China’s Suzhou is widely known as the City of Silk or, as the old saying goes, the Garden of Shanghai. However, in recent years, things have been changing in Changshu, which stands as one of Suzhou’s most renowned and important fashion industry manufacturing areas.

 
During the high-profile period of this season’s fashion week, a powerful new event- Suzhou Tech Fashion Week (STFW)- captured the attention of the fashion industry from October 9 to 16. The inaugural event saw thousands of fashion and textile experts from around the world converge on Changshu, leading to dozens of domestic and international trade agreements, and garnering significant media acclaim.
 
Positioning itself as China’s first fashion event to explicitly focus on “Fashion with Technology,” STFW has initiated a fashion revolution under the powerful theme: “Technology is touchable, fashion is applicable.”

The initiative is strategic, not only leveraging Changshu’s established, robust local industrial chains, but also strongly advocating for a new trend: fostering an innovative consumption atmosphere driven by new technologies. The event is set to become a vital platform where future-forward design meets manufacturing prowess.
 
At this moment in history, the global textile industry is undergoing a triple transformation spanning technology, green development, and consumption. Simultaneously, China’s ‘dual circulation’ strategy is promoting domestic demand upgrades and self-reliance in the industrial supply chain.
 
“As a traditional textile powerhouse, Changshu is at a critical juncture, attempting to ‘cross over from a major manufacturing city to a major fashion city’. This requires both consolidating the advantage of its comprehensive supply chain and breaking through bottlenecks in high-end design and core technology to find new growth drivers,” said a local officer from Changshu. “Currently, we are utilising an ‘Outdoor Sports Plus’ strategy, focusing on outdoor athletic apparel (mainly functional jackets) as the second pillar of its industrial innovation and development. The goal is to build a new high ground for the outdoor sports apparel industry with national influence.”
 
Under the guidance of these government strategies and development initiatives, numerous enterprises have flourished, establishing themselves as leading pioneers in various specialised fields. Amongst them, a quintessential representative of Changshu’s success is Bosideng, which recently held its latest presentation at Paris Fashion Week.

 
On the fertile ground of Changshu’s textile and apparel industry, Bosideng is both a witness to the industry’s development and a major participant and driver. Bosideng is deeply embedded in the construction of the ‘Fashion Changshu’ regional brand, growing alongside local industry. It acts as a ‘chain-leader enterprise,’ driving the transformation and upgrading of the Changshu textile and apparel cluster towards high-end, intelligent, and green manufacturing.
 
After dominating the market and sales in China for over three decades, Bosideng has transformed into a global fashion giant. Today, the business is ranked among the world’s 500 most influential brands and China’s top 500 enterprises. It boasts a brand value of 118.058 billion yuan, having maintained its position in the exclusive 100-billion-yuan brand club for two consecutive years.
 
“The intelligent manufacturing base we invested in and built has spurred on the local area to establish over 300 intelligent production lines and workshops, providing strong support for Changshu to build a high-quality development demonstration zone for the Jiangsu Province’s high-end textile industry. It can be said that Bosideng is not only a ‘growth model’ for Changshu’s industry but also a vibrant representation of ‘Fashion Changshu’ on the global stage,” said an official spokesperson for the brand.

In September 2025, Bosideng launched its Foldable 3-in-1 Expedition Down Jacket, which features the world’s first elastic GORE-TEX® fabric and innovative self-developed temperature control technology. This was a breakthrough innovation with “one garment, three ways to wear, easily managing a 20°C temperature difference.” Furthermore, the ‘Master Puffs’ collection, which was released in October during Paris Fashion Week, utilised airy, fluffy fabric and architectural aesthetic design. This was a revolutionary upgrade in both lightweight performance (reducing fabric weight by 70%) and thermal insulation, demonstrating the Chinese brand’s innovative strength to the global fashion community.
 
In addition to local brands’ commitment to R&D in the technology sector, Changshu is experiencing a vibrant resurgence through the burgeoning fields of cross-border e-commerce and live-streaming commerce.
 
Furthermore, the Changshu Garment City stands as one of China’s largest professional textile and apparel markets, generating an annual transaction volume exceeding 150 billion yuan. By attracting over 40,000 market entities and employing more than 100,000 people, including nearly 50,000 live-streaming commerce professionals, this dynamic area has successfully established a booming market landscape known for its “Online and Offline Dual 100 billion” transactions.
 
In recent years, Changshu textile and apparel enterprises have been actively going global. They are transitioning from a traditional ‘OEM export’ model to a new stage of independent brand expansion abroad with a global supply chain layout. An increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises are adopting a ‘joint internationalisation’ model to share overseas market resources and channels.
 
Looking ahead, a new development path for these enterprises involves establishing overseas production capacity in Southeast Asia (such as Vietnam and Cambodia). By utilising local labour cost advantages to set up apparel production bases, their products can effectively spread to markets in ASEAN, Australia, and beyond.

by Sissi Chu