A Japanese company has put a girly twist to an everyday convenience - shopping using a cellphone, to attract young fashionistas with cash to spend on high-street garb rather than Chanel and Valentino.

Over the next two years, Japan's retail sales from mobile phone sites are expected to surge 60 percent - three times faster than the country's mail order industry - to about 300 billion yen ($2.59 billion), according to researcher Fuji-Keizai.

Privately owned Xavel Inc. has been making inroads into that industry since it was set up in 1999, and over the weekend, it organised a grand shopping event which attracted nearly 20,000 women in their late teens and early 20s.

In a giant stadium outside Tokyo, the women crowded around a cross-shaped catwalk for the "Tokyo Girls Collection", a six-hour extravaganza featuring T-shirts and jewellery from labels such as Rich and Cecil McBee, little known outside Japan but popular among local students.

And to lure young fans, the event used models from teen magazines instead of catwalk professionals.

"She's so cute!" screamed a group of high school girls as models Yuri Ebihara and Moe Oshikiri stepped onto the stage.

For many, the show was about getting a glimpse of the more than 70 idols they see in fashion bibles "CanCam" and "Vivi". But other girls were there to spend.

"I think it's great we can immediately buy the clothes from cell phones. It's groundbreaking." said Sachie Ishikawa, a 23 year-old student who attended the event for the second time. It's groundbreaking.

Xavel has targeted the booming market of online shopping with a free site, girlswalker.com, designed for mobile phones. Girlswalker.com offers services ranging from shopping, auctions, horoscopes and information about fashion and cosmetics.

The fashion show, Xavel's fourth since 2005, also had live performances by hip-hop artists Tamia and DJ Ozma, as well as charity auctions where viewers could bid via mobile phones. The event was also broadcast live over the Internet. Phones were also featured as a fashion item.

Softbank, Japan's newest wireless operator which is trying to boost its brand among young consumers, hosted a section where 20 models walked down the catwalk, each holding a different coloured handset that matched their outfits.

With more people in Japan accessing the Internet via cell phones than from personal computers, Xavel has become one of the country's most successful online retailers.

Xavel, with merely 300 employees, has also launched a similar fashion site for PC users, and new businesses such as consumer trend research and mobile advertisement.

And the success of Tokyo Girls Collection has attracted global attention.

The show, which was featured at a Japan expo in Paris last year, will travel to Beijing later this month to be a part of the China International Clothing Fair 2007, where 200,000 visitors are expected to attend from all over the world.

And it was no coincidence the show chose March 3 -- the day of a traditional Japanese festival to pray for happiness and healthy growth for girls.

"Girl power amazes me," said Satoru Yamaguchi, 25, who said he was dragged to the show by his girlfriend.