Shenzhen Fashion Week (SZFW) has upped its game this year, not only trialling a bi-annual format (previously it only held one edition per year) but also hosting 105 shows and presentations over its eight-day run, which ended Monday.

According to Pan Ming, president of the Shenzhen Fashion Industry Association, this represents a record-high, and a 30 percent increase over its last edition. A total of 30,000 people attended fashion week events over the past week, with another million people watching shows broadcast online.

SZFW is keen to play up Shenzhen’s strengths as an industrial hub for the fashion industry, as well as a centre of technology and innovation, and a key component of China’s grand plans for a Greater Bay Area economic zone (which also encompasses the Hong Kong and Macau).

It certainly looked the part this week with a 360-degree dome over the catwalk at one of SZFW’s three main locations filming the shows of brands such as local giant Ellassay, using AI technology so those watching along at home were given the full, immersive experience of each look.

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Shenzhen Plans to Be a Duty Free Retail Hub

The Luohu District of Shenzhen has proposed the building of a high-end duty-free shopping hub and a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area duty-free shopping area. Not long ago, Yantian and Qianhai, two other districts in the Southern Chinese megacity revealed similar plans, and the latter has signed agreements with Shenzhen Duty Free Group.