Our Surreal Experience at Shenzhen Fashion Week 2017

By Bailey Hu, March 29, 2017

“Don’t step on the white carpet!” a suited staff member snaps.

It’s our first fashion week event, and we’re learning that the scene isn’t as effortlessly glamorous as the promo photos show. For one, the ‘catwalk’ is a carpet stretching the length of the room.

A cell phone ringtone overhead startles before we realize it’s part of the soundtrack, a prelude to a bland pop-rock tune on a five-minute loop.

Audience members file in, filling up the general seating and two rows of VIP seats on either side of the carpet. Some wear pointy-toed heels and artfully-ripped jeans, but almost all the cameramen and some VIPs are wearing plain t-shirts.

Our observations end when the lights dim and the show starts.

The models shamble out one by one, their mouths all bound or gagged. Each holds a smartphone, pretending to be so preoccupied that she 'accidentally' bumps into the next model. At the end of the catwalk, instead of striking a pose, the models fake taking a selfie or checking their texts.

Near the end of the show, they line up to face both sides of the room and photograph the people photographing them, poking fun at the rehearsed, silly nature of Fashion Week itself.

Outside, we ask to take a picture of an off-duty model. She sashays towards us as if she were on a catwalk, gesturing and smiling at an imaginary audience. She’s in a parking lot on a sweltering day.

Nearby, a group of chic, chubby-cheeked kids pose for a photo in front of a Shenzhen Fashion Week sign. Despite identical t-shirts reading 'Little Swan Kids Model Club,' they look unhappy, or maybe they’re just practicing their pouts.

We spotted her at the Siyi Huang fashion show later that day too

Leaving the heat behind, we enter an air-conditioned venue to see a fur-themed show. Loud bass thumps in the background and the expressionless models have whited-out eyebrows.

There’s something hypnotizing about the colorful tufts of fur on their coats, dresses and shoes. Under muted electric lights the material has a soft, almost metallic sheen. Highlights ripple through the fur as the models make figure eights around two pillars.

Afterwards, we spot a man in a shiny green blazer and fedora with matching green hatband walk away from the venue. He was giving orders to the models earlier – he might even be the designer.

Shenzhen Fashion Week teases with the chance of witnessing something groundbreaking or rubbing shoulders with the could-be famous.

A couple of fashionable attendees at the fur show

We think about going after the fedora-hatted man to ask some questions, but we're out of time. Instead, we hail a cab and prepare to return to the real world.

[Images via Mike Jordan, Bailey Hu]