This is Connecting the Dots, a series in which writer José Criales-Unzueta looks at how fashion, pop culture, the internet and society are all interconnected.
Halfway through Shanghai Fashion Week, designer Samuel Guì Yang hosted an off-schedule presentation at a Shikumen-style house, the East-meets-West architectural style that appeared in Shanghai in the 1860s. The intimate show marked the runway return of Yang, who is based between London and Shanghai and is one of China’s most well-known contemporary fashion exports.
It was a highlight in the midst of a conservative season for the Chinese fashion showcase. Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) returned last year for the Autumn/Winter 2023 season for the first time since Covid lockdowns shut down the event. By October, it was back in full swing. Designers staged glitzy presentations — see model-turned-designer Lü Yan’s 10-year anniversary show for Comme Moi, or Xander Zhou’s intergalactic runway — and Shanghai’s fashion week showrooms, an integral part of the week, were packed with brands both local and international.
“The Chinese market is the most friendly for young designers,” says Oude Waag designer Jingwei Yin. “The customer is more open to new brands.” Lv Xiaolei (aka Madame Lv), the secretary general of SHFW, adds that customers are now looking for unique pieces, not just big commercial brands, “which gives an opportunity to younger designers to not necessarily be as safe”.
This season, however, the calendar was slimmer, with tentpole brands including Staffonly and Haizhen Wang opting out of the runway, citing an economic downturn in China as a cause for more timid spending by both brands in their marketing efforts and consumers in their purchasing. While the Chinese market has, particularly since the pandemic, become more welcoming of independent labels, it is still not immune to the overarching economic landscape. Madame Lv reports a cautious mood, with mid-level brands (four to six years old) feeling the effects of the economy the most. Established labels have a stronger base, and young brands don’t have much to compare against. It’s the mid-size brands like Wang’s, that got started right before the pandemic, that have only known survival mode. The strain is felt now more than ever.
“After last season’s excitement, designers are feeling more conservative about spending [on shows],” shares a publicist, who also runs one of the city’s key showrooms. While individually a few brands including Jacques Wei and Shushu/Tong reported a decent sales season, altogether showroom managers and designers described a slow week with lower volumes of buyers in attendance — traffic is down between 35 per cent and 40 per cent, one manager says.
“Fashion week is back, but the market has not yet recovered,” Ying Zhang, founder of Not Showroom and popular concept store XC273, told me last season. When I saw her this time around, she doubled down on the idea, noting a fragile market and less movement over the holiday season and into the Lunar New Year.
Shanghai’s fashion industry is still young — SHFW is in its 20th season — which has made its designers nimble and more adaptable to a shifting market as they find what works for them. Wholesale is also a relatively new model — about 10 years old — which means there’s still a runway for growth for designers across multi-brand retailers in China. Digital has become increasingly important, so labels are looking past the showroom and the wholesale model to venture into direct-to-consumer through platforms like Tmall. Global has become a new goal too, with labels looking to market to Western consumers. Still, many of these brands continue to operate ‘local-first’, be that by prioritising their home market and staging shows in China or by leaning into consumer trends that are unique to the region like New Chinese Style.
Restructured approaches
Showrooms are an integral part of the week, and designers must find the right fit. In addition to Labelhood’s home base, Not Showroom is one of the most popular options, featuring buzzy independent brands with a certain cool factor — think Yueqi Qi or Louis Shengtao Chen. Tube Showroom is a bit more established in terms of labels, here you are looking at Shushu/Tong or Jacques Wei. Other options include On Time and Mode, which are larger and more commercial. Mode hosted 287 brands this season, as opposed to Not’s 39.
“It’s been a slower year economically, and the market is not doing well,” says Wang, whose 2018-founded label had returned to SHFW last season, but sat the runway out this time around. “After last season, I also realised that I wanted to slow down, I needed to do less.” Most cities saw an immediate increase in activity following the pandemic in 2021, but because of its Omicron lockdown in 2022, Shanghai is looking at a delayed post-pandemic hangover downturn paired with a global economic slowdown.
Wang is restructuring the way he approaches fashion week. At SHFW, designers set up showroom presentations for market during the event schedule — as opposed to after it’s closed, or letting their teams take care of business like in New York or Paris. They work their presentations to buyers around their show times. Wang’s show last season was later in the week. “I moved the clothes back into the showroom for only the last two days,” Wang says, “80 per cent of the buyers couldn’t see it and bought from pictures, and it’s just not the same.”
Wang usually has between 60 and 80 wholesalers in China, but last season’s big push, he says, wasn’t as effective as he’d expected. Still, he is optimistic: “I think that next season will be better, and perhaps we do something in October, and I’ll manage better and show on the first day.”
He is not alone. Tasha Liu, founder of Labelhood, is hopeful for a strong spring 2025 season. “The market is tough, which is why there were less shows this season,” Liu says. “But October should be better overall, as brands both global and local are more willing to pay the marketing budget.”
Think local, go global
“You have to have a strong base here in order to be able to expand and not try to leave too soon,” says Liu, who works with some of China’s most promising independent labels. There’s a reason, for instance, that Shushu/Tong doesn’t show elsewhere. “It has a strong base here, and this is their primary market, so they prioritise it.” Regardless, founders Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang sell at global e-tailers and multi-brand stores including Ssense, Browns and Dover Street Market. For Chinese designers to continue to grow, a sturdy home base is key, but presence in global markets is increasingly important.
Such is the case for Rui Zhou, of celebrity-beloved label Rui Built (formerly known simply as Rui). Zhou, who won the LVMH Prize’s 2021 Special Prize, is based in Shanghai, but shows her collections in Paris and markets in both cities. “This is my biggest market, so I make sure to be here as buyers like it when designers present the collections, unlike in Paris.”
Designers are often absent from buying conversations in the West. “For some reason it’s less professional to market yourself there, it makes you look smaller, but here buyers don’t want to talk to anyone who isn’t the designer,” says Zhou. For her, it’s been crucial to establish a business in China in order to grow. Her buys abroad, she says, tend to be smaller, primarily because she ships from China and duties tend to remain higher. Still, she understands how important it is for her home market that she has a global base, so she plays ball.
The celebrity component has become increasingly important, too. Zhou works with New York PR savant Gia Kuan for her Western communications, while Lei and Jiang employ Purple PR in Los Angeles. Yin and Oude Waag work with David Siwicki, who is based in Paris. All three labels have found success dressing Western celebrities — which has upped the interest from e-tailers.
Find me online
When I first met designer Calvin Luo at one of his Shanghai stores last season, he pulled out his phone to show me how he made many of his sales: Tmall. The designer, like many brands in China, has a digital marketing team that hosts a weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) QVC-style live stream in eight-hour shifts. A model showcases the product live while viewers shop. Tmall operates as a direct-to-consumer platform. While Luo has stepped away from the runway for the past few seasons to prioritise opening stores — he currently operates six in China, two in Shanghai — he says that online has become a top priority. “It’s where people are now.”
Wang has also made online a prime concern of his. Part of his move to step away from the runway this season was to invest in a team that is currently building his Tmall storefront. “I thought about it two years ago, but in order to protect my customer I decided to not do it,” he said. He wanted to preserve the preciousness of his brand, and online made it simply too available. “But after last year’s issues I need to do it, you just can’t avoid it.”
“If you depend on buyers you can have a season with little effect,” he explains, “but meeting your shopper directly you can have more control over your outcome.” Wang will launch his store in April with a selection of past-season looks in an experiment that offers differentiated pieces his loyal customers will not find elsewhere. According to Wang, June and November are key performance months for Tmall. He will test this for a year, paying close attention to results through the summer ahead of fashion week in October. “A friend of mine sent me his results from over a year and it was incredible,” says Wang, “if I can swing something close to that, I’ll be okay.”
New horizons
As SHFW continues to expand, its priorities grow past the shows. Madame Lv has decided to depart the organisation after this season, and will refocus her efforts as the executive vice chairman of the Shanghai Fashion Designer Association. The organisation exists though is currently dormant, but, Madame Lv says, will be crucial moving forward. “It’s somewhat like the CFDA in that it will help and work with designers throughout the year and not just for fashion week,” she says. “We would like to provide more structure for designers and brands,” she explains, adding that she’s aiming to expand her reach into manufacturing and supply chains.
“Shanghai Fashion Week is quite young, but we now need to continue to build and provide support,” Madame Lv says. The goal is to make sure that designers will not only find the avenues to launch their brands and showcase their work, but also understand how to stick around long term. “Young people need structure and know they have support to feel like they can grow.”
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