The 2026 Shenzhen·Milan Twin Cities Fashion Week Is Set to Kick Off in Grand Style

Digital and Intelligent Innovation Empowers Fashion’s Evolution; Eastern Aesthetics Take on a New Contemporary Flavor

On July 14, the second press briefing of 2026 for Longhua District, organized by the Publicity Department of the Longhua District Party Committee, was held at the District Party Committee headquarters. More than 20 official and online media outlets from the central, provincial, municipal, and district levels based in the district attended the meeting.

At the meeting, the Longhua District Key Area Development Promotion Center presented an overview of the preparations, specific arrangements, and key highlights for the 2026 Shenzhen·Milan Twin Cities Fashion Week. This year’s Twin Cities Fashion Week will take place from July 17 to 19 at the Dalang Fashion Town in Longhua District. Through a series of activities—including themed fashion shows, industry exchange forums, and interactive experience zones—the event aims to create an international fashion extravaganza that integrates official diplomatic exchanges, targeted industry matchmaking, and immersive participation across the entire venue.

With the theme “Digital and Intelligent Fashion: An Eastern Expression,” this year’s Twin Cities Fashion Week draws deeply on the roots of Chinese aesthetics and embodies the craftsmanship and heritage of intangible cultural heritage. It empowers the fashion industry’s transformation through digital and intelligent innovation, integrates cutting-edge international design paradigms, and promotes the contemporary revitalization and global interpretation of Eastern aesthetic sensibilities.

In addition to the active participation of prominent guests from Italy, this year’s Fashion Week will also bring together, for the first time, guests from the fashion and related industries in countries and regions such as Malaysia and Peru. Capitalizing on two major international milestones—the 56th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Italy and the APEC meeting in Shenzhen—the event aims to build a platform for digital and smart fashion cooperation that fosters mutual learning between China and Italy and promotes multilateral collaboration across the Asia-Pacific region.

Three Years of Dedicated Efforts: Cooperation Between the Two Cities Bears Fruitful Results

The Shenzhen-Milan Twin Cities Fashion Week kicked off in Shenzhen in 2024. Over the past three years, through a cyclical mechanism of “bringing in” and “going out,” cooperation between the two cities has continued to deepen and become more substantive, with collaborative achievements steadily taking shape.

In March 2024, under the theme “Bringing It In,” the inaugural Twin Cities Fashion Week broke new ground and set sail with a grand opening in Shenzhen. The event brought together more than 20 Italian brands, featuring 15 Sino-Italian fashion shows, multiple themed exhibitions, and eight industry matchmaking sessions, attracting over 200 international guests and setting a new record for the scale of any fashion event in the city; The event also marked the unveiling of Longhua’s first showroom and the establishment of the city’s first Sino-Italian fashion exhibition platform, bringing in 23 Italian brands and attracting more international brands and their upstream and downstream industries to set up operations in the area.

In April 2025, the second Shenzhen-Chongqing Fashion Week began to “go global,” making its first overseas foray to Milan Design Week, where it was incorporated into the official program. A series of industry matchmaking and cultural exchange events, held under the theme “East-West Exchange: Symbiotic Fashion,” were successfully organized. The event propelled Shenzhen’s global expansion into the 2.0 era, with Shenzhen brands such as Honor, Yongfengyuan, Yizhi Hui, and Zan Life securing multiple cross-border partnerships, driving a year-over-year increase of 20% in sales of related products. The “Shenzhen (Longhua)–Milan Fashion and Economic Cooperation Office” was established in Milan, and the Fashion Week’s global official website went live simultaneously. The event received high praise from Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

After two editions, the collaboration between the two cities has borne fruit. From receiving a passive invitation to the inaugural Twin Cities Fashion Week in 2024 to actively participating in and collaborating on this year’s edition in 2026, the international fashion industry’s perception of Shenzhen’s fashion ecosystem has undergone a qualitative leap—from “cautious observation” to “understanding,” “recognition,” and “respect.”

Digital and Smart Scenarios Take Center Stage; Oriental Expression Carries Forward the Legacy of Artistry

This year’s Twin Cities Fashion Week features a “Five Ones” core framework—one themed fashion show, one “Digital and Smart Fashion: Oriental Expression Gravity Field,” one China-Italy and Asia-Pacific Industry Matchmaking Forum, one Digital and Smart Fashion Exploration Tour, and a series of citywide companion events—to create an international fashion extravaganza that integrates fashion presentations, industry matchmaking, digital and physical experiences, and citywide engagement.

The opening night will be a star-studded event, featuring a joint runway show by Chinese and Italian brands. The opening ceremony will take place on the evening of July 17 at the Dalang Fashion Town. The event will feature international Italian brands such as Casa Preti—a minimalist art brand a regular at Rome Fashion Week—momonì, a brand known for its sophisticated, affordable, and practical Italian women’s workwear, and Domenico Orefice, an up-and-coming designer brand from Florence; alongside China’s “Golden Peak Award”-winning designer brand HUI (Designer: Zhao Huizhou), and the luxury down brand RAXXY (Designer: William Shen), will share the runway. Through the collision of deconstructed Italian style and Eastern aesthetics, they will showcase the most cutting-edge fashion designs from both China and Italy.

Over the course of three days, nearly 100 distinguished guests will gather in Shenzhen to discuss the future of fashion. Confirmed attendees at this year’s Fashion Week include government representatives from various countries, figures from the fashion and creative industries, representatives from industry organizations and technology companies, buyers, and media representatives.

The Top Ten Fashion-Tech Scenarios will also be showcased. This year’s Fashion Week is centered on the fusion of technology and fashion, with technology set to be further integrated into the entire process—from design and presentation to the consumer experience—to inject new momentum into fashion innovation. The top ten fashion-tech scenarios—including Masfield cloud rendering, HarmonyOS all-scenario smart wearables, and 3D-printed personalized customization—will utilize digital technology to span the entire industrial chain, from design and manufacturing to consumption, comprehensively showcasing the innovative achievements of Shenzhen’s integrated development of technology and fashion.

Particularly worth noting is that “Digital and Intelligent Fashion: The Gravitational Field of Eastern Expression”—rooted in Eastern aesthetics, driven by technological innovation, and guided by industrial transformation—will showcase representative exhibits from apparel and accessories, jewelry, lifestyle aesthetics, smart wearables, digital interaction, and intangible cultural heritage crafts, forming four major thematic sections that systematically showcase the integration of Shenzhen’s fashion industry with Milan’s design resources. Guided by the philosophy of “fashion as form, technology as framework, and culture as soul,” the exhibition unfolds the Fashion Silk Road of Eastern lifestyle aesthetics through five chapters. Interactive experiences, such as loom demonstrations and ICH craft workshops, are also featured on-site, allowing visitors to experience a fashion lifestyle that is visually engaging, tactile, and immersive.

This year’s Fashion Week will also establish a cross-platform, full-cycle communication matrix. Through text, images, short videos, and live streams, it will collaborate with official platforms, online influencers, and fashion bloggers to continuously release a series of content on platforms such as WeChat Official Accounts, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Video Account, showcasing the highlights of Fashion Week from every angle.

Four Major “Firsts” Lead the Way; Five Major Leaps in Capabilities

Compared to previous years, this year’s Twin Cities Fashion Week has achieved new breakthroughs in institutional innovation, forming a new framework characterized by four “firsts” and five levels of advancement.

First, it pioneered the “Fashion + Investment Banking + Industry Matchmaking” model, collaborating with international fashion investment banks to organize dedicated sessions for overseas partnerships; second, it pioneered a dual-launch mechanism combining “initiatives” and “scenarios,” simultaneously unveiling the Twin-City Initiative and the Top Ten Fashion Technology Scenarios during the opening ceremony; Third, it pioneered an Asia-Pacific multilateral co-creation model, bringing together guests from multiple countries and regions across the Asia-Pacific for the first time, building upon the continued deepening of bilateral cooperation between China and Italy; fourth, it pioneered an operational model of “market-led organization, corporate participation, and government support,” achieving an organic combination of market-driven, efficient collaboration and policy safeguards.

At the event level, this year’s Twin Cities Fashion Week has been elevated from a “regional event” to an event within the “China-Italy Cultural Exchange Framework”; In terms of cooperation, it has evolved from “China-Italy bilateral” collaboration to “deepened China-Italy + Asia-Pacific linkage” multilateral cooperation; in terms of industry impact, it has shifted from a “display-focused” approach to a long-term implementation mechanism featuring “targeted matchmaking + a six-month follow-up system”; In terms of guest invitations, the event has evolved from industry-level collaboration to one led by official representatives from Italian cities and regions, with participation from high-profile guests from multiple countries; In terms of publicity, a five-tier communication matrix has been established, covering central media, provincial, municipal, and district media, Chinese and international industry media, online media, and social media platforms, to comprehensively enhance communication reach and influence.

Three years of Twin Cities Fashion Week, with no signs of slowing down. From Shenzhen to Milan, and then back from Milan to Shenzhen, Twin Cities Fashion Week has continuously expanded the breadth and depth of its collaborations, while also bearing witness to the deep integration of technology, fashion, and industry. Evolving from a fashion extravaganza into a platform for multilateral international exchange and cooperation, the Twin Cities Fashion Week continues to connect global fashion resources, drive industry innovation, and chart a contemporary path for Eastern expression, while also serving as a vital window for Chinese fashion to engage with the world.

The Shenzhen-Milan Twin Cities Fashion Week is not only a three-day fashion extravaganza but also a microcosm of Longhua District’s efforts to promote high-quality development in the fashion industry. Today, the Dalang Fashion Town has attracted more than 700 fashion enterprises and over 300 independent brands, bringing together nine Golden Peak Award-winning designers and more than 30 of China’s Top Ten Fashion Designers. In recent years, Longhua District has remained committed to empowering fashion through digital technology and the industry through ecological development, driving the deep integration of technology and design. From the Masfield cloud computing platform to Yingling’s intelligent AI scheduling system, and from the “Dalang Cup” China Women’s Wear Design Competition to the integration of culture, commerce, and tourism, Dalang Fashion Town is accelerating its progress on a new path driven by industrial innovation and artificial intelligence.