Mercedes-Benz China Fashion Week:“Design +”unveils a new future

By Zhao Zihan

The seven-day long Mercedes-Benz China Fashion Week（2016/2017A/W Collection） was concluded successfully on March 31st in Beijing. The Fashion Week is always dedicated to being oriented by design and promotes the development of Chinas fashion industry and economy. Under the theme of “Design Plus”， the Week of this season， centered on innovation， making full play of its advantages， widely linking with the whole industry and market demands and across-the-board innovating the industry， further improved the sector structural adjustment and fashion and cultural innovation. Under the theme， the stunning shows of the creative designs， the exhibitions of childrens cloth and the parent-child outfit and such activities as SHOWROOM， salon dialogues and art exhibitions caught much more attention. By observing the whole fashion contents of various cloth， costume and art jewelry， we can find that themes of culture， art， environment and nature are still the core elements of fashion trend in the next season. As the tradition combines with frontier concepts， Chinese cultural elements integrate into daily life secretly. With the classics returning in the retro and cultural reflection， the trend of the next season of A/W Collection will roam from the retro of 1960s-1970s to the universal future fashion.

The Fashion Week invited 55 brands and institutions abroad and at home， and 38 Chinese and foreign designers and 70 rising stars were involved. We held 46 release conferences and one major professional contest in Peking Hotel and 751D？PARK. More than 70 designers participated in 2016 （Spring） DHUB designing conference and 10+3SHOWROOM. Besides， more than 20 press conferences， salon forums and profession lectures were held.

Amid the times of “Design Plus”， design leads industry and fashion changes life. Creative designing is growing to be the driving force of national and regional consumption， economic transformation and industrial upgrading. On March 25th， in the solemn atmosphere of its opening ceremony， elites and talents from fashion industry walked on the red carpet and stepped into the hall of release hand in hand. All of these show the respect from the international influential platform to the players in fashion sector. The Wee is the innovative exploration for resources allocation of traditional costume and model of reform and development in Internet times. “Design Plus”， widely linking with capitalism，culture， art， technology， life and environment， representing new model of Fashion Weekly with Chinese characteristics， will construct the right of speech of Chinas fashion system.

49 PRC brands and 6 oversea brands and institutes participated in the Fashion Week. The participants are from various original designer brand and OBM， covering a wide range of categories， including garments for men， women and children， haute couture， wedding dress， leisure wear， cold-protective clothing， cashmere. Their excellent work and distinctive brand prove the creativity of “Made in China”. Mens wear remained the industrial focus while womens showed more evident personality. Children and parent-child garments like Vicky Zhang， COMME TU ES， JOJO， SOUHAIT， Ting Zu， IVAN & NICOLE， Hishowkids， SSF， Harny & Son， MINI PETREL， and Little Queen experienced a booming outburst with the cuteness and diversity of kids wear， reflecting the great potential in the market. This trend has begun to take shape last year and only started today. As the industrial social transformation taken place， the rising tide of children and parent-child garment is unstoppable. In addition， with both upstream and downstream brands like HMR Art Jewelry and Cotton Council International active involvement， the multi-integration under “Design+” was proven to help China Fashion Week uphold its promotion on originality and thus generate huge attraction.

Creativity cannot survive without talents and youngsters is always the major force of fashion. 38 domestic and oversea designers signed up for the Fashion Week， among which were the increasing number of new-generation designers - 17 domestic designer made their debuts. Established designers like Chen Wen， Wang Yutao， Gioia Pan， Zhu Lin， Liu Yong， and Hu Sheguang and other well-known designers maintain their creativity. Meanwhile， the winners of China Top Ten Designers such as Ding Yong， Hao Jia， Liu Jia， Xie Jiaqi， Liu Sicong and so on，and the representative of the emerging designers， Xuan Zuo， Zhao Qianyan， Yan Ti ， Li Zhen， Qiao Dan， and Xu Xinyi also starred at the Fashion Week. They all represents the strong originality and creativity of China. The 5th 10+3SHOW ROOM was held per scheduled and explained the “China new force of independent design”. Independent designer Zhao Qianyan， Qiao Dan， Xu Yiwei， Chen Jingjing， Tan Ali， Li Linchuan， Li Shanlan， Yu Xiaoyue， Sun Hanchu and Guo Kebing， joined with accessory designer Wang Xiaoshui， Wang Ziyi， Qiunuo presented their unique style on this multi-functional interactive platform. E-hoo Creative designer platform， a B2B platform focusing on designers original brands， brought its three outstanding designers Li Shaowen， Zhang Lihui and Chenyu， forming a seamless combination of commercial platform and creative platform.

During the Fashion Week， the top 3 of Hempel Award the 24th China International Young Fashion Designers Contest were shared by contesters from China and Italy. The contest was themed as “critical design”. It was not only an attempt to move fashion design to a new speculative level， but also a discovery of a deeper thought to contemporary fashion design and life style. Meanwhile， Designers Salon was held after the Hempel Award ceremony， offering a broader platform for young designers.

As one of Mercedes-Benz international designer exchange program， the award-winning London designer Mary Katrantzou released his new collection in Beijing for the first time. Mary Katrantzou is the pioneer of digital printing in the fashion world， whose designs are famous for their rich colours， embroidery， surreal design pattern and half-haute couture craftsmanship.

As an extensive function of China Fashion Week， 2016（spring） DHUB Design will be held in Tank Zone of 751DPARK in Beijing from March 25 to 28， 2016. In this season， DHUB Design works with Show Town？ EASTIMESHOWROOM， for the first time to build the professional design trading platform in an exhibition area which covers more than 3000m2. As an important activity that emphasize on the practice of design and commercial connection， DHUB Design attracted over 60 well-known designers from Italy， South Korea， Japan， Hong Kong and mainland China to display their designs， with categories covering womens wear， menswear， footwear， apparel， and jewelry， etc. More than 70% are foreign brands， and more than half of them come to China for the first time， which indicates the growing influence of China fashion industry.

Besides， China Fashion Association and Chaozhou city of Guangdong Province signed Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Chaozhou as the Host City of China （Chaozhou） International Wedding and Formal Dress Release Week. China （Chaozhou） international wedding and formal dress release week will be part of China Fashion Week. Being supported by the authoritative status and strong influence of China Fashion Week， China（Chaozhou） international wedding and formal dress release week push forward the development of wedding and formal dress industry of Chaozhou and even of China with the solid foundation of Chaozhou wedding and formal dress industry.

The platform building of China Fashion Week has always stick with the technology trend of the time. During the fashion week， the official APP2.0 version has been released with the function of E-Pass （electronic ticket system）， provided better and more convenient service for the participants.

China Fashion Week is founded in 1997 and is held twice a year in Beijing on March and October respectively. Being held for 19 years， China Fashion Week has witnessed 510 designers participated in it， they are from China （included those from Hong Kong， Macau and Taiwan）， Japan， South Korea， Singapore， France， Italy， USA， Russia， Switzerland， Germany， Netherlands， Sweden， Denmark， the Great Britain， and etc. More than 490 brands and agencies held 1073 release conferences and more than 3300 designers and models took part in 123 final professional contests. China Fashion Week has been an professional release platform for new products， design and technology of top fashion dress， ready-to-wear， accessory， bags and make-up and style. And also it is an internationalized service platform for well-known designers and brands to promote their images， explicit ideas and spread trends.

As an automobile inventor of more than a hundred year， Mercedes-benz has devoted itself in leading fashion trend continuously. Over the past decades， Mercedes-benz has been the most experienced partner of the top international fashion feast. The brilliant rays of the three-point star has spread to more than 40 nation and district across five continents. It has built a tight cooperation connection with New York， Milan， Paris and London fashion week. In the year of 2011， the building of strategic partner relationship with Mercedes-benz has led China fashion week become a member of international fashion feast family， which indicated that China Fashion Week has stepped into a new phase in its development of internationalized and marketization process.