Moschino is abandoning Milan this year and choosing to show its menswear spring/summer 2014 collection in Shanghai instead.

Women’s Wear Daily reports that the brand’s menswear will ‘show in Shanghai for the first time as part of a large-scale catwalk event where the new women’s resort line-up and an archival medley will also be presented’. 

A Moschino spokesman said: ‘We decided that since we were showing the men’s collection in Shanghai, there was no point in showing it again in Milan a few days later.’

The Italian label isn’t the only one staging extravagant shows and events in China’s most populous city. Chanel started the trend by bringing its spectacular 2009 Métiers d'Arts collection to the city to coincide with the opening of its flagship Shanghai store that same year. A short film, Paris-Shanghai A Fantasy, The Trip Coco Only Made in Her Dreams, accompanied the collection.

When Stella McCartney went to China, Hong Kong and Japan last month, she opened a flagship store in Beijing but called by Shanghai too, where she chose to promote her brand by hosting cabaret shows featuring dancers and singers attired entirely in Stella McCartney.

Just last week, meanwhile, Hugo Boss showed their autumn/winter 2013 collections in Shanghai, and with Great Gatsby star Carey Mulligan and, um, Gerard Butler (maybe he’s big in Shanghai...?) in the audience, the event garnered international press coverage.

Shanghai does have its own fashion week showing collections from Chinese or China-based designers but, of course, it makes sense that European designers will want to show their collections there too, given the country’s massive appetite for luxury labels. 

However, this decision by Moschino, which is headed up by Rossella Jardini, pictured, to show its menswear only in China, dropping Milan Fashion Week completely, does seem to be an unusual departure for a European house.