Shanghai live streams the world’s first online fashion week to 800 million active users

As the entire world complies with the global #StayTheFuckHome policy, creative industries are getting....even more creative....and turning to live streaming to connect with their audiences. The music industry has dominated this area with clubs, festivals, DJ sets, DJ classes and more hitting the Internet to fill the void. Obviously, China was the first to embrace the trend. Now, China's fashion industry seems to be following in the footsteps of the music industry and also enjoying success through live streaming. For the first time ever, Shanghai hosted its fashion week online.

Renamed 'Cloud Fashion Week', the virtual event gained support from worldwide Chief Executives of the Fashion Council and superiors from the fashion industry. To optimise the brand new experience, Tmall also featured its pioneering see-it-buy-it technology to let audiences purchase the items that they see being paraded on the runways. It was the first time that an entire fashion week has integrated this technology.

'Cloud Fashion Week' began on March 24 and ran through to March 30. More than 150 fashion labels displayed their 2020 fall collections to 800 million Tmall active users. The stream recorded six million viewers on the first day of the show alone. Fashion label Babyghost reported to have 3,000 viewers tuned in during the showcase, and the sales from the live streaming jumped 450% from the brand's daily streaming.

Shanghai Fashion Week was originally postponed as travel bans saw designers absent from fashion events and a drastic drop in audiences was also expected. However, the organisers came up with a creative alternative together with Chinese e-commerce platform TMall to move the event online. This was a worldwide first, according to Alibaba, which is TMall's parent company.

This innovative fashion week has undoubtedly marked a successful and pioneering step for the fashion industry. Amid the coronavirus outbreak, this might be a good chance for every industry to re-examine what the market needs and how to stay afloat in a difficult time.

Viewers can access the live stream and watch recorded shows via the Shanghai Fashion Week website.

[Via WWD; Image via Shanghai Fashion Week]