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Fashion defines the city, and innovation leads the future. In early autumn, in the newly transformed western fashion city, the 2024 Wenzhou International Fashion Series of Events arrived as scheduled, opening a fashion feast that connects the world and the trend. At this moment, Wenzhou is not only a famous cultural city with a long history, but also writes a new chapter in fashion, and slowly opens an important window of "China's Fashion Industry Capital".

In this historical coordinate of fashionable Wenzhou, as the core area of ​​Western Fashion City, many industry associations and leading enterprises in Lucheng District, Wenzhou City jointly hosted the Wenzhou Western Fashion City High-quality Development Promotion Conference, the 2024 Wenzhou Western Fashion City Brand Show, the Second China Shoe Capital (Wenzhou) Consumption Festival and Brand Outlet Flash Shopping, and many other fashion "highlights". For Lucheng, what "fashion signals" did this urban feast with hundreds of "shows" release? With the cluster advantages of "China Shoe Capital", how will Lucheng "take advantage of the situation"?

The 10 billion yuan project of Wenzhou Western Fashion City (core area) started construction collectively. Photo provided by the Publicity Department of Lucheng District Committee

Strengthen project support and stimulate fashion momentum

As a sunrise industry that never ends, the fashion industry has broad market prospects and huge potential. In 2024, the Wenzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government issued the "Strong City Action". Wenzhou Western Fashion City, as one of the key construction blocks of the "Five Cities and Three Parks", focuses on the concept of "fashion defines the city", adheres to the connotation development, planning guidance, and projects as king, and strives to build the "China Fashion Industry Capital".

Lucheng Western New City is one of the eight characteristic industrial-city integration new areas of Wenzhou's "Five Cities and Three Parks", and is located in the core area of ​​the Western Fashion City. Promoting the high-quality development of the fashion industry from a strategic height, Lucheng Western New City systematically reshapes the 3,000-acre Lucheng Industrial Zone, the 6.5-square-kilometer "China Shoe Capital" and other industrial spaces, and is advancing construction, showing a new look, and bursting with vitality with a trend of accumulation and development, solidly promoting the integrated development of "industry, city, and people" in the Western Fashion City, and fully highlighting the brand effect of "Chinese fashion in Wenzhou, Chinese fashion in Wenzhou".

Projects promote business, and fashion projects are heavily launched. Adhering to the principle of project construction to support high-level progress, at the launch ceremony of the 2024 Wenzhou International Fashion Series, the 10 billion projects of Wenzhou Western Fashion City (core area) were collectively started, covering urban landmarks, industrial supporting facilities and people's livelihood infrastructure. With a "sprint attitude" of no time to waste and every second counts, Lucheng sounded the clarion call for the construction of fashion in the entire region, attracting capital, technology, talents and other factors to accelerate the gathering, and adding a fashionable "new cover" to the city.

As one of the collectively started projects, the Lao Ren Tou Shoes Fashion Smart Manufacturing Headquarters Base Project in Western Fashion City plans to build production plants, exhibition centers, data centers and other sections, attract well-known brand shoe companies to settle in the core area of ​​Western New City, build a fashion smart manufacturing headquarters base, and inject new impetus into time-honored brands to improve the overall development quality and efficiency of the regional fashion industry. "By laying out the headquarters economy wing in Western Fashion City, we hope to make time-honored brands become fashionable, embrace the new generation, and rejuvenate." Ye Qihao, deputy general manager of Lao Ren Tou Shangpin Co., Ltd., said.

Anchored on the overall goal of building "a gathering place for fashion brands with international influence, a launch site for fashion designs with leading trends, and a fashion IP diffusion zone with regional originality", and in accordance with the time sequence of "one year to lay the foundation, two years to achieve results, and three years to develop a new look", Lucheng will subsequently implement 71 major projects in depth, fully serve millions of fashion innovation and entrepreneurship groups, and cultivate a fashion industry cluster worth hundreds of billions of yuan.

The first "Red Boot Award" China International Footwear Design Competition Award Ceremony Photo courtesy of the Publicity Department of Lucheng District Committee

Promote cluster development and expand the fashion landscape

Wenzhou, which started out as a light manufacturing city, is the first "Chinese Shoe Capital" in China. One out of every 12 pairs of shoes in the world comes from Wenzhou, and the output value of the entire chain exceeds 100 billion yuan. In recent years, Lucheng has fully integrated into the "Strong City Action" development strategy, made in-depth plans to promote the high-quality development of the fashion industry, and promoted the coordinated development of the fashion industry cluster.

Lucheng, which has its own "fashion gene", has entered the "fast lane" as the development of the fashion industry has entered. It has been approved to establish the Zhejiang Lucheng Economic Development Zone and create a provincial digital fashion high-tech zone. It has also established a number of high-level innovation platforms such as the China Footwear and Clothing GPT Innovation Center and the National Intellectual Property Protection Center, creating the province's first batch of footwear industry brains and promoting the digital transformation rate of industrial enterprises above the designated size to 100%.

Fashion drives the new leap in energy level. At the promotion meeting, Lucheng signed strategic cooperation agreements with a number of high-level platforms and high-end design talents on the construction of industrial resources and industrial ecology. From design and research and development to school-local linkage, from intelligent manufacturing to brand operation, from talent introduction and cultivation to platform expansion, the western new city has carried out a full industrial chain and three-dimensional construction, opening up a higher, newer and broader space for the fashion industry.

Competing in the fashion track. As a local brand, Qianyi Shoes Co., Ltd. signed a contract to start the women's shoes intelligent manufacturing base project, actively seeking transformation and upgrading, multi-directional development, and letting the "old tree" bloom "new flowers". "Through this promotion meeting, we clearly see that digital empowerment and intelligent manufacturing are the inevitable direction of the development of the footwear and leather industry. We will seize the opportunity, continue to update equipment, promote industrial upgrading, keep up with the times with new processes and technologies, and take a new path for brand development." said Peng Feng, general manager of Qianyi Shoes Co., Ltd.

Looking ahead, Wenzhou's footwear and leather industry will adhere to the path of high-quality development, further strengthen cooperation and exchanges with well-known design institutions and design schools at home and abroad, and continuously improve its independent innovation capabilities. "Actively embracing the wave of digital and intelligent transformation, we will guide enterprises to use advanced technologies such as big data and cloud computing to create a design exchange platform, and strive to create a number of well-known brands and industrial clusters with international influence." Pan Jianzhong, president of the Wenzhou Footwear and Leather Industry Association, said.

Photo provided by the Publicity Department of Lucheng District Committee of Global Trade Port

Linking global resources to polish your fashion business card

Adhering to the dual-wheel drive of fashion intelligent manufacturing and fashion consumption, Wenzhou has previously jointly released the country's first "world-class footwear industry cluster" construction indicator system with the China Light Industry Federation. Lucheng has built the industry's first flexible manufacturing fully automatic intelligent production line, established the country's first footwear and boots Douyin industry live broadcast base, and launched the "Red Boot Award" China International Footwear Design Competition, depicting a "beautiful picture" of fashion industry innovation.

In order to expand the new pattern of opening up with fashion, Lucheng has successively held fashion events such as the International Leather Shoe Materials and Shoe Machinery Exhibition, the China Shoe Capital Shoe Fair, and deeply connected with high-end exhibitions such as the Jada International Shoe Fair. It has put into use a national-level market procurement trade mode pilot supporting market - the Global Trade Port, attracting more than 1,400 foreign trade enterprises, with an annual import and export volume of more than 40 billion yuan, and was rated as one of the top ten foreign trade zones in Zhejiang Province.

The colorful high-end exhibitions, the professional markets that gather resources, and the industrial structure that reaches the world are both the "container" of fashion and the "fermentation agent" of the industry. Relying on many industries and supporting facilities such as the "China Shoe Capital" Industrial Park, the Shoe Art Town, the Shoe Industry Innovation Service Complex, and the Global Trade Port, during the 2024 Wenzhou International Fashion Series Events, Lucheng will hold a series of new product launches, order exhibitions, industry forums and other theme activities, which will not only show its charm as the core area of ​​the Western Fashion City, but also attract countless industry elites and fashion lovers through the vigorous development of the fashion economy.

As the industry leader and service provider, China Light Industry Federation and China Leather Association also actively support Wenzhou Western Fashion City and will strive to build a platform, integrate resources, promote exchanges, and promote innovation, and provide all-round services and support for fashion industry enterprises such as shoes and leather. "In the future, China Leather Association and Wenzhou Municipal People's Government will jointly explore and study the fashion trends of leather, guide Wenzhou fashion industry enterprises to strengthen technological innovation, management innovation and product innovation, and promote the development of products towards high-end, intelligent and green directions." said Li Yuzhong, Chairman of China Leather Association.

As an important carrier of "using competition to attract talents" for the Western Fashion City, the Wenzhou Western Fashion City High-Quality Development Promotion Conference also released the overall arrangements for the second "Red Boot Award" China International Shoe Design Competition and launched a study on China's footwear fashion trends. Lucheng once again invited the world to gather with "Red Boots" to ignite the "design fire" of the shoe capital's transformation.

"Original design is the foundation of the industry's development." Cao Zhonghua, a national first-class shoe designer, said that the Western Fashion City closely follows the theme of "fashion" and carries out a series of activities such as the Red Boots Award and brand shows, which have attracted many top designers and design schools to gather, showing Lucheng's determination and confidence in cultivating its own team of designers. "I hope to jointly create a gravitational field for fashion design talents and realize the beautiful vision of 'Chinese fashion in Wenzhou, Chinese fashion in Wenzhou'."

The wind starts from the tip of the green duckweed, and the waves form between the ripples. Today, the time has come for Lucheng, the western fashion city, to develop, its momentum has been formed, and its prosperity is just around the corner. Let us make opportunities happen in the name of fashion and create a new era for China's fashion industry! (Shi Qingwen, Zhang Wenxi, Dai Wenqi)