The autumn/winter 2020 Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) will partner with Tmall to launch the first global "online fashion week", with the seven-day show starting on March 24.

This year's event was originally scheduled as an offline show but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

From classes to nightclubs, many industries have turned to live-streaming. The "cloud" list gained another player this week and that will excite fashion lovers around the world.

Advanced digital technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), will play a significant role in the Shanghai fashion event.

SHFW has teamed up with Alibaba's online marketplace Tmall to broadcast its entire roster of runway shows online from March 24 to 30 on Taobao Live, Alibaba's livestreaming channel, making it the first fashion week event to go fully digital.

As one of the industry's most anticipated events of 2019, involving more than 150 brands and 100 designers from around the world, including rising independent Chinese designers, SHFW will showcase their latest autumn-winter collections digitally.

Besides the catwalk shows, viewers can purchase items online while they watch, giving them a chance to get exclusive autumn-winter designs in advance. The organizers will set up a green screen and use AR technology to boost the visual effects.

Compared with traditional fashion shows, the cloud catwalk is hugely innovative, said an industry insider. "This 'cloud show' avoids the gathering of people and saves costs for venue and labor," said the insider. "As 5G technology matures, many shows will be trying to get closer to young people through live-streaming."

The partnership drew a lot of attention from the online community, with many saying they were looking forward to the first cloud fashion show. "Bring more fashion weeks to Taobao Live please," read a typical comment.

After 17 years of development Shanghai Fashion Week attracts participants from more than 30 countries and regions and more than 1,500 brands every season.

An online fashion show in 2020, Shanghai Fashion Week brings the catwalk to the cloud in late March. [Photo/WeChat account: scofcom]