2021 SHENGZE FASHION WEEK Kicks Off

SUZHOU, China, June 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On the night of June 16, 2021 SHENGZE FASHION WEEK, also known as the 9^th Jiangsu (Shengze) Textile Expo Cloud Exhibition, kicked off at Wujiang High-tech Zone (Shengze Town). With the theme of 'Silk Rhyme Oriental, Fashion Shengze', the fashion week attracted heavyweight design masters and fashion professionals gathering in Shengze. By integrated interaction among five major sections – 'show, exhibition, contest, conference and business', it showcases the fashion creativity and trendy charm of Shengze via online and offline multi-dimensional interactions to the world, promoting 'Shengze Weaving' to take the lead in the fashion industry, marching towards the future and the world.

The five-day fashion week presented 23 fashion shows, 4 cloud fashion live streams, 2 fashion design contests, 4 industry conferences & forums, and one textile cloud exhibition. Almost 300 high-quality merchants and thousands of stylish fabrics were demonstrated online, fully showcasing the industrial strength, market vitality and urban charm of Shengze, the beautiful city of fashion. It also demonstrated its fashion characteristics of being 'native, original and popular' to the world.

Sun Ruizhe, Chairman of International Textile Manufacturers Federation and Chairman of China National Textile and Apparel Council, stated in his opening speech that Shengze, as a major textile town, is crucial to the high-quality development of the industry by leveraging its industrial synergy capacity of business clusters valued hundred billion yuan, its cross-regional development capacity of enterprises valued hundred billion yuan and its capacity to integrate resources in the market valued hundred billion yuan.

Li Ming, Party Secretary of Wujiang District, said in his speech that Wujiang has been known as 'the Land of Fish and Rice' and 'the Home of Silk' since ancient times, while Shengze being known as the Capital of Silk for thousands of years. Silk textile is the first industry valued hundred billion yuan in Wujiang, with chemical fiber production capacity accounting for one-tenth nationally and being the home to Hengli Group and Shenghong Group, both of which are world Fortune 500 companies. The turnover of silk market in China hit hundred billion yuan for eight years consecutively, forming an industry, a market, enterprises valued hundred billion yuan and growing together. It is unique across the province and even across the country.

The fashion week attracted fashion brands countries including Italy, France, Spain and the United States. It brought different fashion styles and cultural charm, and further showcased the complementary Oriental aesthetics and western classic style. It deeply integrated the top fashion design from three Chinese Golden Award winners - Zhang Zhaoda, Wu Xuekai and Zhang Yichao, as well as local brands such as SAINT JOY, SANGLUO, CHIAYI, ROMROL and ZI JINGHUA, making continuous efforts to integrate the original high-quality fabrics of Shengze with the creative design of "Big Power", leading the development of the industry.

Secondly, the finales of two design contests were held during the fashion week. One was the 'DONGFANG CUP' 2021 Chinese Women's Wear Design Contest jointly organized by China Fashion Designers Association and Shengze, the other was 'SHENGZE CUP' 2021 Jiangsu Top 10 Designers Award jointly organized by Jiangsu Fashion Designers Association and Shengze. Both events attracted many more domestic outstanding new designers to visit Shengze, allowing designers and fabric companies get a close contact, and realizing the industry transformation in Shengze. Meanwhile, industry forum and fashion summit events were successively held in Shengze, including China Design Summit, International Sustainability Forum On Advanced Functional Fibers, Yangtze River Delta Fashion Industry Alliance Silk Fashion Development Summit, and The 4th China Haute Couture Summit & 2021 China Fashion Association Customization Professional Committee Annual Meeting. It will continue to enhance the IP of 'SHENGZE FASHION WEEK', and further expand the international and domestic influence of textile industry in Shengze. The opening ceremony also featured the launching ceremony of the Yangtze River Delta (Shengze) Division of 2021 Rayli Affordable Luxury Brand Contest, the launch ceremony of 2021 'China Cup, Fashion Shengze' Digital Art Application Design Contest, and the launch ceremony of building a world-class textile industry cluster climate action demonstration zone themed 'being committed to sustainability and reaching carbon goal first', the launch ceremony of the 9^th Jiangsu (Shengze) Textile Expo Cloud Exhibition and the May 5^th Shopping Festival, etc.  

Thirdly, the 'cloud exhibition' with offline connection realized new opportunities for transformation and development. As one of the 'highlights' of the fashion week, the 9^th Jiangsu (Shengze) Textile Expo Cloud Exhibition was held as scheduled. It continued to take 'cloud' mode to connect 'fashion' elements. The five major exhibition halls showcased tens of thousands of high-quality and popular fabrics from home and abroad, where buyers could communicate with exhibitors 'online' without any distance.

While fully demonstrating the fashion vitality of Shengze under the condition of 'integration of industry and city', SHENGZE FASHION WEEK further promoted the upgrading of local industries and the construction of Jiangnan culture and brands, strived to build the "most beautiful window" for the thriving textile industry and local brands in Shengze, in areas of trendsetting, technological innovation, industrial connection and international trade.

SOURCE SHENGZE FASHION WEEK