Label replaces runway show with one-on-one meetings amidst COVID-19 outbreak

Taiwanese luxury label Shiatzy Chen invited editors and buyers to intimate meetings in Paris after its Fashion Week show was cancelled

Spotted: Taiwanese luxury label Shiatzy Chen is one of many Asian fashion brands that cancelled their shows during Paris Fashion Week, due to the coronavirus outbreak. However, as an alternative, the label invited editors and buyers for intimate meetings in Paris with its founder, designer Wang Chen Tsai-hsia, to present its autumn/winter 2020 collection. 

From disruptions to supply chains to factory closures and flight cancellations, the weeks leading up to Fashion Week were extremely chaotic for labels such as Shiatzy Chen. For example, its Taiwanese team had to take over embroidery because of workshops that were to originally be held in Shanghai, and fabrics had to be rerouted from Italy.

The spread of the coronavirus has deeply affected the retail environment throughout Asia, bringing many countries to a halt. Given that Asia is the base for most of Shiatzy Chen’s customers, it has been forced to experiment with new ways of reaching its clients. Not only have they been sending a lot of messages expressing care and concern to their customers, but the team has also been reaching out to top clients in places such as Hong Kong, to show them their collection selectively.

“Even though we cancelled the show we still want to push the collection. We came up with a new concept to show it by arranging one-on-one meetings with buyers and media,” said Madame Wang in an interview with South China Morning Post.

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