Buzzy local label Shushu/Tong closed out Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) last night, with a sophisticated show that doubled-down on its best-selling aesthetic: playful florals on prim and frilly dresses, colorful knits, and lady-like cocktail hour-ready frocks. The fullness of their vision should make no surprise of the fact that designers Liushu Lei (ShuShu) and Yutong Jiang (TongTong) have built one of Shanghai’s most popular brands both locally and internationally.
Pre-pandemic, SHFW was in its boom era, with strong footfall in its showrooms, rising interest from international buyers, and a growing roster of independent brands. Once the lockdowns were lifted, it returned for Spring/Summer 2024 and has been rebuilding slowly, against a challenging economic backdrop. Buyer footfall and sales have taken time to recover. The AW25 edition, which took place from 25 March-1 April, was another step in the right direction: showroom traffic was up 10-20 per cent, according to organisers, while many independent designers noted renewed interest from domestic and international buyers.
“This season, everybody had lower expectations, but it turned out to be much better,” says Muyuan Ma, marketing executive at Not Showroom, which hosts leading Chinese labels like 8ON8 and Swaying/Knit. “Our list of registered buyers has reduced quite a lot during recent years, but I think we are slowly getting over this very tough period.”
While the runway shows are a highlight, SHFW is underpinned by several brand showrooms, including Lab, Tube and Not, plus trade shows Onetimeshow and Mode. It makes for a unique fashion week experience, where you arguably spend more time talking to designers than attending shows, allowing for a clear read on the climate they’re operating in.
Rising stars shone bright
Last season, SHFW was marked by a strong international brand presence. Moncler brought its blockbuster Genius show concept to the city, while Vivienne Westwood closed the official SHFW calendar, showing its main collection (designed by the in-house team, rather than Andreas Kronthaler) for the first time anywhere since 2019. This time around, there were fewer international luxury brand shows at SHFW, which had the benefit of allowing audiences to focus on local talents. But international labels did stage plenty of events: Prada opened its new restaurant, Wong Kar Wai on Sunday, while many SFW guests attended the Gucci and Loro Piana exhibitions.
Most shows in Shanghai take place across two different sites. The official calendar shows are held in one of two vast showspaces in affluent neighbourhood Xintiandi, while independent brand shows use a showspace in multi-brand retailer Labelhood. Unlike other small fashion weeks in Copenhagen or Berlin, designers of all sizes produce impressive show sets at SHFW, particularly in the Labelhood space. There was falling sand at Ili Node and ominous spikes punctuating the runway at Oude Waag, while models kicked at fallen leaves on the ground at Private Policy and hundreds of newspaper pages at Markgong.
Beyond the main show venue, rising label Jacques Wei took over the 50th floor of a high-rise in the Bund neighbourhood for its Thursday night show. It felt more opulent than other outings, with guests served champagne pre-show, and a glittering collection rich with animal prints, fur and beading. It’s a testament to Wei’s growing business, which grew 47 per cent in 2024, even despite broader market challenges, says Wei’s co-founder Austin Feng. Alongside contemporaries Shushu Tong and Markgong, Wei is part of a generation of Shanghai designers that are scaling abroad, bolstered by celebrity dressing and bold show concepts, that stand out on the SHFW calendar.
“People have been talking about the fact business is going badly right now. But I don’t buy that shit,” says independent designer Mark Gong, whose eponymous label Markgong showed at Labelhood’s show space on Wednesday afternoon. The venue was covered in pages from newspaper The Markgong News, the thumping soundtrack included Charli XCX’s Guess and Britney’s Gimme More, and guests had hand mirrors on their seats to reflect the lights (and fan themselves with, as Shanghai hit 30 degrees). “We’ve spent a lot of money on marketing and shows for the last three years. When people say the economy is bad, you just go hard,” Gong says, speaking from the Tube showroom hours after his show. Gong dresses the most celebrities out of all the designers at SHFW, including Blackpink’s Lisa, who he dressed for the 2025 Oscars. And unlike other Shanghai labels, which don’t engage with Western social media, his shows regularly go viral on Instagram and X. “It’s like a race with all the brands here,” he says. “So if everyone slows down, you just gotta go fast.”
Commerciality vs creativity
Pre-pandemic, Shanghai collections were hyper-creative and avant garde, as Chinese luxury spending boomed and consumers were willing to take risks with high-end fashion. But the market has changed dramatically since. And as we saw globally for AW25, many Shanghai brands played it safer for AW25, focusing on commercial collections which they can sell to China’s increasingly discerning, price-conscious consumer. This is part of the directive from fashion week organisers, who want labels to compete in China’s increasingly saturated contemporary fashion market.
Mark Gong featured slogan T-shirts in his collections, alongside opulent eveningwear; Xu Zhi created lower-priced commercial pieces to sell on retail platform Taobao; and Yirintian produced more casual, affordable separates alongside her usual eveningwear, to reflect the market today.
“Today, balancing creativity and commerciality is essential — fashion doesn’t just need to be creative. It needs to tell stories, connect with the times, and create pieces that resonate and become part of people’s lives,” says Lexi Chen, senior features editor at Vogue China. “Only by weaving these elements into a brand’s identity can it achieve sustainable growth and lasting relevance.” Vogue China held its annual fashion fund prize on Friday evening, which aims to support a young designer with mentorship and funding.
Last year’s winner Louis Shengtao Chen is one of the designers who sat the AW25 season out completely, looking to come back in full-swing for spring. Still, he chalks up his win in October of last year as a key incentive in continuing to work through building his label. Rocco Liu, the new editorial director of Vogue China is running the Fund solo for the first time. He said at the launch that a big emphasis for him will be to connect designers with celebrity muses, underscoring the importance of leaning into pop culture to uplift fashion.
Rising competition and new categories
Unlike the big four fashion weeks — where young designers broadly favour a luxury positioning — most labels at Shanghai Fashion Week are in the contemporary price bracket (broadly, with pieces from $100-$1,000). While the luxury market remains challenging in China, scores of DTC contemporary labels have sprung up online in recent years, with strong supply chains and even stronger online communities, serving more price conscious shoppers.
This is a recent development, since during the pandemic, with cancelled orders and export challenges, many of China’s textile suppliers found new revenue streams by launching their own DTC labels. These labels, typically sold on retail platform Taobao, are affordable and high quality, with strong social media communities built on social platform RedNote. It’s a challenge for local designers to compete, meaning they have had to incorporate more entry-level product and diversify their businesses to include collections for Taobao alongside their higher priced wholesale collections.
“Price point is crucial, especially when bringing in brands from Shanghai,” says Ash Ghazali, global creative director of concept store Club 21, in Singapore. “It’s hard to sell a high-end Shanghai brand in our market because people may prefer European luxury brands, so the price must be right.”
RedNote is a growing vehicle for Shanghai labels, and brands are increasingly working with KOLs on the platform to drive sales and brand awareness. So much so, One Time showroom — which hosts around 8,000 Chinese buyers, from 300 cities — introduced a RedNote area this season, in collaboration with the platform. KOLs can attend the space and buy or borrow clothing to promote and sell on their RedNote accounts. Around 40 brands are on display in the area, and have developed a deep inventory of commercial pieces from the current season, in order to meet high demand, says One Time marketing executive Renee Zing.
Knitwear is a key category in China’s booming DTC market. China is a leading producer of both cashmere and wool, but until recently, very few luxury or contemporary designers created knitwear for wholesale, Not Showroom’s Ma says. Swaying/Knit, launched in 2018, was one of Shanghai’s earlier premium knitwear brands, and focuses on creative knits including intricate crochet dresses and separates. More recently, the designer, Royal College of Art graduate Shasha Wong, has created cashmere matching sets and slouchier knits, in response to the growing casualisation of Chinese fashion. Swaying/Knit now has over 100 domestic stockists and counting and, alongside 8ON8, is Not showroom’s fastest-growing brands, Ma says.
Brands prioritise artisanal techniques and craft
Traditional Chinese techniques were on display last season at SHFW, and the trend continues for AW25, as local consumers increasingly search for artisanship, rooted in Chinese tradition.
Growing label AO Yes staged a runway show on Sunday, following a hugely successful “Year of the Snake” Zara collaboration released in January in line with Chinese New Year. AO Yes was founded in 2022 by former Vogue China editor Austin Wang and designer Yansong Liu, and counts Ssense as a stockist, alongside 12 Chinese stores. Its aesthetic riffs on traditional Chinese silhouettes, including Mao jackets (a perennial bestseller) and Qipao dresses, but incorporates more modern elements, like zippers, fabrics like leathers, or extra pockets. “The Mao jacket is our signature, and you can see in these styles I blend Eastern, traditional elements with contemporary design features,” Liu says, speaking from AO Yes’s space in the Tube showroom, a few days out from the show. “This is why we love it,” says Tube owner Zemira Xu, “it’s a blend of traditional and contemporary that customers in China are looking for today.”
“China is gaining more visibility on the global fashion scene. People are starting to see [Chinese fashion] differently now,” says Raphael Deray, men’s luxury and designers buying manager at Printemps. “Over the last two years, they’ve understood that China means quality, China means sophistication, and China has a rich background that spans 4,000 years. That s what I m looking for — to bring new things to Paris that weren t on the table two years ago.”
Samuel Guì Yang and his partner Erik Litzén hosted their AW25 show at a home in a residential neighborhood in Shanghai on the last day of the collections. They returned to SHFW a year ago since before the pandemic, finding remarkable momentum due to the local industry and market’s warm reception. What made theirs a standout presentation was both Yang’s ability to add a runway gloss to his easy ready-to-wear and his ownership of New Chinese Style, a key trend in the market that has proven to hold staying power.
New names build their identity
While certain brands like Shushu/Tong and Jacques Wei continue to scale internationally, SHFW is working hard to help other independent labels weather the economic storm, while preparing them to return to, or step onto the international stage.
Jingwei Yin of Oude Waag is one of the more promising young talents on the SHFW schedule, with a unique point of view that feels refreshing, while still remaining commercially viable. Launched in 2018, the brand known for its draped constructions and dramatic cutout silhouettes is slowly scaling internationally, with stockists including H.Lorenzo, Joyce Hong Kong and Selfridges (the latter picked up the label for pre-fall 2025 and placed a second order this season).
Ten-year-old label Staff Only will show on 7 April, after Shanghai Fashion Week, to align with the release of a large-scale Ugg collaboration, now in its fifth edition. It’s also part of the brand’s plan to diversify revenues beyond clothing. “The market has been very challenging, so we’ve tried to make some adjustments to our business [model],” says Cheng. The Ugg collaboration stretches far beyond product, and increasingly Staff Only works with international brands on campaign conception, events, set design and more. “We were inspired by our partners. We started working with them on things like store design and talent [suggestions] and realised we have more [to give].”
While there were fewer new names on schedule this season versus previous seasons, fledgling brand Yayi showed for the third time for AW25. And designer Joyce Bao, based between New York and Shanghai, was a highlight from the Lab showroom, creating delicate, whimsical pieces with an East meets West feel.
As Shanghai slowly regains its strength, perhaps next season we can look forward to a growing roster of brands, and a richer show schedule alongside the strong showrooms. As Chinese fashion spending slowly recovers, organisers hope the tide will continue to turn.
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