Bono Zhang: Why do we care about Shanghai Fashion Week?

Shanghai Fashion Week, which runs for the best part of a month from March 16 to April 16, is like a square wheel: it can clunk along, but not without a lot of extra effort. And, unless something changes, it's not going anywhere any time soon.

Shanghai designers care about Shanghai Fashion Week, but its success so far has been missing one ingredient: fashion buyers. Organizers can't seem to get this crucial group on  -- or at least not without a lot of pushing.

Although traditionally buyers have been important, all that effort doesn't seem to be worth it to me.

The reason to care

Shanghai Fashion Week is a huge fashion event at one of Asia’s largest fashion capitals outside of Tokyo.

Although a number of other cities in the region have tried to hold their own fashion weeks, few have succeeded in keeping them up, and the ones that do rarely produce good photos or fashion worth showcasing.

Of course, Shanghai Fashion Week has slowly been gaining coverage over the years, but even with its growth, you still can’t compare it to the world’s top four fashion capitals -- Paris, Milan, London and New York.

That said, Shanghai’s success today wasn’t even imaginable 10 years ago, and Shanghai Fashion Week is another way forward for the city. The week is the future, but it's just not quite there yet.

With that in mind, people who say Shanghai Fashion Week will not succeed are not thinking of our future, and not seeing how local designers can make the week their own.

A need to care

For me, Shanghai Fashion Week has developed its own, unique China-based style. It’s not merely mimicking the events of the West, and as a Shanghai designer, I’m grateful to witness the event's growth.

I take part in fashion week because I care -- about the event and the development of local designers like myself.

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As much as people knock Shanghai Fashion Week, it’s most local designers’ dream to take part in the event.

Putting aside the success that being part of this event breeds, participation offers local designers media as well as critical attention -- putting them in the spotlight and as giving them a chance to improve through real feedback. Something sacred for young designers in Shanghai.

Our fashion week hasn’t gained a place on the global fashion stage -- although it sometimes gets a few minutes' TV coverage here and there -- but it’s a bit harsh to put all the blame on the event's organizers.

Shanghai lacks buyers

For the mature, top four fashion weeks, their reputations -- their power -- draws brands, designers, sponsors and buyers, as well as media.

At the established fashion weeks, designer are told to grasp those golden opportunities each year, and simultaneously the media is on hand to display the value of the fashion on display.

With designers showing their wares and the media acting as their megaphone, buyers are there to bear witness and screen the offerings, judging next year’s big hits and appreciating the art that is created.

Sponsors love the week because it give them a chance to put their logos on, well, just about everything from background boards to wine glasses.

This is how established fashion weeks work, but it’s not how it works for up-and-coming events like Shanghai Fashion Week.

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Shanghai has the designers, and even the local media attention, but it still lacks one key group: buyers.

The designers are there, and the media covers the event, but it has become almost impossible for designers to get official orders from buyers present at the shows.

Shanghai Fashion Week is like a square wheel: it can clunk along, but not without a lot of extra effort.

Why don’t buyers care about Shanghai Fashion Week?

The reason is simple: local buyers’ knowledge and demand is disconnected from Shanghai designers’ work that's on display at the fashion week event.

To get media attention, local designers make their runways a stage, trying their best to create dramatic works in order to draw attention. Buyers aren't there for a performance though, they’re at the shows to find clothes that can be sold commercially.

The concept of drama, art and couture doesn’t exist for Chinese buyers.

Dramatic works do create buzz at fashion week, yet as designers like me know, you need to create commercial works to attract real buyers.

So local designers face a hard choice: draw commercial interest or draw media buzz with creative work. It’s almost impossible to do both.

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In the past two years, a number of designer brand shops have emerged, creating their own market for their artistic creations. As designers, a few of us have decided that we shouldn’t look for buyers, instead we have to do our work and let buyers discover us.

But this is a risky venture at best.

I think Shanghai Fashion Week should follow the designers' lead and be more independent instead of being used.

The week could be its own largest buyer, supporting the creative endeavors of its artists. The organizers should select good designer and brands to join the fashion week, not wait for the buyers to come and dictate who is good.

Selecting the best talent will, in the end, be what creates advertising value and revenue -- this will move the “wheel” forward, and the rest will follow.