Shanghai Fashion Week, in its full swing, has quickly risen to fourth place in the world’s rankings, suggesting it could soon enter the first phalanx of fashion week forerunners like Paris, London, Milan and New York, according to the Fashion Week Vitality Index Report recently unveiled by the China Economic Information Service.To get more fashion news today, you can visit shine news official website.

The global fashion industry has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which has resulted in a diminished demand, devastated supply chains and disrupted or delayed fashion events.

However, the global health crisis has boosted a number of industry trends, including a shift to online shopping and heightened consumer awareness about sustainable development. As the world’s first fashion show to move online in the midst of the pandemic and the first to subsequently move back offline, Shanghai Fashion Week, which concludes on April 13, has become a pioneer.

Digital spike in livestreaming

With travel bans and social distancing policies that keep people at home, digital shopping has soared and the livestreaming industry is thriving.On top of a wide array of in-person events, a range of digital initiatives are helping the fashion show reach more consumer-based communities via the “See Now, Buy Now” campaign.

The Shanghai Fashion and Lifestyle Carnival, an online campaign platform, enables fashion brands to sell their latest products directly to consumers through the top Internet salesman Li Jiaqi, a popular livestreamer who once sold 15,000 tubes of lipstick in just five minutes through his live online broadcast.

On the opening day of the carnival on Tuesday, Li moved his broadcast booth to a runway for young fashion brands incubated by LABELHOOD, which has cultivated almost 90 percent of independent Chinese designers.

“I’ll be trying my best to introduce them and their designs to consumers in an easy, clear way,” Li said before the show. “Frankly, I’m quite nervous because I’m not sure how the audience will react, but I hope it can break the barrier between the high fashion world and ordinary consumers.”
The response turned out to be bittersweet. After the 30-minute online runway show that attracted an audience of more than 1.5 million viewers, Li selected 20 pieces, more practical to wear in daily life, to sell through his livestreaming platform. A total of 595 bow-tie cotton T-shirts from the fashion brand deepmoss, each priced around 600 yuan, sold out in less than 10 seconds.

Another top Chinese livestreamer Viya, who once sold more than 267 million yuan (US$39.8 million) worth of merchandise during a two-hour livestreaming event, opened an offline chatroom at Ontimeshow, the fashion show’s trade fair at the West Bund, and spoke to young designers from International Top-tier Innovation Business (ITIB).

“Fashion trends are always moving forward with new ideas, and there shouldn’t be any limitations on styles or designs,” Viya said. “No matter if it’s on a runway, in my livestreaming studio or in everyday life, I want to provide more styles and choices for those who are eager to show their life attitude and personality through what they wear.”