More commonly awash with dowdy dark-suited bankers, the Swiss city of Zurich is bidding this week to join Paris and Milan as a capital of style as it hosts its first ever Fashion Days.
“There is now a young generation of Swiss creators who deserve international attention,” said the Zurich-based blogger Play Hunter – a pseudonym – whose site Playlust.net tracks new fashion trends.
Some 40 designers from Switzerland and elsewhere are putting their creativity on show on the catwalks of the northeastern economic capital.
Adding a touch of glamour, A-lister Penélope Cruz’s sister Monica unveiled the line the sisters have designed for the event’s sponsor, high street Swiss clothes chain Charles Voegele on the opening night on Wednesday.
“It’s the first time such an event has taken place in Switzerland,” said Anne Gorgerat Kall, spokesman for the four-day event.
“We want to recreate what happens every year during the fashion weeks in London, Paris and New York, with the difference that in Zurich the event will be open to the public,” she said. Switzerland has been slow to embrace the creative zest and glitz of the fashion world, even though its specialist textile makers have carved a discrete niche as creators and suppliers of high quality fabrics for upmarket foreign fashion houses.
The decade-old Swiss Textiles Award, whose 2010 laureate is being unveiled during the Fashion Days, rewards young international fashion talent every year.
The Alpine country also has a pedigree in the clean-cut creative world of graphic design and produces world class architectural talent. But Zurich couturier Heiner Wiedemann, who specialises in evening dresses, says the fashion industry is still dismissed as “superficial” in Switzerland.
“It’s rather difficult to gain acceptance in Switzerland, there’s no fashion industry like in France for example and finance remains hard to come by,” he explained.
Organisers are hoping that about 1,000 guests each evening and 150 journalists will help home-bred creative talent find international recognition.
About 200 designers are active in Switzerland, mostly in Zurich, and Mr Wiedemann hopes the event will help them break out of isolation.
The event ends tomorrow.