A model displays a creation by Lebanese designer Abed Mahfouz during a Rome Fashion Week haute couture fall/winter 2008 show July 10, 2008.[Agencies]

The world of fashion remains dominated by five cities -- New York, Rome, Paris, Milan and London -- but B-list players like Sydney and Dubai are coming on strong, according to an annual survey of top fashion cities.

The list was compiled by the Global Language Monitor, a non-profit group that tracks the frequency of words and phrases in the media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere.

New York led the list in 2008 for the fifth consecutive year with Rome retaining the second slot, Paris third again but Milan overtaking London for the fourth position. London came fifth.

But more surprising was the rise of some smaller fashion centers, with Sydney jumping from 12th position to seventh in the list and Dubai moving up 12 spots to No. 12.

Among the newcomers, New Delhi broke into the top 25 at No. 24 and Madrid came in 15th. Stockholm in Sweden was also new and the only Nordic city on the list, while Cape Town in South Africa also made an appearance.

Tokyo remained the capital of the Asian fashion industry at No. 10 in the list but slipped from sixth position a year ago and was now being challenged by Hong Kong just one slot behind.

Sao Paolo and Bangkok dropped off the list.

"Our yearly rankings clearly reinforce recent trends: the Big Five (New York, Rome, Paris, Milan, and London), far and away dominate the world of fashion, especially in the eyes of the print and electronic media, as well as on the Internet," said Millie Lorenzo Payack, a director at the Global Language Monitor.

"At the same time, the second tier of the cities in the world fashion rankings are coming on strong. And, by the way, money spent on media outreach can, indeed, make a difference; witness Dubai."