The Thirteenth International Fashion Technology Annual Conference Held

Representatives from 40 fashion schools in 20 countries gathered in Paris to attend the annual conference of the thirteenth foundation of the International Institute of clothing technology this week.

"Fashion and luxury: between tradition and innovation" is the theme of the world fashion school conference.

The chairman of the foundation, SatoshiOnuma, President of Bunka Fashion Institute, said in his reference to his motherland, "we did not wear kimono long ago."

Yamamoto Teruji and KENZO are alumni of the school.

He said, "the fashion industry and Western culture are changing very fast, the world is becoming faster and the civilization of mankind is melting together. This is the direction and trend that we can not change."

But Onuma stressed that "globalization does not mean that the world is unified, and every country has its own tradition".

"These are the fundamentals of creativity. This is what we want to teach our students, though we can not teach creativity. Originality comes from originality. No one asks us to wear the same clothes."

DominiqueJacomet, Dean of the French fashion academy, agrees.

He said, "under globalization, we can all wear jeans, but there are real needs for being different.

The reason why French brands are better off in the world stage is that they are closely related to cultural traditions.

"Thirty years ago, luxury and fashion were two independent concepts, and now everything is coming together because of consumer demand and business strategy."

GuillaumedeSeynes, vice president of Hermes international, said that the balance between innovation and tradition has been sought to make the French luxury brand Hermes, founded in 1837, expand overseas and become famous in Asia.

26% of its revenues come from Asia, which does not include Japan.

He said that in order to meet the special needs of Chinese consumers, Hermes launched its own top and bottom brands, designed furniture with traditional Chinese characteristics, cashmere and ceramic series to cater for Contemporary Chinese tastes.

In response to a student's question, GuillaumedeSeynes said that Hermes had always recruited talented people from fashion schools, but the candidates had to undergo a rigorous screening process for a period of 6 months before receiving one to two years of training.