SHANGHAI — After a monthlong fashion marathon that went from New York to Paris, a quieter-than-usual Shanghai Fashion Week felt almost like a respite in a still-bustling metropolis that offered no shortage of cultural activities on the side.
Despite business that remains challenging, and a fashion month-fatigued audience, designers such as Samuel Gui Yang, Oude Waag and Pronounce, who could offer something distinctive — and respond nimbly to what is catching the industry’s attention — still generated excitement.
Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel and Chemena Kamali’s Chloé were among the international voices whose influence could be felt in the season’s conversations.
And global names made sure to be present. Activations by Chanel, Prada and Balenciaga also drew traction, as did the Journées Particulières, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s behind-the-scenes glimpse at its houses’ know-how, reflecting how the city’s fashion week increasingly reaches beyond local labels’ shows.
Shanghai’s creative class made a case for growing their business at home and abroad through specific cultural references.
Take Samuel Gui Yang, who offered a compelling read on the Chinese tale of the White Snake and Green Snake sisters, filtering it through the atmosphere and color language of early-1990s Hong Kong cinema. A space with faded features created an atmospheric backdrop for his clothes.
Pinks and greens recalled the palette of the 1993 film version starring Maggie Cheung, while touches of blue, he said, were inspired by David Hockney suggested water. Paired with fresh, elongated proportions, it telegraphed a new energy for the brand, as did new bag shapes made from repurposed towels that pointed to an interest in expanding beyond clothing.
Yang has recently opened his first stand-alone Shanghai store, next door to Pronounce, the brand cofounded by his Central Saint Martins classmate Yushan Li.
Li and cofounder Jun Zhou returned to Shanghai to celebrate their label’s 10th anniversary with their first pre-collection. The brand usually presents during Milan Fashion Week during its menswear sessions in January and June.
For the occasion, the duo described the lineup as seeing the world “through her eyes,” rather than simply adopting a female gaze. That lens gave them room to explore a sense of yin and yang, gender and different stages of life, through a varied cast in gender and ages that included Dr. Qin Huilan.
Chinese elements, Western tailoring and the brand’s signature purple came together with a focus on textile and material, while details such as a three-layer skirt and a trio of silhouettes with varying trouser lengths were used as a metaphor for the journey from childhood to maturity.
The designers also said they felt more confident showing traditional Chinese styles in fine fabrics, a direction they had explored before but had not felt ready to place on the runway, building to an impression of quiet confidence for the 10-year-old label.
Another highlight was Oude Waag, where Yin Jingwei continued to fuel his work with the emotional journey through personal difficulty and the gradual acceptance of circumstances.
For spring, he looked at moving through struggle, letting go of the need to control the outcome and finding renewed enjoyment in the process.
That progression was palpable in his palette, which moved from heavier dark tones toward lighter shades and more buoyant colors, before settling into washed browns and blues. Knit skirts suggested movement and the pleasure of walking, while a trenchcoat marked a new outerwear direction, giving the label’s emotional narrative a more practical, urban read.
Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang of Shushu/Tong, another Shanghai Fashion Week fixture, drew on the upbeat mood and visual language of Jacques Demy’s film “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.”
Plays on contrasts abounded, such as a balloon skirt creating an upside-down flower-bud silhouette; and hand-pleating and lace in bold motifs to give familiar romantic details a rougher edge. Oversize daisy motifs, sequins and a plastic-like finish nodded to the period’s forward-looking optimism.
The designers also discussed trying to expand into bags, another category the brand has been exploring as it grows.
Ao Yes and Sifan Chen offered two distinct examples of designers translating Chinese references for a contemporary audience.
Ao Yes founders Austin Wang and Yansong Liu built a collection around the idea of reflection, drawing on the image of China’s first female architect Lin Huiyin, who was also a poet and writer, for a vision of feminine beauty that hovered between traditional cuts and contemporary tastes, ranging from qipao-inspired shirts to illustrated T-shirts and a sportier take on the Zhongshan jacket.
The duo worked with curves, sequins and dotted effects to suggest light on water, and drew on Impressionist color contrasts. Original fabrics included Song brocade made in Suzhou, while hand embroidery and hand-applied crystals gave some of the more elaborate pieces a craft-intensive finish.
Sifan Chen translated Jia Pingwa’s novel “Ruined City” and the transformations of 1980s and ’90s Xi’an into gray linen to the city’s walls and the passage of time, while handwoven cashmere and bamboo-fiber cloth telegraphed notions of a maker’s hand.
Chen also recast the Zhongshan jacket in a simpler, more relaxed form, and used silk in earthy tones to spin a more delicate vision of the city’s history and materials.
Meanwhile, Mark Gong, Jacques Wei and Xu Zhi showed how quickly designers can respond to the ideas circulating internationally — and how important it is to make those references their own.
Gong’s collection followed the emotional arc of unrequited love, from the first spark and the anxious wait to the social-media sleuthing, a date and the sudden disappearance that follows. The season’s softer palette and lightweight gauze, linen-silk and wool lace reflected a shift away from the more aggressive sensuality associated with the brand’s earlier work.
Wei took a similarly personal route into Chinese references. A renovated historic house in southern China informed the collection’s “Oriental forest” vocabulary: grapes, birds and flowers appeared as symbols of happiness, the future and a connection to the designer’s roots.
Distilled across ’80s-inspired jackets, fishtail gowns and pastel ruffle ensembles, it was “a more vivid portrait of a woman who is bold, present and comfortable revealing different sides of herself,” said Wei, who described the lineup as a clearer statement of his design identity.
Making the word “girl” into an adjective rather than a noun was the route chosen by Xuzhi Chen, injecting romance into a more grungy, ’90s sensibility. Cue a believable collision of romanticism and urban nomad: Chen offered easy-to-pull-off pieces with lingerie and sleepwear details, lace, embroidery, and Victorian-style dresses meet Napoleonic tailoring.
A live jazz performance of 2006 Justin Timberlake hit “SexyBack” electrified the Comme Moi show, adding a vivid pulse to its portrait of women from different walks of life. Sharp suits and smoking jackets came alongside cocoon shapes, functional hunting jackets, double-breasted trenches and generous winter coats, with longer lengths and full collars suggesting the urban style of the 1980s and ’90s.
Staffonly’s designers Shimo Zhou and Une Yea made stray dogs the stars of their show, drawing a parallel with these animals considered difficult to adopt with the pressure people face to conform.
Another reference of the season was the young keepers at Shanghai Zoo, whose uniformed working lives sit alongside their individual style. Under the moniker “no obligation to be cute,” they delivered functional, sporty pieces with details such as clever layered collars and sports-tailoring hybrids with playful details.
Serving as the de facto finale to the spring 2027 collections was Shuting Qiu’s lineup of vivid patterns and billowing silhouettes that offered a final burst of color.
Across the city, Shanghai’s attractivity for the entire region could be felt, with a group showcase of Korean designers at the Mode showroom and a clutch of designers hailing from Barcelona, Tokyo and Hong Kong at the Sage showroom.
For jewelry designer Rie Harui, who presented her Riefe brand at Sage, her first-time visit left her “really impressed by the city’s incredible energy, creativity and fashion scene,” she told WWD. A potent retail mix of luxury, independent boutiques and concept stores also whetted her appetite for a second visit — and future projects.
Meanwhile, some gave the Chinese metropolis reasons to keep moving after the runway lights went down.
Early in the week, Alpinestars RSRV turned ENG Concept Store’s newly opened TX Huaihai location into a Formula 1-inspired pit stop to mark its fall 2026 in-store launch.
Feng Chen Wang launched the Rebel Daughter line with Under Armour, while fashion foodies got their fill with the official opening of Edison Chen’s Hong Kong-style Clot diner on Nanjing West Road.
Adidas and Y-3 also landed in town on Thursday evening, with a fashion show and exhibition highlighting Stan Smith and its long-standing collaboration with Yohji Yamamoto.
For all its relative quiet, the week’s closing impression was that there was plenty for those intent on listening to Shanghai’s voices.