Wk 10 Asia

Ziyu Wang

From this week's reading Asian On My Mind, it seems like that Western markets are highly profitable in Asia, yet the vice versa is not quite true. In fact, international fashion are not very quick to embrace Asia's export fashion. In places like China, where an emerging middle class and a increasingly capitalism friendly government has led to a mass increase in export consumerism, the western fashion conglomerates are having a field day. They are making profits like crazy off of Asia. As we have all learned in economics, increasing demand leads to increasing supply. Which means that western fashion will continue to dominate Asian markets. However, this leaves Asian designers no room to breathe since they are getting squeezed out of their only platform. There is a common trend of Asian fashion by Western designers, yet the same type of fashion made by Asian designers are frequently over looked. Coupled with the aforementioned western domination in Asian fashion market, the Asian fashion markets stay underdeveloped and Asian designers undervalued. If people were just willing to give these designers a try, they can really gain insight on a lot of new stuff that these upcoming talents can offer. Asians and Asian Americans have historically been very fashionable by combining fashion of the East and the West, so we should all give them a chance. What necessary steps could we take to shed light upon these Asian designers and Asian fashion?