Chinese films still struggle for some bling

"I think that means I have done my job correctly. I do think fashion is very important for chick flicks, but it is still not the core element," Li says.

Li says fashion in such films should be "important, but not decisive".

When Li was doing the styling work for One Night Surprise, she first thought of an image of the protagonist: an independent office worker full of dreams. So she used a large amount of simple color outfits for the leading role: dark green baby-doll dress, gray pajamas and white shirts.

China's chick movies began to connect with fashion three years ago, but critics have not been kind.

Director Xu Jinglei has invited Patricia Field, stylist from Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada, to take charge of her movie Go Lala Go! in 2010, but Field did not impress as she did for Sarah Jessica Parker and Anne Hathaway.

Important characters are wearing outsized, elaborate earrings and leopard-print A-line dresses at work. Viewers couldn't help asking: "Will office workers really dress like that?"

Fashion critic Yue Zhihai says Field's styling is beautiful on its own, but when it is put on a Chinese character in such a movie, it becomes ridiculous.

At the same time, as Li observes, the fashion and movie industries are still far away from each other. China's playwrights usually understand fashion in a superficial way. They can only add "some fashion items" into the movie, so it is difficult for them to come up with a scene like the one in which Carrie Bradshaw says "Swear it on Chanel No. 5" in Sex and the City.

So at this point, no matter how hard the director and stylist try, fashion in the movies is struggling to impress audiences.

If a chick flick is compared to a glamorous woman, then, fashion is her handbag. In China, the good thing is, the woman has abandoned the cheap crummy bag and begins to care what she is toting. But she still doesn't know how to mix and match her handbag with her dress.