Will Shanghai Fashion Week Become "Fashion Week On Cloud"? Will This Be The New Direction Of Fashion Industry?

The new coronavirus epidemic has affected the global fashion industry to varying degrees. Many Chinese bloggers and buyers are absent from New York and London Fashion week. With the escalation of the epidemic in Italy, Milan fashion week had to be hasty. The 2020 autumn and winter fashion week, which was scheduled for March 17th to March 21st, was also cancelled in Seoul.
When the organizers of the big fashion week failed to make progress, the Shanghai fashion week, which was originally announced to be postponed, took a bold try. After organizing and communicating with other parties and planning carefully, the organizing committee has joined hands with Tmall group's electronic business platform Tmall to launch "fashion week in Shanghai Fashion Week" on the Tmall cloud fashion week. It went to the cloud from March 24th to March 30th.
"It is not an easy task for us to make this decision. First of all, it is the understanding and support of all parties, especially the rapid response of Tmall to our proposal, which is less than a month from proposing to substantive operation. This is probably the end of the US interpretation of China's speed and vitality fashion week," Lv Xiaolei, Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Fashion Week Organizing Committee, told BoF: "this is a special occasion. During the special period, we hope that through such an attempt, designers will try different ways of showing and selling, which will also be a reflection of the future development direction for fashion week. We should say that we did not waste a crisis.
"The two quarter of the fashion season on Monday is a long time for all participants to prepare, and so is for our organizer... So (if chosen) cancellation will be a painful choice," Lv Xiaolei said. The significance of fashion week in the industry lies not only in the display of designers' creativity, but also in the linking of Commerce and trade and the production of market voice.
Nowadays, the live broadcast of the show is nothing new, and it is common in every fashion week. During the fashion week of Milan, Gucci used the live broadcast behind the scenes to lead the audience to witness the birth of the 2020 autumn winter series. Due to the rapid spread of the epidemic in Italy, Giorgio Armani immediately cancelled the live show, changed it to an open theater, and broadcast live on Armani's official website and social media channels. There was no audience at all. In view of the fact that Chinese bloggers, buyers and media people can not come to the fashion show scene, in Paris, Christian Dior's 2020 autumn and winter series released micro-blog's online theme page "cloud live", interacting with Chinese consumers, and finally getting more than ten million of the viewing volume.
On the surface, these brands have made great breakthroughs in the propaganda mode, but in essence, they rely on the stage scene of the offline fashion show to create a good atmosphere for the audience and the heat in the social media.
But for Chinese brands that are still growing up, the "cloud watching show" has become an opportunity for them to seize in a more harsh environment. Unlike the overseas cloud show live mode, the "cloud Fashion Week" is a large-scale live broadcast of 7 days, moving the offline show to the online live room. The more than 100 brands display autumn and winter clothes in different Tmall live rooms, and sell new products in spring and summer to ease the pressure of goods accumulation. The audience understands the latest trend through mobile phone screens, and can buy products directly from the live room. That is to say, the Shanghai fashion week pioneered a cloud show that really links commerce.
Tmall's clothing marketing and consumer operations center director Lu You said: "this cooperation is different from the current industry mentioned cloud on the issue (actually live broadcast), but the offline show, new product release, exhibition, through online virtual flash, virtual KOL, Taobao direct broadcast, short video, Tmall flagship store 2 and so on a complete set of link products to consumers 360 Experience on cloud. "
"I believe Tmall's support for Shanghai fashion week is not only about technology and traffic, but also that Tmall and Shanghai fashion week are creating a solution for the fashion week cloud," he said.
Labelhood founder Liu Xinxia (Tasha Liu) also said: "from a global perspective, this is a very new thing. We recommend new designers in a very Chinese way and keep pace with the times, and integrate with China's new business environment."
　　 Why can only China make "fashion week on cloud"?
In recent years, with the rapid development of mobile Internet and the progress of communication technology, Chinese consumers are stepping into the era of "everything can be cloud". Driven by the popularity of Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya, another platform of Alibaba, Taobao's live broadcast, has become an important platform for consumer shopping carnival.
AI media advisory report shows: "the number of professional anchors in Taobao live broadcast platform and the number of live broadcaster are growing rapidly, with more than 1 million live broadcasting rooms with more than 400 live broadcasting products per month. In 2019, the number of Taobao anchors was 20000, and more than half of the respondents visited the net red / Star live with goods, of which more than 90% of the users would buy the products recommended by the anchor, and only 9.78% of the users did not purchase. The huge flow entry of the live broadcast platform has laid the foundation for the "cloud Fashion Week".
Tmall, as another important platform of Alibaba, has already had very mature experience in brand cooperation. Earlier, Tmall has carried many domestic brands to show its head in the fashion week of New York, Milan and Paris through the "China Cool" campaign.
"Tmall has reached a deep strategic cooperation with Shanghai fashion week two years ago. The core proposition is to explore how to empower brand publishing in new retail mode and launch the fashion week on cloud." Lu Yu told BoF: that "without previous accumulation, it is difficult to complete a series of complicated and multi-party decisions in less than a month."
Lu Yue also said: such cooperation has already had the suitable soil. "Relying on Taobao live, short video, Tmall flagship store 2 and so on" cloud "product layout, created a diversified digital business new iteration, so that we both have sufficient confidence to sprint, the back to the brand. "Tmall will provide services such as webcast, page design and other supporting services to the brand, and provide service guidance for designers and brand tools training, technology introduction, etc., and also have some traffic support, brand promotion and sales. The brand and Labelhood of the fashion week, the new day and the landlord show, have a brand store on Tmall, which can be directed to the Tmall store for sale.
　　 Opportunities and challenges under the new mode
From the perspective of designers, cloud TV live show is an opportunity and challenge.
If the online fashion show is held online, the tickets can only meet a small audience. Buyers and media from all over the country need to fly to Shanghai to participate in the event. Unlike the Shanghai fashion week in the past, the cloud show mode breaks through the time and geographical restrictions, covering a larger crowd, especially the consumer side, with large traffic and high exposure. (overseas media also said that the move could improve the Gao Tanzu track problem prevalent in Fashion Week activities).
But on the live platform, the audience moves their fingers to any other live room to watch any show. How to constantly stimulate the audience's nerves and let consumers focus on their live rooms for a long time is a difficult problem for designers. "We understand that the live broadcast is the full integration of the commercial links and the release scenarios, and whether consumers are able to participate is a key and a challenge," Lu You said.
Besides, the urgency of time is also a test. At present, less than a month away from the fashion week on the cloud, many designers and brands can hardly make short stories or plot videos, or lack direct experience of consumers' live experience. The online publicity effect remains to be seen. Compared with the show, the space of the studio is difficult to show the effect that the designer originally wanted. After all, a mobile phone screen is hard to compete with the immersive embodiment of a fashion show that can be distributed to the audience. If the previous drainage work is not done well, the live broadcast effect may vary from brand to brand.
　　 Balance between design and business
It is understood that the Shanghai Fashion Week Organizing Committee will plan to recruit more than 100 brands, including clothing for men and women, children's wear and accessories. The brand was screened from four platforms: Xintiandi, Labelhood, SIFS social dress and Kidswear. Finally, it was displayed and sold on Tmall live platform.
This is the "cloud Fashion Week". Business is an important attribute that can not be ignored. This is also the lifeblood to help brands survive at a very moment. "In the short term, we want to see a stronger commercial liquidity during the fashion week, which not only provides better backflow of funds for the brand, but also means that the brand can get more attention and acceptance," Lu You said.
As an important incubator of Chinese fashion week in Shanghai fashion week, Labelhood will also participate in the brand screening of the fashion week on the cloud and give designers team resources support. In view of the fact that 99% of the young designers on the Labelhood platform have not yet opened Tmall stores, Labelhood not only helps designers to display part of the design creativity, but also builds spot live channels to do a good job in the retail operation of goods.
Liu Xinxia said: "the epidemic has pushed a lot of people to a more direct communication between designers and consumers. Designers need to break their inherent logic of thinking, and in any case, they must have a commercial ambition. Some of them are not Hawking brands, which may be difficult to adapt to live streaming. How to attract people with their abilities is the potential consumers in the next room.
At the same time, Liu Xinxia also hopes to discover more new things from the cloud fashion week, and even build a new brand through the consumer reverse. "In the eight quarter, we really are creating a community atmosphere, but the communication between designers and consumers is not enough. Labelhood has already had a full range of creative designers in the first half of the year to enlarge their influence. Now, in turn, technology can help people who want to interact with consumers to enhance the purity of design creativity.
It is worth noting that Tmall has actively opened up the B and C terminals of the brand. Besides the extension, the offline exhibition of the original fashion week is also actively seeking adjustments. Showroom was postponed to from April 10th to 13th, and not Showroom was postponed to from April 10th to 14th. Tube Showroom is expected to be held in from April 10th to 15th. Organizers said they would further observe the epidemic, and some of them had begun to seek more flexible solutions.
Ontimeshow, who has not yet announced the delay, announced yesterday that it would join hands with the luxury vertical business Temple store to open online exclusive live rooms for brands and buyers. At that time, designer or buyer shop can sell on the live side. Temple library can also provide 2 hours flash service for Ontimeshow docking businesses. Xu Yingjia, founder of Tube Showroom (Zemira Xu) also revealed that it will link public relations, buyers and industry partners to help the series of Chinese designer brands.
At present, every platform is designing a power for China through its own strength. The cooperation between the Organizing Committee and Tmall is also exploring the possibility of extending the fashion week's future form. How will this new fashion week in Shanghai appear in the Tmall studio? A month later, see you on a cloud.