Shenzhen Fashion Week 2016 for the fall and winter seasons will be held from March 18 to 25 in the city in the Guangdong province.

The annual event, launched last year, fuses aesthetics from the East and West and showcases the biggest style trends, organizers said.

Held in Shenzhen, one of UNESCO's Cities of Design, the fashion week is sponsored by the city government and organized by the Shenzhen Garment Industry Association and IMG, a global leader in fashion. The weeklong event will promote original fashion brands, stage a runway show and offer new designs.

The main venue will be set up at OCT Harbor, an iconic entertainment center in the city's downtown area that is 6,000 square meters in size.

More than 200 fashion designers will stage 60 shows during the fashion week, which is slated to attract at least 10,000 professional media professionals, buyers, trendsetters, supermodels and heavyweights from the global fashion industry.

Organizers have invited fashion institutes from home and abroad to set up showrooms to display the latest works from designers as well as lifestyle items centered on the theme of "creation, design and fashion".

According to organizers, this year's fashion week will invite a growing number of designers and diversified styles.

Shenzhen has developed into a fashion hub in China, with original fashion brands, industrial clusters and low-to-high-end manufacturing sites.

According to official statistics, the city has nearly 3,000 garment companies that employ about 300,000 workers and produce roughly 2,000 garment brands.

The garment industry generated more than 210 billion yuan ($31.9 billion) in revenue in 2014, a year-on-year increase of 11 percent. Exports from the city's garment industry totaled $10 billion in 2014.

chenhong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/02/2016 page15)