Shanghai Fashion Week Sidesteps Covid, Goes Digital With Douyin

It’s official: Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) will host its autumn-winter 2022 (AW2022) showcase online on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, from June 17 to 19.

The announcement comes three months after organizers postponed the highly anticipated fashion event due to a massive Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown in Shanghai.

The fashion showcase was initially scheduled to run from March 25 to April 1, with several offline venues across the city and guests coming from all around the country.

#shanghaifashionweek is on the agenda! From June 17th to 19th, the first season of #DigitalShanghaiFashionWeek will showcase the online fashion releases of Chinese designer brands on https://t.co/2qs5IrOGqW
Video Production：https://t.co/0ijHonEEoZ pic.twitter.com/B9vRbTA5ZM

— Shanghai Fashion Week (@Shanghai_FW) June 8, 2022

According to posts on Weibo, six-hour-long livestreams of the main event will be available on both Douyin and YouTube (for international audiences) on all three days. Side events will include fashion reviews, exclusive sneak peeks, digital fashion drops, and special appearances by KOLs.

Despite this year’s unconventional format, Shanghai Fashion Week and Douyin’s partnership marks an exciting way to commemorate the event’s 20th anniversary. What better way to look to the future than by diversifying showrooms and redefining the very essence of fashion events?

This won’t be the first time that SHFW’s organizers pair traditional fashion elements with technological advancements. In April, the organization partnered with lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu to stage ‘Design Verse,’ a digital fashion show featuring nine prominent Chinese designers.

In 2020, SHFW also went entirely online as a response to the pandemic. The event marked the first time a big fashion showcase was held virtually, setting a precedent for the hybrid online-offline format now commonly adopted by fashion weeks worldwide.

Cover image via Raden Prasetya/Unsplash