Garments made in Deutschland

Although Blacky Dress Berlin has more than 1,800 sales points in Germany, including boutiques and multi-brand stores, 80 percent of its business is overseas.

"We are a high fashion brand mostly for women, but German women are not very fashionable," Dejori says.

"They may be sporty, always wearing sweaters and jeans, but not so stylish. So our market is obviously outside our home market."

Markus Dejori, general manager of Blacky Dress Berlin, shows one of his garment designs. [Photo/China Daily]

Anne-Christin Kirsten Schmitt, a designer and founder of Miana Accessories, says Chinese women are very open to fashion and always curious about international taste.

"This openness is something interesting for us because, of course, in a market like Germany we have already a certain taste. There is not much that you can change. But in China, women are very open to try different styles."

Even if Kirsten Schmitt's optimism about the adventurous spirit of Chinese women when it comes to clothing is well placed, German brands still face many hurdles in winning over Chinese customers. One is that many Chinese in the high-end market go for brands that provide social status rather than value for money.

Carillon sees another hurdle: "When Chinese buyers see things they are interested in at a fair, they go directly to the warehouse and buy directly from the stock, but in Europe, people don't want to take the risk of producing it and not be able to sell it afterwards.

"Many German garment manufacturers only produce for things they have already sold."

Germany, as a latecomer to the Chinese market, is working on such problems, Carillon says. The government plans to organize business trips for Chinese distributors to Berlin to take part in fashion events and fairs. This will give them a better understanding of how to work with German companies, the kind of thing Italian and French trade institutions have done for a long time.

Carillon also believes that German reliability is a selling point her country's clothing industry can use.

"German people are very open-minded and trustworthy, which is important for Chinese partners, because once they have invested money, they don't expect too many changes, and German people are stable and they stick to the rules."

lvchang@chinadaily.com.cn