile and apparel companies from Korea participated in the three-day event in Shanghai Mart in Shanghai sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy(MOCIE), Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency, Shanghai TV and Shanghai Economic Commission.
Yoon Soo-young, chief of MOCIE's Textile Fashion Section said the event showed its possibility to be a professional textile and apparel show in Asia, attracting 24,525 Chinese buyers with sales negotiations conducted at the show amounting to $810 million. He said the event this year focused on making stages for Korean apparel makers to make arrangements to sell their products at Chinese department stores and receive orders from Chinese buyers. The first and second shows were dedicated to publicizing the Korean image and the Korea textile industry to the Chinese.
The display was able to attract Chinese buyers with strong purchasing power this year compared to the previous events with increases in sales negotiations at the event showing that the international event has become a professional meeting place for buyers and sellers providing one-stop sourcing of the latest top-quality collections of textile products and the most up-to-date fashion trends, combined with international standard Korea textile technology. Textile products on display ranged from casual clothing for men and women to children's clothes?diversified Korean apparels, material and information on latest fashion trends, a glance at the Korean textile fashion industry. Andre Kim, a famous fashion designer in Seoul, presented a high fashion show, at the opening of the textile event with a theme of "Unforgettable Memories of Shanghai", along with shows to show off casual clothing for both men and women and three separate seminars.
The exhibition was considered to have showed the results of the work by textile product development guidance provided to textile material developers to participate in the event from the initial event of the annual display. With the event's major theme being "strengthening the function of professional display event," the participating firms were professional ones in each of their own field.
Both buyers and participating firms thought the textile display was very useful in bringing them together to hold sales negotiations at the event. During the event, Korean apparel firms and Chinese department store officials met on two different occasions to exchange opinions on conditions for selling Korean apparels on Chinese department stores and local market trends. A Chinese department store official from Beijing said his department store is considering setting up a Korean corner with Korean products popular in China riding on the wave of the Korean wave touched off by the Korean movies. He said he held discussions with representatives of Korean firms on selling their products in his department store in Beijing.
Scores of other Chinese department stores sent their officials to the Korean event in China including those from Nanjing, Shenyang, and Qingdao, in addition to those from Shanghai, who agreed that Korean apparels are of good quality in terms of design and color especially women's casuals and children's clothes, but their prices ought to be lowered because of their lower brand name values, compared to those from Europe to be able to be handled at Chinese department stores.
KOFOTI said its survey of apparel firms that participated in the Shanghai event showed that most of them were highly satisfied with the result of the display event. They liked the fact that both apparels and material were held on the same floor this year, although they were displayed on different floors last year. The display of apparels took place on the ground floor last year, while that for materials took place on the fourth floor of Shanghai Mart and many buyers did not visit the fourth floor. In particular, material production firms were encouraged by the fact that the Chinese buyers thought highly of their products although their prices were higher this year pegged at $3 up from $1 to $2 last year. Some material makers became popular although the prices of their products ranged from $10 to $20. nw