A luxury invasion

Shanghai used to be called the Paris of the Orient, headquarters of fashion and decadence for an entire Asian continent, writes Patti Waldmeir. These days, however, with a hunger for extravagance born of decades of deprivation, Shanghai no longer wants to be just the Paris of Asia – it wants to be Paris itself. And Paris certainly wants to be in Shanghai.

Witness the Expo mega-stands from Chanel, Prada, and Versace, among many other global fashion brands. In the Italian pavilion alone, a giant mannequin clad in orange-pleated Versace silk stands beside Amazonian designs from Ermenegildo Zegna and Dolce & Gabbana, Prada has contributed a three-metre high dummy in a purple body-stocking and glass-beaded dress, to grace the pavilion's multi-story central atrium. Beneath it stand the Italian pavilion staff, also dressed by Prada. In a country where staff uniforms are mostly ubiquitous reminders of a time when fashion was frowned upon, the Prada-clad Italian staff stand out.