Alibaba will stream this week's New York Fashion Week to audiences in China, introducing U.S. brands to that market. Image credit: Alibaba, IMG
Alibaba Group, one of the largest ecommerce platforms worldwide, will broadcast all events from this week’s New York Fashion Week to its Chinese audience of almost 900 million consumers.
As part of Alibaba’s three-year partnership with IMG, owner and producer of New York Fashion Week, the NYFW: The Shows’ entire roster of events and presentations will stream on the Youku video-streaming platform and ecommerce sites Taobao and Tmall.
“Through this partnership, we aim to bring the energy and excitement of New York Fashion Week to our viewers in China,” said James Lin, Alibaba Group’s head of fashion for North America, in a statement.
“Iconic and emerging American brands are already seeing great success in China through their flagship stores on Tmall, and we look forward to working with even more American designers to help them expand their global footprint,” he said.
Streaming in fashion
New York Fashion Week ran Sept. 13-17 in a new hybrid format with a limited number of socially distanced audiences at physical shows as well as streaming online to a global audience.
The partnership has so far included efforts aimed at supporting young, emerging Chinese fashion talents, while also helping U.S. designers gain exposure and build their recognition among China’s style mavens, Alibaba said.
The NYFW experience is designed so that Chinese consumers can easily access and shop at participating brands’ flagship stores on Alibaba’s platforms, Mr. Lin said.
For the fashion event, Alibaba launched a dedicated portal to stream all the runway shows that took place at Spring Studios in New York as well as brands’ virtual presentations and lookbooks.
Audiences can also watch behind-the-scenes footage from the shows and designer interviews produced by IMG.
“Alibaba is the perfect partner to introduce American fashion brands to new consumer audiences in China and around the world,” said Jennifer Taylor, vice president of global consulting and business development for IMG’s fashion events and properties division, in a statement.
“Alibaba’s digital technology and e-commerce expertise will give all the designers participating in NYFW: The Shows the opportunity to accelerate their business growth by showcasing their collections to hundreds of millions of fashion consumers,” she said.