After debuting briefly online in March, Shanghai Fashion Week's trade fair is back on Monday with a lot more emphasis on the offline show than was possible last time around. 

Some 150 brands are showing their latest designs at the four-day fair, almost all domestic firms aiming to make up for sales problems caused by COVID-19. 

This is the first time Lab Showroom has attended Shanghai Fashion Week. Just two weeks ago, it held a private show of its own – sales weren't bad, but the company is hoping to use Fashion Week to make them even better. For companies interested in the wholesale market, offline shows turn out to be the best solution. 

Janice Tiong is the showroom manager of Lab Showroom and said that the company still preferred offline showrooms because people want to touch the clothing.

"Buyers want to touch them before they buy. And designer brands' products are more premium-level. Consumers' requirements for these clothing are relatively high," Tiong said.

Only about 100 brands are participating in this year's Fashion Week trade fair. That's only a third the figure of last year's fair, and just like Lab Showroom, most of the brands are re-focusing on domestic buyers. Chen Peng is one of them. 

Chen, founder of his namesake brand CHEN PENG noticed that an increasing number of domestic buyers now preferred domestic brands.

"Many buyers used to take their budgets to Paris, but now they are using their cash in the domestic market. Domestic designers are getting better, and buyers want cheaper products. And cash liquidity, restocking and logistics are more stable here," Chen said.

The live streams put on by Shanghai Fashion Week last month were more targeted at retail consumers, but retail consumers are not really the prime target of a fashion week. While the virus has nearly abated in China, the next step is helping clothing brands hook back up with their business partners. 

And of course, to buyers, finding business partners in the domestic market also helps solve shipping problems caused by the pandemic. 

A buyer at the fair told CGTN, "Fashion is about timing. If the logistics are not smooth and products arrive two weeks late, the clothes just won't sell. So we're now buying domestic brands whenever we can."

The fashion industry has been badly hurt by the pandemic, and last month's cloud fashion week was an attempt to make up for that. 

The sales were pretty good – the 151 online shows made 500 million yuan – but those were mostly retail sales and didn't really put designers back in touch with major buyers. So the Shanghai Fashion Week committee has now organized an online purchasing platform for wholesale buyers in cities outside Shanghai, hoping it will put the city's brands back into shops. 

"There are many e-commerce platforms that target consumers, but few that target business partners. Buyers and sellers are very demanding, and online platforms cannot replace offline experience. Still, creating online opportunities will help promote offline purchasing and help the two parties communicate outside the exhibition," said Zhang Jie, project director of Shanghai Fashion Week Mode Fair.

The trade fair will end on Thursday. And as usual, the spring and summer fashion week is scheduled for October.