During the fashion week, the buyers in the audience stared intently at the latest clothes on the models on the show. After the end, they shuttled non-stop between the showrooms to select and place orders, deciding which clothes and handbags to put on the show. , accessories and shoes can finally land in stores for sale. The collection of channel resources such as fashion shows and commercial exhibitions is an important way to help independent designer brands shine and achieve commercial development. With the rapid commercialization of Shanghai Fashion Week, models, fashion designers, exhibition halls and buyers constitute the “ecological chain” of Fashion Week.
Model “eye-catching”
On the eve of Shanghai Fashion Week, a 62-year-old model with extremely short silver hair and a contagious smile is busy shooting for several clothing brands in the studio—she is known as “Sister Ma” Ma Jinmei, a fashionable aunt from Shanghai, became a professional model after appearing on the runway of Shanghai Fashion Week in 2018. At that time, she was wearing a cool black leather jacket, slim white trousers and black leather boots, with large red headphones, and polygonal black sunglasses. She walked confidently through a series of high-end fashion brands. On the time train.
Self-confidence, unpretentiousness, and courage to express her personality are all the labels of Ma Jinmei, and more and more people have appointed her to cooperate with her. Agence France-Presse also conducted an exclusive interview with her, and the title was: Age is no longer an obstacle for Chinese models. In fact, the demand for silver-haired models is not new to the fashion circle. For example, the mother of Tesla founder Elon Musk is a silver-haired model that is highly sought after by the fashion circle.
In June 2018, Ma Jinmei appeared on the runway of Shanghai Fashion Week, and walked the catwalk for YOUWEI. Like all professional models, she also needs to participate in interviews, fittings, makeup, rehearsals, etc. before the final stage, “I was very cool in that scene, with a black leather jacket and boots, wearing sunglasses, and big red headphones. That look is not something I usually have the opportunity to try, I really like it.”
However, she also mentioned that although the domestic demand for silver-haired models has increased in the past two years, in terms of fashion shows and blockbuster shooting, the demand for silver-haired models is still relatively constant, “basically only one or two at a time.” She even modestly stated that she was just an embellishment on the show: “Now when I go to the show by myself, it’s the same. A lot of young handsome men and beautiful women walk around in beautiful clothes, dazzled and fatigued. At this time The appearance of two old people and children will make your eyes shine, which is also a kind of adjustment. Of course, this also shows that our aesthetics are becoming more and more diverse, and our attitude towards fashion is becoming more and more open.”
The fashion industry is regarded by many people as a dream-making stage, and it has also left a deep impression on Ma Jinmei’s wonderful life story. However, she has always believed in “live yourself”, but she said that fashion does build life, but it is far from the whole life: “It’s something that enhances our happiness, but don’t take it as the whole of life. Whether it’s my age or you young people, the health of the body is the first. With this, you can live Live a fashionable life by yourself.”
Faced with the popularity and flood of invitations after becoming popular, Ma Jinmei said without hesitation that she enjoys the feeling of being watched in front of the camera, which makes her feel fulfilled. She is especially fascinated and empathetic by the passion with which everyone is working towards the same goal during shoots and catwalks.
For example, in the backstage of the fashion week show, “Everyone is running, especially the models, who are still very calm on stage, but when they are backstage, no matter how high the high heels they step on, they all take off their bodies while running. Clothes, I need to change a catwalk look”; another time when I was shooting a magazine in Beijing, the weather was very hot, but she was wearing the latest autumn and winter style released by Balenciaga. The back of the coat is like an airtight armor. “After a while, all the makeup fell off, and all the staff were tanned, but no one called for hard work, and everyone wanted to do things well.”
Chinese independent designers are at the time
The costumes on the models and the “protagonists” in the exhibition hall are all created by fashion designers. Independent designers are a very important link in the fashion week ecological chain. Chinese independent designer brands emerge in endlessly at Shanghai Fashion Week, which is also the epitome of the 20-year development of China’s fashion industry.
Angela Chen’s graduation project (right) was bought by Jay Chou
Chinese designer brands have continued to grow and develop since the 1990s. Ma Ke, the first Chinese designer to be invited to participate in Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, founded his personal brand “Exception” in 1996, and was later invited by Jia Zhangke to be the heroine of his documentary “Useless”; in 2002, he founded his own personal brand JI Ji Cheng of CHENG, whose ingenious fusion of Chinese elements and Western-style tailoring has made her a first-class designer in China; among the designers active on the world stage, Chen Anqi, who founded the brand ANGEL CHEN, is very representative one.
Chen Anqi, a post-90s Shenzhen girl with a cropped cut, graduated from Central Saint Martins, the top art school in the UK. When she graduated in 2014, she was ranked among the top 5 graduate designers of the year selected by the important design magazine “ID”, and Jay Chou even bought her graduation design. After graduation, she returned to China and founded her personal brand ANGEL CHEN, which is highly recognizable by its highly saturated colors and whimsical use of traditional elements. The success of her personal brand has led her to launch joint collections with Kipling, Adidas, H&M, M·A·C and many other brands as an independent designer.
When she just graduated in 2014, there were not many domestic designer brands, but the entire market had great potential. At this time, a well-known domestic buyer store offered to help her find sponsorship, hoping that she could return to China to start a business, and together they would enrich China’s designer brands. Therefore, Chen Anqi, who has won many awards abroad, chose to release her first show at Shanghai Fashion Week in October of the same year after completing her first series of works.
2017 can be regarded as the year that Chen Anqi “broke the circle” in China. At that time, she collaborated with the famous Italian luxury e-commerce company LUISAVIAROMA on three limited-edition items: a red jacket embroidered with the words “Heaven and the world, I am the only one”, a denim jacket embroidered with cranes, and a pair of Clutch bag decorated with natural embroidery and Chinese characters. Among them, the red jacket was sold out not long after it was put on the shelves.
At the same time, Chen Anqi also invited several stars to promote this cooperation series: Li Yuchun, as the only officially invited star in Greater China, participated in a series of activities wearing a red jacket embroidered with “Heaven and the world, I am the only one”, and the crane denim jacket It was chosen by Yi Yang Qianxi and Guli Nazha to wear. Such cooperation and activities not only let more people know her brand, but also promote sales. Afterwards, many celebrities spontaneously bought them one after another. She once admitted to the media that the star effect can indeed play a role in publicity and promotion for the brand, but she also emphasized that this is not the decisive factor, “The final landing should be an excellent product with reasonable positioning, design, quality and price. , and let more people know and buy through the star effect.”
