Just look at the spring-summer lines now in Asia's stores. Clearly, the world's top houses have no single voice on how to say farewell to the millennium. The designers who matter have produced a variety of themes, colors and cuts. For the house of Salvatore Ferragamo, Asia appears in the discreet details of small Chinese frog buttons on printed Italian silk blouses. For Jean Paul Gaultier, it screams for attention with the transformation of Japanese kimonos , complete with obi belts, into bikini ensembles.
Westerners travel a lot more to Asia.
Satellite TV carries Asia everywhere. Asia has provided designers with a palette to work from. The 'new' awareness of such countries as Vietnam will continue this. That is good because that lets things Asian fit into the mix. Indian fabric continues to be present, especially for formal wear.