Shanghai Fashion Week showed resilience in the face of unsettling economic headwinds. Despite the challenging environment, the edition saw hundreds of brands, events, forums, and guests including Rihanna between Oct. 9 to 17, reinforcing the event’s importance on the fashion circuit.

It kicked off with a buzzy runway from local favorite Comme Moi helmed by supermodel Lv Yan and closed with Vivienne Westwood sending men in skirts down the runway. In between were hundreds of punchy brand debuts, store openings, and glitzy after-parties alongside lively discussions on eco-cultures, a return of international names, and new retail models.

On the whole, however, Spring Summer 25 was more restrained than previous editions. According to the secretary-general of the Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) organizing committee, the entire fashion industry is facing a period of uncertainty—together. In a press conference, Lv Xiaolei acknowledged that “challenges always exist, in every era and stage” and that the organization had been giving them serious consideration.

“Shanghai Fashion Week has been changing for more than 20 years,” she stated. In light of the current downbeat economy and weakened consumer sentiment, it now needed to “reconsider how to play the role of a bridge” which includes bringing together various stakeholders to “tap into emerging markets, break traditional models, explore new paths, and help designers achieve breakthroughs in creative design and business.”

With that in mind, Spring Summer 25 was a testimony to its strength and the consistency of its homegrown brands. Here’s a breakdown of the fashion week’s numbers—many of which were shared exclusively.

120+ brand and event showcases

Over 120 events took place in two official show spaces in the retail district of Xintiandi (which saw sales area increase by 7% month-on-month during SHFW), another two venues at the showcasing platform Labelhood, and various locations throughout the city.

Angel Chen’s breathtaking homecoming after a three-year absence was a hotly anticipated ticket. Know around the world for her appearance in Netflix’s Next in Fashion, she took the audience on a nomadic journey across China surveying East Asian craft from Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, and Sichuan to Yunnan and Nepal.

Shushu/Tong, Short Sentence, Ao Yes, and Oude Waag also produced standout shows with newcomers Office H and designer of the moment Ya Yi making notable debuts. Samuel Guì Yang’s new Chinese style was a highlight off-schedule.

More international brands, especially Asian names, were showcased during the schedule. On the runway, Sixdo from Vietnam, Malaysia’s Ivan Yong Couture, and the Korean label You Ji Young. Paul Smith opened a store at the Bund Financial Centre and British retailer Harrods hosted the fifth edition of its networking hub The Harrods Hive.

Fast fashion giant H&M launched a joint series with SHFW and the independent designers Garçon By Garçon on October 10. Many pieces in the collection exhibited at the MODE exhibition and a flash space created at Xingye Taikoo Hui—sold out on the day.

Sustainability was a big driver of SHFW. Events included Shawyah Yeh’s annual Shan Future 2024 forum on eco-cultures which featured speakers from LVMH, JNBY, and Erdos. Fur-free brand TUYU held a show with the non-profit promoting sustainable fur-free fashion in China, ActAsia. Hong Kong-based NGO Redress held several events including a runway and an event with Bicester Village. Finally, M SPACE brought together guests from all sectors of the fashion week to discuss the sustainable development of the event.

Finally, the Shanghai Fashion Designer Association—also helmed by Lv—secured the continued support of event sponsors Visa which launched its Visa Creator Program, and Mercedes Benz who collaborated with puffer couturier Chenpeng.

620+ brands in tradeshows and showrooms

Hundreds of designers and labels flocked to the city during the event to showcase their collections to buyers. The number of brands participating in the official Mode trade show saw a 10% increase on Autumn Winter 24. Over 50% of the brands from the 300 participants came from overseas including the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia. These included Gondid Design from Thailand at Closet showroom and France’s Suncoo in DFO as well as numerous Korean brands such as Hanacha Studio at Alter showroom. SHFW signed an MOU with the Council of Fashion Designers Tokyo cementing relationships with Japan.

Plenty of new designer names such as Re Shiu and Chen Xu could be found among familiar names like 8ON8 and Ming Ma at the consolidated network of trade shows, showrooms, and showcases from Mode and Ontimeshow to Tube, Not, and Lab. Buyers such as Leo Guegan from French retailer Printempts and Tran Thi Hoai Anh, the founder of Vietnam’s largest fashion retail boutique group Global Link and Lorenzo Hardar, from Los Angeles-based boutique H Lorenzo flew in for the event.

Zemira Xu, founder of Tube Showroom suggested that the entire market—from buyers to designers—was showing the strain at this time. “We found that some buyers didn’t appear this season. But still, we have several brands showing well, and even increasing under this challenge such as Shushu/tong, Garcon by Garcon, and Aubruino, among others,” she explained.

57 million + streams of Moncler Genius

Luxury brand Moncler held the biggest event of the season. Dropping at the tail end of SHFW, it created a living metropolis across 30,000 square meters in the CSSC Pavilion–a historic shipyard by the Huangpu River—featuring installations of capsule collaborations with Rick Ownes, Jil Sander, and Palm Angels among others.

International celebrities like Rhianna (whose Fenty Beauty has been expanding in China), AS$P Rocky, and Anne Hathaway flew in to mingle with local stars like actor Wei Daxun, artist Xu Bing, and photographer Wing Shya for a concert with Chen Lijun and Henry Lau. Over 8,000 guests attended the event in person while over 57 million viewers watched the livestream bringing the fashion week to a close.

110 million + viewers

During the pandemic, SHFW was the first global fashion week to pivot online. The figures from this season show it has retained its digital audience with a staggering 110 million viewers tuning into livestreams on SHFW’s official Douyin channel. The number of new topics on Weibo exceeded 70 million, and the event ranked in the top 3 on the list of popular fashion blogger topics. The event’s visibility allowed numerous brands to surge in popularity including Pantterfly which was showing for the fifth time. Oude Waag’s collection was also trending on Weibo’s hot search, gaining tens of millions in traffic.

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