Everything you need to know about Shanghai Fashion Week

Simon Wang: "We need to get more professional people involved and work with overseas organizers to gain more international exposure."

Another Shanghai Fashion Week is upon us. While not nearly as glamorous as its international counterparts (there are no big-name designers headlining), China’s emerging designers use the week as a platform to showcase their latest collections to China’s top fashion editors (the ones who show up) and attract the interest of local industry people.

Among the slew of local designers, and a handful of lesser-known international names, set to show their Spring/Summer 2010 collections in Fuxing Park, is Shanghai-based Simon Wang, who will be showing his Indian Dance collection, inspired by Indian saris.

“Shanghai Fashion Week is getting bigger and better every year. This time around there’s going to be around 20 shows. I’m excited,” he says.

Having studied fashion design in London and twice shown in London’s On/Off Fashion Week in 2004, Wang, an Inner Mongolian designer, is no stranger to the scene, but admits that Shanghai has a long way to go.

“Shanghai Fashion Week is still very young. We can’t compare it to the likes of London Fashion Week. There aren’t nearly as many designers taking part and very few buyers attend. That said, Shanghai is the fashion capital of China so I think it will improve with time,” he says.

We need to work together to make this event more important not only for those who work in the industry but also for fashion lovers.

— Qi Wang, designer

Local fledgling design collective Bunka/Toka, made up of Chinese designers Oki (aka Qi Wang), Stena (aka Yuan Wang) and Koo (aka Cheng Jiang), are looking forward to appearing in Shanghai Fashion Week, in what will be their second appearance. They describe their latest collection as a mishmash of “gothic, aristocracy and post punk.”

“The scene here is still developing,” says Qi Wang. “It’s like the Amazon forest. You never know what’s coming next!”

While it’s by the grace and funding of the Shanghai government that the city’s fashion week is able to take place at all, the heavy bureaucratic influence detracts from the glitz and glamour of the whole affair.

“We need to get more professional people involved and work with overseas organizers to gain more international exposure,” says Simon Wang.

Qi Wang agrees: “We need to work together to make this event more important not only for those who work in the industry but also for fashion lovers.”

Bunka / Toka return to Shanghai Fashion Week for their second year.

So what shows are those in the know most looking forward to?

The Bunka/Toka crew plan to check out La Vie’s show (by Jenny Ji), while Simon Wang says Chilean designer friends Enmovimiento (back for the second time) and French design house Leonard as his must-sees.

“I used to have Leonard’s Autumn/Winter ’95 show on video. The colors and prints were amazing. It opened my mind.”

The week’s line-up also includes local designers Alex Zheng, Judy Hua and Huiman Chau, a design collective from Thailand and Japanese design house Backstage (formerly Impression 8th).

Check back next week for a full Fashion Week round-up of the good, the bad … and the ugly.

Shanghai Fashion Week runs from October 21 to 27 in Fuxing Park, 105 Yandang Lu, near Nanchang Lu 雁荡路105号, 近南昌路