October 25th ushered in two notable seasonal events to Beijing: A cold front which announced the arrival of winter and the beginning of the nation's premier fashion week. Beijing Fashion Week, sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, a brand which only supports the major fashion weeks across the globe, saw the capital's 798 art district and Wangfujing Beijing Hotel invaded by a week-long fashion fantasia exhibition. This glorious exhibition featured hordes of designers, from oldie-but-goodie NE Tiger, to budding star Hu Sheguang and young hipster Simon Gao. The front rows at these shows were packed with China's beautiful, dirty and rich, including yours truly, though I'm honestly not sure which category I'd fall into, all of whom braved the cold wind to come and catch a glitzy glimpse and bask in the warm glow of the Spring/Summer 2013 collections being paraded and down the catwalks.

Full of Eastern promise

Fashion centipede Nels Frye (Nels, if you're reading this, call me!) rightfully pointed out on his uebercool, up-to-date and completely essential China-oriented blog Stylites.net that Beijing's Fashion Week is usually not exactly graced by the presence of fashion's shakers and makers. "The tendency had been for figures like Xander Zhou and Zhang Chi to do their own events off-location either during the Week or at other times of the year. Most designers are from larger and inevitably far dowdier brands, design schools, or just people who seem to have really good connections with government," Frye blogged. And ladies and gentlemen, this man knows-and is allowed to strut- his stuff. While training my eyes on the front row trying to spot Angelica Cheung, I, more often than not, noticed the presence of seemingly bored government officials. Angelica was nowhere to be seen.

Truth be told though, and I completely agree with the China fashion observers who have said this, Mercedes-Benz' endorsement of the Week has enhanced both its audience numbers and importance, as the brand's support almost serves as a seal of approval or green light for fashionistas to show their faces-some of which are better made-up than others, truth be told. Just like any controversial trend or clashing outfit, the Week has its supporters as well as its detractors, yet I believe all should at least acknowledge its potential to eventually rival the Big Classics. The fashion scene here is merely burgeoning, not yet boiling, but with rising numbers of young Chinese designers translating their impressions from the four corners of the world into original, positively eccentric creations, the Week definitely carries the potential to become spicier than a Sichuan hotpot. Currently, Beijing's annual fashion fizzler remains something of an acquired taste, but it promises to become Cantonese dim sum, an internationally treasured dish, sumptuously served up in global fashion magazines. I guess it just needs a solid five-year-plan.

Elections versus collections

With a new CPC leader about to take over the reigns from President Hu, Beijing as a political capital has even more of its usual mysterious vibrancy this week. The presence of more hip and youthful design on Fashion Week's runways also added a new flavor to the otherwise still rather monotonous, or non-intercontinental breakfast buffet, originally showing during the Week. And just like El Bulli's molecular gastronomy did at one moment in time, those new dishes out there have mode-lovers begging for more. New arrivals to watch, such as Simon Gao and the slightly more grown-up Hu Sheguang, managed to up the Week's overall game. Gao's collections are characterized by his flair for not entirely over-the-top avant-garde, skilled draping, and incorporating different textures, from cotton to feathers into one outfit or garment. Hu, a designer about whom readers will soon learn much more in this column, this time put on a show in collaboration with internationally respected milliner Elisabeth Koch.

Marie-Antoinette on crystal meth is the only way I can describe Hu's show, featuring beautifully draped dresses and skirts that follow the body's every move, accompanied by stunningly tailored military-style leather jackets of different lengths, which form the focal point- for me at least- but I do really love my jackets. The collaboration of this Dutch Rietveld Academy for the Fine Arts and Design graduate with Koch gave the whole show a classic yet cunningly couture Tracey-McQueen zest. He took his Fashion Week dish to the next level of joie de vivre by adding that London fashion forward spice to it. And as the Dutch saying goes: "A change in spices enhances the appetite," words which are as true for the nation as for its fashion. And that's precisely my point about Beijing's Fashion Week: Its attendants want to be wooed by a feeling of exclusivity oozing from the catwalks. Well, as they say, practice makes perfect.

Fashionistas United, I usually steer clear from politics, but:

My humble self would take Michelle's progressive wardrobe over Ann's conservative one any time.

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