Former Condé Nast China Head Gill Zhou Named Shenzhen Fashion Week President

Shenzhen Garment Industry Association, the organizing body of Shenzhen Fashion Week, recently hired Gill Zhou, former head of Condé Nast China, as its fashion week president, effective Feb. 10.

The role was created for Zhou at the biannual fashion week, which, according to the organization, aims to position itself as “the technology-driven fashion hub and global calling card” for the city.

“Ms. Gill Zhou, with her outstanding resume spanning the fields of technology, media, and fashion, will help promote the strategic upgrading and industry reorganization of Shenzhen Fashion Week, which in turn will help Shenzhen leap from ‘China‘s fashion capital’ to ‘global fashion hub,'” according to the organization.

“My goal is to help China’s designers better connect with the rest of the world,” Zhou told WWD. “Shenzhen Fashion Week also has a lot of potential in speeding up its fashion tech offerings and continue to accelerate its innovation capacities, especially in fields such as intangible cultural heritage, sustainability, and more.”

Shenzhen Fashion Week, which started a decade ago, is a government-led initiative that aims to polish the tech hub’s fashion credentials and differentiate itself from runway events in Beijing and Shanghai.

Zhou’s relationship with Shenzhen Fashion Week started almost a year ago during her tenure at Condé Nast China. In April 2024, Shenzhen Fashion Week named Condé Nast China its strategic partner. During the announcement ceremony, Zhou was also named co-chair of the Greater Bay Area Fashion Industry Strategic Committee, an organization that aims to strengthen regional ties between talents in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Prior to Condé Nast China, Zhou spent nearly 30 years working with multinational corporations in China. A Beijing Foreign Studies University graduate, Zhou began her career in public relations and later became Motorola China’s communications leader.

She went on to serve as chief marketing officer at IBM Asia-Pacific, where she led brand and marketing teams across 13 countries and was responsible for the digital transformation of business-to-business sales across Greater China.