The fifth global digital trade expo "Digital Trade Night" was held. As the guest country program, "Double Rhythm of the Silk Road: Weaving the World" was performed brilliantly. The "Hanbo Cup" work show from Shangcheng District of Hangzhou and Zhu Bingren's "Beijing Style Melting" show were on stage one after another. Fashion creativity and intangible cultural heritage skills blended and collided on the stage.
A show is not only a display of fashion creativity, but also an aspect of the transformation of the traditional professional market.
Using the Digital Trade Fair as a window, Shangcheng connects fashion design, intangible cultural heritage skills, digital technology and professional markets, promotes the extension of traditional markets from commodity distribution to original design, brand operations, cross-border trade, cultural tourism consumption and other diversified business formats, and explores new paths for the transformation and upgrading of traditional professional markets.
Digital trade night scene. Photo courtesy of Shangcheng District Party Committee Propaganda Department
Cross-border integration of fashion creativity and traditional skills
Malaysia, the guest of honor at this digital trade fair, is an important stop on the Maritime Silk Road and an important partner on the Digital Silk Road. The program of the guest country looks back on history with the "Silk Road", interprets cultural integration with "Double Rhythm", and shows how digital technology connects the world with "Digital Weaving".
Among them, the winning works of the "Hanbo Cup" became a bright spot on the stage. As a young designer fashion competition with a long history in China and international influence, the "Hanbo Cup" will hold the finals in Shangcheng, Hangzhou in 2023. In this program, 6 sets of award-winning works were unveiled. The encounter between oriental aesthetics and cutting-edge design concepts also gave original designs a display window for the international stage.
On the other side, Zhu Bingren’s “Beijing Style Melting” show brought the intangible cultural heritage bronze sculpture skills to the fashion stage.
Zhu Bingren Copper is a historical classic industry benchmark enterprise that grew up in Shangcheng. It is deeply involved in intangible inheritance and innovation, expands digital e-commerce channels online, deploys overseas stores, and realizes the digitalization of traditional craftsmanship overseas. In Zhu Bingren's "Beijing Style Melting" show, national-level intangible cultural heritage bronze sculpture skills collided with modern fashion, and the colorful colors of "Ren Cai" flowed between the clothes. Traditional craftsmanship has moved from exhibition spaces to fashion shows, and has also extended from cultural displays to consumption and trade scenes.
From “selling goods” to “selling designs and brands”
Behind each piece of fashion and each piece of craftsmanship is the epitome of the transformation of Shangcheng's professional market.
China Clothing No. 1 Street in Shangcheng District gathers 23 professional markets and 13,000 stalls, making it a well-known clothing distribution center in the country. In the past, this place was famous for wholesale transactions; now, the market is extending to the front end of the industrial chain.
In recent years, Shangcheng has launched the "Four Seasons Cup", an original brand design competition for the professional market, and held fashion launch events such as "Four Seasons Fashion Night" to introduce design resources through competitions, shows, exhibitions and other forms to cultivate original brands and stimulate the design vitality of market entities.
“Through professional market competitions, we select brands with market potential, focus on the voice of original design, and encourage merchants to develop from stalls to brands.” The person in charge of relevant units in Shangcheng District said that the competition resources are imported into the clothing industry cluster to promote the transformation of the market from simply “selling goods” to “selling designs, selling brands, and selling culture.”
In 2026, since the "China Garment First Street Block Market Cluster" was selected into the first batch of Zhejiang provincial market transformation and upgrading pilots, Shangcheng District has closely followed the "four new" development orientations of consumption, empowered by digital, persisted in exploring breakthroughs in paths such as trade-industry linkage and integration of domestic and foreign trade, continued to promote market transformation and upgrading, and opened up " The closed loop of the whole industry chain of event design - market implementation - supply chain production - cross-border overseas expansion will promote the traditional stall wholesale model and iteratively upgrade to original design, brand operation, cross-border trade, cultural, business and tourism consumption diversified business formats, and realize the transformation from "traditional wholesale distribution center" to "international tourism consumption check-in place".
Digital trade night scene. Photo courtesy of Shangcheng District Party Committee Propaganda Department
Digital empowerment opens up more consumption scenarios
Market transformation does not only occur in transaction methods.
In the "Xizi Magic Box" Digital Intelligence Experience Center, digital applications such as Lingdi Technology Style3D, Hebo International & Zhiyi Technology Fashionseek, and Wansheli Technology AI Fitting Mirror were introduced into the business scene, providing new digital tools for clothing design, display and consumption.
At the same time, Shangcheng continues to expand the consumer space of the market. New scenes such as aerial shows and pedestrian street commerce are gradually being laid out, and the traditional clothing market is gradually becoming more connected with trendy consumption and cultural and tourism experiences.
Cross-border trade is also an important direction in market transformation. Since the beginning of this year, Shangcheng has carried out 9 special training sessions on market transformation around the "Tide of Four Seasons Green, Goods Connecting the World" to help market merchants understand cross-border e-commerce channels and expand overseas markets; the boutique children's clothing market has also established cross-border service points with platforms such as AliExpress to provide service support for merchants going overseas.
From a piece of clothing in a stall to a fashion show on the international stage; from a traditional wholesale market to an industrial cluster connecting design, brand, supply chain and overseas markets, Shangcheng is exploring new growth space in the professional market.
In the future, the local area will continue to promote the integration of digital and physical products in the traditional professional market, expand new consumption formats, new models, and new scenarios, further release the momentum of original design, brand operations, cross-border overseas expansion, and cultural tourism consumption, and use open platforms such as digital trade fairs to bring more fashion creativity and traditional skills from Shangcheng to the world. (over)
