Even as women on the streets of Shanghai are still decked in wool jackets and leather boots, a fresh summer breeze blows across the bustling Shanghai World Trade Exhibition Hall.

Premiere Vision, a high-end fabric show originated in world fashion capital Paris, showcases hundreds of fabrics in Shanghai that are set to dress up the metropolis' fashion-goers in the coming season.

"Fabrics to us designers are like ingredients to chefs, without which ideas, skills, or passion are nothing," says Yao Manli, one of the fashion designers who attended the exhibition. Among the crowd are also the city's fashionistas.

The show displays exquisite ivory white embroidery laces, smooth light-colored silks, and romantic deluxe organza, among others.

For decades, many fashion designers in the country like Yao have been perplexed with the limited spaces, patterns, colors and textures of fabrics offered by their suppliers to realized their imagination.

They are exhilarated with the variety of choices offered by the French fabrics show, joined by 51 exhibitors from 10 countries.

The entrance to the exhibition is like an ultra-colorful milky way, made up of 22 pairs of cotton canvas tennis shoes, resembling bright stars against a dark night.

In exclusive colors that, according to the curator of the show, "belong to the season of next spring and summer" like chromy yellow and rosy red, the installation of shoes also declares the theme of the show: dynamic multicolor.

The highlight of the show is a golden, strapless gown made from satin and silk that "has nothing to do with trend" says the curator, but instead, stands the test of time.

"I fell in love with the fabrics at first sight. I was too ecstatic that I had to make something out of it," says Tian Ling, creative director of Elegant Prosper, a womenswear company in Zhejiang province, and the designer of the dress.

Tian "was introduced" to the fabrics at the show last year by Bucols, a French luxury silk manufacturer, who supplies silks to fashion houses such as Hermes.

"A piece of beautiful cloth not only realize your creation, but also inspire designers to create," adds Tian.

(China Daily 04/14/2013 page13)