‘It’s attended by local shop owners interested to place orders for new clothes. Every piece of the apparel on display has a number so they can identify the ones they want to order,’ Mr Pan told Daily Mail Australia.
The event – likely to be the most glamorous two days on Pyongyang’s annual calendar - was held in an exhibition hall from 15 to 17 September.
‘Locals who aren’t shop owners are also able to attend the exhibition. There were easily over 1,000 people in the hall that day and it was packed,’ Mr Pan added.
The women were wearing makeup and had their hair pinned back as they strutted their stuff in well fitted Chanel inspired suits
Numbers were pinned on their jackets so that local buyers could identify the clothes and choose which ones to stock in their shops
The photographer, who also visited North Korea’s only ski-resort – a pet project of leader Kim Jong-un’s – in September, said he noticed that Pyongyang citizens are ‘generally more stylish than their counterparts in other towns but that seems to be slowly changing’.
‘Now, fashion trends seem to be spreading out to the other towns and into rural areas,’ he said.
The latest sartorial trends include ‘fancy umbrellas’. ‘I’ve been told they are now all the rage and ladies who own them will whip them out at any given chance’, Mr Pan said.
Faux Burberry is also popular, as are red star earrings which make the perfect ‘socialist fashion accessory’, Mr Pan joked.
Women also wear red pin badges on their lapels featuring the ‘supreme leader’s’ face.
One model posed with a bizarre hand gesture in a white and brown suit featuring bow-detailing at the event which has been held annually for 12 years in the communist enclave's capital city
Traditional North Korean clothing was also on show at the event (seen in the background) but the western-style suits caught Aram Pan's eye, as he noted that women across the country now wear high-heels and shorter skirts
Monochrome suits appeared on the catwalk more than once and so did the colour red. Mr Pan said he did not find out where the models on the runway were from
Lots of the suits being modelled followed the monochrome trend but red, pink and a bright yellow colour were also incorporated into the chic designs.
'Based on my earlier perceptions of North Korean dressing, I must say that there are a whole lot of options for women to choose from today,' Mr Pan said.
'I think it is quite liberating for them.'
Mr Pan said reports that trousers had been banned for women are not true.
The photographer observed that the hemlines are rising inside the secretive state, upon his visit to the 12th Pyongyang Fashion Exhibition
Thousands of local women and shop owners reportedly turned out to inspect the new designs that were on show
The women felt the material and observed many suits inside the exhibition hall. Despite previous reports Mr Pan said trousers have not been banned inside the country, it's just that many women chose to wear skirts
'I have dozens of photos of women wearing pants in every area of North Korea. From the farmlands to the city, women are wearing pants everywhere. And I've shot these since my first trip in August 2013,' he reasoned.
In the photos, there are numbers pinned onto the models' clothes so that buyers can identify the items they are interested in but the women themselves are not named.
'It didn't occur to me back then to ask the North Koreans where they were from,' Mr Pan said.
Mr Pan, a commercial photographer by day who specialises in 360 degree panoramic virtual tours for real estate, hotels and automobiles, has now been on four visits to North Korea.
More information on Aram Pan's North Korea 360 photography and video project can be found on his Facebook page and website.