SHANGHAI » In China ambition knows no bounds, and with the support of the Commerce Ministry and municipal government, Shanghai Fashion Week aims at no less than joining the ranks of the major fashion week destinations of New York, London, Paris and Milan.

Billing itself as “the last stop of the high-end international fashion weeks,” the shows, featuring more than 40 local and international brands, and student shows, ended Tuesday, and revealed that the city has a long way to go to catch up with its Western counterparts in terms of excitement, brand recognition, media and buyer presence. But just as Japan stunned the fashion world in the 1980s with the innovative work of Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto, the day we see a China-based designer hit the American mainstream may be closer than most people believe.

Due to China’s history as the workshop of the world, churning out designs dictated by hundreds of Western brands and producing knockoffs and forgeries, the country has the reputation of raising imitators rather than creative leaders.

But when technical skill combines with creativity, originality and a Western sensibility, look out, world.

“No one needs to spend a lot of time here to realize how very, very impressive China’s system can be. Things get done here,” said Ben Walters, director of OSPOP, a clothing brand inspired by China’s humble working-men’s clothes. (See story below.) “Things like creativity, soft skills, take more time to develop than infrastructure. Fashion Week and the fashion industry is still in its infancy here, but it will happen. It might take a while, but it could be sooner than we think. In China anything can happen.”

Among those poised to conquer the West are Helen Lee and Poesia’s Parsons-educated designer Chris Chang, who easily merges a Western sense of design with elements of Chinese tribal dress and a playful sense of humor that had her sending out a collection inspired by insects.

“Many designers want to do something in the West,” said Timmy Yu of the DBHK retail chain, although for now Shanghai Fashion Week is a venue for many Japanese, Korean and European brands that have their sights trained on the fashionable Shanghai customer.

Yu pointed out that while Hong Kong is considered the fashion capital of Asia, Shanghai is the fashion capital of China, home to every major luxury brand and such international style purveyors as H&M, Zara and Uniqlo.

There’s enough business in Asia to keep DBHK content for now. The company’s name stands for Designed, Distributed and Developed by Hong Kong, and since launching in Hong Kong in 2009, the retail operation has opened seven stores in China.

DBHK sponsored Lee’s “Window” collection during Shanghai Fashion Week to build some buzz for her store-within-a-store at the Xintiandi Style mall, among other locations. (DBHK is also home to dozens of other brands, including ISM by Hawaii’s Richie Miao.) If Lee’s boutique does well, her brand will grow with DBHK as it expands to other cities.

But the designer isn’t waiting on another company’s fortune. She’s at work on a shoe collection in collaboration with a Western company.