He added that the establishment of the Blank brand this year was timely as the standards of homegrown labels having been growing, with some even on par with their counterparts from major cities known for their fashion culture.

Besides hosting the fashion festival twice every year, Blank would also help its participating brands set up offline stores, said Ji.

According to Chao Pai Hui, a website that focuses on brands for the youth, the sales of many local fashion brands during the shopping extravaganza on Singles Day on Nov 11 last year doubled that of 2016.

The website also quoted e-commerce behemoth Alibaba as saying that the overall online trading volume of trendy local fashion brands had hit 300 million yuan ($43.4 million) last year. This figure is expected to grow to 400 million yuan this year.