Global Fashion Elites Flock to China for the 2018 Chengdu Fashion Week

CHENGDU, China, Nov. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 13 evening, the 2018 Chengdu Fashion Week (CDFW) kicked off in Chengdu, the most famous park city in China. Under the theme "Chengdu - New York, World Cities' Fashion Night," the event brought together guests from nearly 100 fashion enterprises and institutions in New York, Paris, Milan, and Tokyo. The 6-day event has attracted 9 world-leading fashion institutions to Chengdu for exchanges. Seven top fashion shows, including Chloe and Stella McCartney, were held in Taikoo Li, an iconic commercial block in downtown Chengdu, bringing 2018 fall-winter and 2019 spring collections, together with the "China Design in Chengdu" fashion industry chain conference and other activities. 

Gathering at the grand global fashion event were representatives from the European Design Center (EDC), Goldman Sachs, the University of Tokyo, New York Fashion Week (NYFW) and its sponsors IMG, the Parsons School of Design. Many other first-tier US-based fashion institutions as well as fashion leaders inside and outside China were also present.

Elliott Foote, special envoy of NYFW and planning director of IMG, said in his speech that Chengdu is a beautiful city with profound cultural background, and international designers and top brands could be invited here with their designs and products. Chengdu should take advantage of Shu brocade and embroidery and other cultural heritages with local characteristics, adhering to its own culture to attract brands and talents from other countries.

A forum themed "What Can Chengdu Do for World Fashion?" was convened during the opening ceremony. Centering on the theme, guests shared their views on the prospect of the fashion industry and those on how to promote the development of the industry from different perspectives.

Federico Boselli, tenure chairman envoy of the Milan Fashion Week and chairman envoy of EDC, said that he was touched by the fashion sense of Chengdu upon getting off the plane. In his opinion, fashion, as an attitude and style of life closely related to people, is mingled with the culture of a city.

Jerome Scola, chief strategy officer of SLUSH, French, said Chengdu felt familiar to him because it reminds him of Paris: "People in Chengdu enjoys life and is full of energy, just like Paris. It has an unusual temperament which combines traditional culture and modern fashion."

Lv Yan, an international supermodel and fashion designer, expressed that Chengdu is an energetic city where young people are fond of novel things related to lifestyle, and many girls even know very niche brands when talking about fashion.

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in western China, is a world-famous cultural city with a history of over 4,500 years, dubbed "Land of Abundance" since ancient times. The city, featuring synergy of traditional culture and fashion trends and coexistence of historical accumulation and modern civilization, gives birth to the Tianfu culture of "Innovation and Creativity, Elegance and Fashion, Optimism and Tolerance, Friendliness and Charity".

According to the 2018 China Urban Fashion Index Report released by China's cutting-edge lifestyle weekly New Weekly on October 22, Chengdu tops the list of China's most fashionable and attractive cities by virtue of its diversity and inclusion of foreign talents and new technologies, as well as a strong sense of belonging from its citizens. The list focuses on indexes closely related to fashion lifestyle. According to the data cited in the report, Chengdu has nearly 10,000 teahouses, 3,463 bookstores, and 2,078 bars, ranking first, second and third in China, respectively. Moreover, it was honored "2017 City of Bookstore".

Fashion lifestyle also reflects the rapid development of a city. On November 13 (American time), GaWC, one of the most famous city rating agencies in the world, released the report on Roster of World Cities 2018, in which Chengdu jumped to the 71st place from the 100th place in 2017 among cities worldwide.

SOURCE The Organizing Committee of the 2018 Chengdu Fashion Week