Christmas might be two months away but Beijing has already gotten into the festive mood.

Jewelry-maker Swarovski and French department store Galeries Lafayette are collaborating on a crystal-themed celebration that seeks to highlight international and local designers.

Initiated in 2006, Sparkling Christmas earlier traveled from Paris to Jakarta and it will make its China debut at the Galeries Lafayette Beijing from Nov 14 to Dec 26.

There will be window displays, store decorations and some 150 design pieces, all with Swarovski crystals embedded in them. About 100 of the items are limited editions only available at the store. Another 45 are rare works and inspirational exhibition pieces, the companies say.

The pieces include womens-wear, menswear, shoes and accessories. They are designed by 47 brands, 24 of which are Chinese.

"This cooperation is our Christmas gift to Beijing, also to the Chinese consumers," says Hermann Winkler, senior vice-president of sales operations, Swarovski Professional Asia North. "At the same time, we give a platform to international designers, even more so to the Chinese designers. We never had such a powerful design from China before."

For the inspirational piece, Masha Ma has combined her trademark white with Swarovski crystals and exquisite embroidery for a modern feminine look. She also has two commercial pieces that turned the crystals into playful Christmas elements, such as Elk antlers with the letter M signifying her brand.

Christine Lau has taken inspiration from cows, which are popular in Swarovski's original home, Austria, and transformed her signature print on a brocade skirt.

Zhang Chi embellished his signature face mask design with crystals to raise awareness of air pollution in China.

International participants include accessories from Agatha, women's shoes from Alejandro Ingelmo, handbags from Elena Ghisellini and footwear from Joshua Sanders.

Founded in 1895, Swarovski has been working with labels such as Dior and Chanel, as well as architects, musicians, artists and design schools.

The brand started working with the Chinese design community nearly a decade ago, when the local design industry had started to pick up.

"In the last decade, there has been a critical mass of Chinese designers. Now, they are speaking up, so you see much more creativity and sophistication. You see a lot of well-educated designers coming back to China from abroad, bringing a lot of fresh influence," Winkler says.

At the same time, Chinese design is trying to get away from the typical use of Chinese symbols, moving instead toward a much wider interpretation of Chinese history in a modern way, he adds.

"It's no longer 'made in China', but more 'designed in China' and designed for Chinese consumers. We see that Chinese consumers are less shy and more self-confident. So it's less about just having logos from international companies, but they are really much more curious to explore their own personality," he adds.

sunyuanqing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 10/28/2014 page8)