Lane Crawford, an upscale multibrand fashion boutique with branches in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Apart from putting on fashion shows, the event also helps promote the designers with innovative multimedia presentations.

The department store Galeries Lafayette Beijing has joined the initiative, and Chinese designer brands as Chictopia and Vega Zaishi Wang all have independent boutiques in the French store.

Beijing SKP, the luxury shopping destination, has developed its own multibrand boutique, SKP Select, offering products from emerging brands.

The emergence of multibrand boutiques is changing retailing in smaller cities, Ding Meimei, chief executive of DFO Showroom, said recently in the trade magazine Business of Fashion.

As the market in one-tier cities becomes oversaturated, these stores are now expanding to smaller cities such as Chengdu, Shenzhen and Guiyang. There are not enough customers there for a brand to open independent stores, but the potential does exist, Ding says. With ample space, these stores become a display window for the new designers, she says.

Even as retailing in China faces tough times, there are still new companies keen to take advantage of the spending power of the middle class. Shenzhen Hemei Group, which makes smart electric meters, switched its focus from manufacturing to the fashion industry by setting up a new multibrand jewelry boutique, Artoriz.