It’s always Fashion Week someplace, as they say. After the Paris presentations concluded in just two weeks, it was off to Shanghai Fashion Week. International labels are streaming into the city for exhibitions and activations, while local designers are expanding internationally, making the seven-day exposition a must-see event that can easily compete with the big four.
The exhibitions in October of last year signaled SHFW’s resumption of pre-pandemic activities. There was a tangible sense of enthusiasm among designers and the business, among the bustling and hectic schedule. This time, the narrative was a little bit different. The worldwide economic downturn is having an impact on designers everywhere, and as Shanghai Fashion Week is just 21 years old, the majority of its designers are either independent or relatively new. These are the skills that are continuously most vulnerable to the effects of the global economic downturn.
Nevertheless, the emerging fashion scene in the city is strong and robust. Even in the middle of a cautious season, these quick-thinking and adaptable creatives produced captivating exhibitions of their inventiveness and business acumen.
The most talked-about shows in the city are briefly listed here: While Oude Waag’s Jingwei Yin went softer, draping timeless slinky sheaths while expanding his assortment of outerwear with cozy shearlings, Mark Gong offered a riff on Carrie Bradshaw’s style by dressing his “Gong girls” in silky slips, cool cargos, and fabulous leather tailoring; Louis Shengtao Chen deftly looked to streetwear silhouettes to balance his penchant for evening; and Yirantian Guo focused on dressing the working woman with sharp, versatile tailoring, also seen at Jacques Wei, who complemented his more dressier looks.
An explanation of the New China style
This season, Samuel Guì Yang made a comeback to the runway with an unconventional display. Yang is recognized as one of the main proponents of the New Chinese Style trend, which sees Chinese designers drawing inspiration from Chinese fashion history to create unique takes on their national identities. This tendency is part of a larger Chinese government initiative to reflect on the past and rebuild national identity via a reevaluation of tradition. It has becoming more popular in China because of how well it cuts through the cacophony of Western pop culture and aesthetics.
Designers at SHFW drew inspiration from their own cultures to create unique takes on the trend that is becoming more and more popular in retail for autumn. While Ao Yes designers Austin Wang and Yangson Liu created a cerebral vision for what they described as the “Oriental intellectual,” Yat Pit offered a modern wardrobe rooted in tradition, and Nic Su of Le Fame leaned into his own theatrical flair for a sophisticated offering for the Shanghainese woman, Yang’s collection skillfully blended East and West with bias-cut silk qipaos and denim tang jackets.
Zhong Zixin, the winner of the Vogue China Fashion Fund, will outfit your closet
The first recipient of the Vogue China Fashion Fund is Zhong Zixin. During Paris Fashion Week, she hosted her first presentation, and we had the opportunity to catch up in Shanghai when Vogue China launched the Fund’s second edition.
Following her 2018 graduation from Central Saint Martins, Zixin established her line in 2021. Her parents used to own a furniture company, which greatly influences her style of design. When Zixin was a child, “they used a lot of bamboo and wood to make the furniture, so I like to combine bamboo weaving with wooden-like sculptures.” Fittingly, Zixin studied sculpture for a while before finishing her degree work in London. All of these ideas come together in her clothing to create a very modern take on ready-to-wear that combines unusual fabrics with classic shapes.
As the Fund’s inaugural recipient, Zixin hopes to expand her fashion company while also expanding her brand to include additional furnishings and leisure products. “We can live with our furniture for a long time, but fashion is easier to produce,” she added. “But I like to repurpose furniture, so I’m looking to do more of that.”
Nic Sun of Le Fame adopts an elegant Shanghainese look
A mainstay of Shanghai Fashion Week is Le Fame. The previous season, the show’s creator, Nic Sun, staged it outside, with models dressed as sirens strolling around lovely garden fountains. He went back to the tents in Xintiandi to start the official SHFW calendar for autumn.
In collaboration with Zhong Zixin, the winner of the Vogue China Fashion Fund, Sun produced a “modern Shanghai trilogy” that served as a compilation of the city’s distinct fashion sense. He divided his presentation into three parts: “Vanity Fair,” which showcased opulent materials cut into exquisite silhouettes such as halter neck dresses and embroidered lace separates; “Hunting Crush,” in which Sun created opulent evening wear using laces and pearls; and “Neo-Chinese,” which examined Chinese tradition in the context of modern sophistication.
Sun is most effective when he allows his dramatic side take over, and in this instance, he combined that flare with Le Fame’s track record of providing well-made wardrobe essentials.
Comme Moi by Lu Yan blossoms in the spring
Lu Yan began her modeling career in 1999 and rose to prominence as one of the first models from China to be recognized internationally. She hasn’t been on the catwalks for the last ten years, though, since she has focused her discriminating eye on fashion instead, establishing her own brand, Comme Moi, in 2013.
Yan celebrated her spring fever with a whimsical line-up for her Comme Moi spring collection, which has a see-now, buy-now rhythm. The designer created a flexible wardrobe that included lotus flower hems, simple floral designs, luxurious fringe gowns, and feathery embellishments that took center stage on the catwalk. Yan created a lineup this season that is full of items that ladies who are similar to her will be able to wear on a daily basis since she understands that her customers turn to her for inspiration as well as style advice.
Shanghai to New York via Weiraen’s WeiRan
Following her graduation from Parsons in 2022, WeiRan established her label, Weiraen, in the same year. She made her catwalk debut this season at Shanghai Fashion Week, fusing her pragmatic and commercial offering, which includes crisp leather tailoring, vertiginously draped fringe, and some fantastically tech-y knitwear, with her experimental vision of outrageous forms. WeiRan, a digital artist as well, tried her hand at 3D-printed reproductions of her artwork in this collection. She has previously dressed everyone, including Julia Fox and Lorde, and this season has only helped to highlight her ability.
A gloomy romantic new world at work
With her label Assignments, Ruoyi Hou has created a swoon-worthy universe. The designer looked to the second act of the classical ballet Giselle for inspiration this season, seeing Giselle as a figure of delicate, lyrical beauty. Hou’s universe in Assignments for fall extended beyond her elaborately shirred and draped gowns to include casual knits and tailoring. The end effect gives Hou’s viewpoint as a designer a complete circle, combining the romantic and practical in equal measure.
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