Xiamen International Fashion Week, Breaking The Rules of A Traditional Fashion Week

Over the past decade, the Chinese fashion industry is growing rapidly, with the luxury market now standing at over 770 billion yuan. In addition to popular cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, a growing number of second-tier cities are also embracing the fashion industry as an important new driver of economic growth.

Xiamen, a diverse and young coastal city in southern China hosts the Xiamen International Marathon, Kulangsu Music Festival, Chinese Film Golden Rooster Award and Xiamen International Fashion Week… these unique brands and events distinguish Xiamen from other ordinary Chinese cities. During the just-concluded Xiamen International Fashion Week, we saw the diversified development and unique charm of Xiamen in the fashion industry.

Multiple Industries Go Hand In Hand, With Complete Industrial Infrastructure

Many well-known Chinese clothing brands, such as Anta Sports, Septwolves, Joeone, PEAK, Xtep, 361 Degrees, have all settled in Xiamen and see it as a display window to the domestic and international stage. In the first half of 2019, Anta's operating revenue rose 40.3 percent year on year to 14.81 billion yuan, and its net profit rose 27.7 percent to 2.48 billion yuan, pushing its share price to more than 200 billion yuan, making it the world's third largest sports brand.

In addition to big brands, Xiamen provides a complete industrial chain for small and medium-sized brands in the fashion industry, from upstream yarn and fabric, midstream design and brand, to terminal manufacturing and sales. Nowadays, more and more first-line fashion designers are moving to Xiamen too. This has brought more attention from the world fashion observers towards Xiamen, and led to the establishment of Xiamen International Fashion Week. 

Xiamen International Fashion Week has become an important platform to boost Xiamen's new economic development. Recent data shows that since the 2015 Xiamen International Fashion Week was held, the wholesale and retail markets of fashion related industries such as textile, apparel, shoes and hats, cosmetics, watches, eyewears, sports goods, jewelry and handicrafts have all increased in varying degrees. In 2018, the retail sales of apparel, shoes, textile categories grew 30.1 percent to 19.162 billion yuan.

In addition, inbound capital is also helping local Xiamen brand development. During fashion week, the Sequoia Fashion Technology Industry Equity Investment Fund was officially launched to link more than 20 domestic high-quality projects in the fields of fashion, entertainment, science and technology, new consumption, etc together, to build a platform for two-way investment, to jointly explore the innovative development model with the help of capital, and to promote the transformation of the industry.

Focus On The Consumer, Create A Different Fashion Week

Unlike other fashion weeks, which are mainly for fashion insiders, Xiamen International Fashion Week focuses on consumers -- who can see the brand closely and place orders on the spot. Brands, in Xiamen International Fashion Week, are able to directly link with fashion consumers to get direct feedback from consumers (that is not usually available in other fashion weeks), and therefore have an in-depth understanding of consumers' needs and views.

Xiamen International Fashion Week has created the first fashion platform that can be “ Seen, Experienced, Discussed and Consumed” in China, which in turn satisfies young people with different needs, and captures the minds of users through diversified contents.

Compared with older generations of consumers, Gen Z and millennials have more diversified consumption patterns. This year, Xiamen International Fashion Week kept up with the trend and included the live-streaming function to make the fashion week a "large-scale live-streaming platform". Since live-streaming has become a mainstream communication channels, more people were able to know about Xiamen International Fashion Week. For brands, live-streaming can shorten the distance between them and consumers. Consumers can have a deeper understanding of the brand from different perspectives -- and finally lead to purchase.

New And Old Innovative Brands, Break Fashion Boundaries

Xiamen International Fashion Week is also a grand event of pan-fashion concepts. With the growth of the new generation of consumers, demand for fashion has become more diversified. So in addition to the fashion brands, one can also see a lot of F&B, entertainment, and lifestyle brands that you would hardly ever see in other fashion weeks.

During the fashion week, one was able to watch the shows from JORYAweekend, Anta Kids, AKCLUB, PEAK, FACEON. All products showed in the fashion week were available for purchase in the brand stores and online stores immediately. 

In the era of consumption upgrading, the challenge of making traditional brands younger and more innovative has become a hot topic across the fashion industry -- and as such was also an important topic of this Xiamen International Fashion Week. 

Peak, a traditional sports brand growing up in Xiamen, focused on customization as a means to connect better with consumers. During fashion week, PEAK provides users with personalized customization -- users were able to choose the shape, patterns, colors, and materials of their shoes.

Conclusion

An international city must have its own highlights: London, New York, Los Angeles and Berlin all have their own marathons, motor racing, tennis or golf events, film festivals and fashion weeks. Given the favorable geographical location, we have strong reason to believe that Xiamen International Fashion Week will become an important piece of the puzzle in the transformation and upgrading process of this amazing city.