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The annual Shanghai International Fashion Culture Festival is a launching pad for many Chinese designers. Over its six years, it has witnessed the budding and flourishing of the city's fashion design scene. Some designers, such as Xie Feng, Wang Wei, Qiu Hao and Ji Cheng, are recognized not only in China but also around the world. At the same time, the competition among these designers is becoming sharper, and even furious. There are more and more emerging designers while the number of people who are willing to pay for their fresh ideas remains the same - or rather, their target customers are the same. Also, the prices of these designers' works sometimes can be as high as those of top design houses. It is no surprise for a cocktail dress to be priced over 5,000 yuan (US$715). People can't help wondering: Who are buying these clothes? How do these designers survive? "First of all, you have to make sure that the quality of your clothes is not second to that of designer houses'," says Chen Xunlei, who presented his namesake collection of leather apparel at the festival. "Some designers make clothes that only glitter under the spotlight. They are usually made of poor materials with lousy techniques - of course, nobody would want to spend a large amount of money on them." The 30-year-old says his collection is designed for elegant, confident women aged above 26. The inspiration came from a recent trip to Barcelona, where he was fascinated by the architecture, plants, seaside and the sky. He uses leather treated with different processes to create jackets, coats, pants and skirts featuring a tough feel but a soft touch. "Though I have used a lot of leather and fur, my works are by no means pretentious or showy," he says.