Opportunities and Challenges of Fashion Week
The status quo of Fashion Week 1: The potential trend of core cities
The rise of Paris in the rankings was first attributed to the recent Brexit movement. The decoupling of London and the European Union allows Paris to integrate more quickly and effectively with other European countries, and its challenge from competition from the London Fashion Center is also weakening. From the IFDAQ report, we can see that, with the exception of London, the influence of the other three fashion weeks has shown a decline. The maintenance of stability in London has benefited from the support for young independent designers. As LVMH and Kering Fashion Group firmly grasp core fashion resources, Paris is still in an unshakable leading position in the short term. In recent years, due to the centrifugal force of many well-known local brands in the United States, the collective lack of local releases in New York Fashion Week has led to a declining influence. Milan still adheres to the old-school and traditional fashion industry, and the industry is fragmented, without major breakthroughs, and its influence is gradually lost.
The status quo of Fashion Week 2: Increased influence in emerging regions
The IFDAQ index believes that the leading fashion positions of Paris, New York, London and Milan may remain at most until 2030. However, the fashion weeks in the traditional “big four” cities may continue to have a significant impact on the global fashion industry. However, as the influence of other cities including Tokyo, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Moscow is increasing year by year, they are likely to catch up. Statistics show that the Shanghai Fashion Week Fashion Industry Index for Fall/Winter 2020 has surpassed New York Fashion Week, but it still faces great challenges. It is worth noting that Moscow will become the most concerned one among the emerging regions, thanks to the completely opposite situation with the scattered industry in Milan, that is, the high concentration of wealth and consumption. At the same time, this model will also become a major favorable condition for China to compete for influence in the global fashion industry.
The status quo of fashion week three: the reform of fashion week
It is no longer an era of constant change. Faced with the gradual dispersal of fashion attention, fashion weeks are also forced to change. What they need is changing and responding to changes. Irreversible digital trends have already emerged. New York Fashion Week launched its first full online platform Runway360, London Fashion Week launched two consecutive full online digital releases, and expanded digital to online forums and designer exchanges, adding designer diaries and other fashion week projects. The changes in Milan are continuous, and this season adopts a physical + virtual Physical model. Such a variety of digital transformations, on the contrary, gave brands more flexibility and marketing opportunities. Many fashion weeks have extended or flexibly adjusted the conference schedule. Playing with marketing on social media, Burberry gave global co-stars and KOLs basic first-row seats and shouted the slogan "Everyone is in the front row".
Status Quo of Fashion Week 4: Opportunities and Challenges of Shanghai Fashion Week
China has become the most watched market in the global fashion industry. The influence of Beijing Fashion Week and Shanghai Fashion Week will also be greatly enhanced. In 2020 alone, many luxury brands have chosen to hold big shows in Shanghai. Although they have not directly cooperated with Shanghai Fashion Week, they have undoubtedly increased the influence of the city of Shanghai. But Shanghai Fashion Week is already facing many challenges. Behind the challenges are hidden opportunities. This is mainly due to the advantages of my country's strong industrial chain and the rise of local brands. The perfect combination of digital technology and e-commerce has opened up a strong connection between products and consumers. But if you want to become a global fashion week, you still face many challenges. How to reconstruct the supply and demand system, improve the functions of fashion week, strengthen brand services, and use digital technology to accurately process orders and business docking has become the next direction of thinking.
Reconstructing the supply and demand system of Fashion Week—directly connect with consumers
The most effective way to reconstruct the supply and demand system of fashion week is to find the factors that connect with consumers in the original fashion week system. In the past, consumers were more spectators, and they were unable to directly create alliances to obtain information on the periphery of fashion week. With the advent of the democratization of fashion and the era of universal Internet celebrity, whether it is organizers, brands, buyers, media or celebrity KOLs, the ultimate goal is to promote products to consumers. At present, social media and short video apps are profoundly changing the communication pattern of the fashion industry. The exposure of designers and brands on social media has been greatly increased, and there can be a direct connection between the supply and demand systems. At the same time, with the maturity of the mobile "buy and sell" model, social media has become an important promotion position and sales channel for fashion brands.
