Shanghai Fashion Week returns with itsSpring/Summer 2021 edition kicking off on Thursday.

The week will see almost 100 runway shows at city landmarks such as Xintiandi, One East Plaza and Taikoo Hui. It will also feature trade fairs and summits on various topics such as sustainable development and green fashion.

The theme for the event celebrating its 18th anniversary is “Eternal Runway.”

“Compared with past seasons, the pace of Shanghai Fashion Week’s subsequent development will slow down and gradually become more stable, focusing on the enhancement and enrichment of the connotation for each sector,” said Lu Xiaolei, vice secretary-general of the Shanghai Fashion Week Organization.

The week began on Thursday night with Lily, the Chinese fashion brand for urban women, and it will close with menswear designer brand Cabbeen. The Fashion Water Cube rising up from Taiping Lake Park inXintiandi as the main runway will feature the collections of ready-to-wear fashion brands.Designers and brands include Angel Chen, Ming Ma, Leaf Xia andYes By Yesir, with RUI, YohKaen, Yuhan Wang, Nodressand Shie Lyu new faces this season.

Lectures, summits and talks will be held during the fashion gala, hoping to point a new way for the industry after COVID-19. Yehyehyeh brings the third edition of the Shan Future Forum both offline and online, partnering with the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, while a gala dinner event will be held and livestreamed with Milan’s Green Carpet event.

Club Adventube and Farfetch open-door pop-up space will support Chinese and overseas designer brands to hold their pop-up exhibitions, while British retailer Harrods will present its Harrods Studio to connect with Chinese audiences and talk about fashion issues, including new fashion trends, the green luxury industry and Chinese design power.

GQ China will host a fashion party themed "Upside Down" to support Chinese designers in the post-pandemic era, and Yu Holdings will work with Shanghai Fashion Week to launch the Yu Prize with continuous support to Chinese creative talents.

After successful digital collaborations with the online shopping platform Tmall in March, Shanghai Fashion Week will continue the partnership by introducing a Tmall Fashion Festival, to bring fashion to the public in both physical and digital ways.