BFW organisers took full advantage of this coup d'etat by co-ordinating three major programmes. The China Fashion Association chose the ritzy Beijing Hotel near Tiananmen Square for its biannual China International Fashion Week, under the theme 'My Vision of China'. It featured two fashion forums, three design contests, almost 60 designers from 19 countries, as well as 23 catwalk shows for mainland brands such as Bosideng, Edenbo, Weipeng and Whacko.

The second programme, Style Hong Kong - jointly sponsored by the China Council for Promotion of International Trade and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council - was held at the China World Exhibition Hall in Beijing's fashionable Guo Mao neighbourhood. It showcased 150 Hong Kong exhibits and myriad fashion shows, including Jackie Chan's JC Line and Hidy Ng's young collection.

The event that held the highest hopes for mainland brands, but delivered a three-ring circus, was the International Clothing and Accessories Fair (Chic) organised by the China Fashion Designers Association. Chic presented exhibits and fashion shows from established mainland brands such as EMU, Shan Shan, Cai Zi, and Xing Fu, but the dismal warehouse surroundings of Beijing's International Exhibition Centre and the often low-quality merchandise made for a disjointed and over-saturated event.

Guangzhou-based designer Daniel Huang's show for EMU Paris was a case in point. Huang, whose line is popular on the mainland with the profitable 18- to 30-year-old demographic, cast a wide net, trying to capture his young female customer's every flight of fancy. This translated into clothes that were over-accessorised and a show that was incoherent, drawing from the disco era, vintage Chanel and even the 50s-inspired ladylike elegance resurrected by Miuccia Prada last year in her Milan collection.

Shows like Huang's brought to mind the issue of authenticity in fashion. When are clothes derivative and when are they simply reinterpretations with an original twist? At the China Fashion Week student shows, derivations were obvious. Baizi Zeng won first prize in the Isunte Fashion Competition, and although the clothes showed interesting combinations of disparate materials - gauze and fur, for example - some of the accessories and decoration were borrowed from past designs, such as the gladiator helmet hat made famous by Christian Dior designer John Galliano a few seasons ago.

But influence often runs both ways. Recently, Galliano emerged from a long trek through China with not only ancient Chinese prints and modern accessories, but a slew of Shaolin monks, martial artists and acrobats, who performed at his spring 2003 haute couture show in Paris.

And for his swan song for Yves Saint Laurent last month, Tom Ford reworked the YSL signature pagoda shoulder on silk Mao jackets, invoking Saint Laurent's famed 1977 Chinese collection that coincided with the launch of Opium perfume.

But BFW proved that China is much more than just a wellspring of inspiration for foreign designers. In an increasingly fashion-obsessed country, where runway shows pop up everywhere from shopping malls in Beijing to caves in rural Zhejiang province, luxury-brand bosses are taking notice of the Chinese market's potential.

Yang Xiaodong, general manager of Dunhill China, explained his firm's rationale for showing at BFW: 'Events like these expose our products. The Chinese market is increasingly buying luxury items like Dunhill.'

In 2003, Christian Dior enjoyed more than 100 per cent sales growth in China. And in a show of faith for the emerging market, Giorgio Armani is expanding its empire - which already includes a store in Beijing - with a large Shanghai location opening this week.

But many style watchers are guarded in their optimism about Beijing's potential advent as a design centre. 'Chinese design is not mature enough yet,' says Angelica Cheung, editorial director of Elle China. 'We have all the models, designers and resources here, but it doesn't come together the way it should.'

The independent Cabbeen show by Daniel Yang of Guangzhou was an exception. Cabbeen is a popular, mid-priced menswear collection founded in 1989 and sold throughout the mainland to a stylish, young clientele. Yang received wild applause when actor Jackie Lui came out in a shirt cut to the navel and a jacket festooned with glittery applique - not your standard men's attire. 'Beijing is still really the centre and a good place for exposure of Chinese brands,' Yang says.

According to Charley Kan, head of a major advertising consultancy: 'Chinese designers are starting to pay more attention to cut, material and detail, which are the most important aspects of clothes.' Certainly, mainland designers such as Li Hu and Chenchen Wang played with materials at BFW to give clothes a new silhouette - sometimes to dubious effect.

China's fast-maturing buying public will be the ultimate judge. While fashion's glitterati were in town, they joined the well-heeled, over-indulged progeny of Beijing's 'golden collar' professionals at the bars and discos. Asked the standard question 'What are you wearing?', their answers weren't Dior, Gucci or Prada, but small local labels such as VISS, Farina-Z and Fang Ying - all doing their part to put China on the fashion map.