As Shanghai cements its standing as considered one of style’s most dynamic (but seemingly underrated) capitals, a brand new era of up-and-coming designers is getting into the worldwide highlight. Fusing directional aesthetics with cross-cultural fluency, these rising abilities are reshaping perceptions of Chinese language style, mixing custom, know-how, streetwear and luxurious into hanging new types. From sculptural experiments to smooth city tailoring, the work of those designers displays a metropolis of sartorial innovation.
Sankuanz
Shangguan Zhe based Sankuanz in 2013, the place he rapidly gained recognition for his sculptural items, merging conventional Chinese language design parts with fashionable silhouettes. Sankuanz was profitable in carving out a fame for its daring fusion of cultural references and rebellious spirit. After finding out visible communication and promoting at Xiamen College, Shangguan launched his menswear label somewhat than following a conventional profession route.
His distinctive imaginative and prescient rapidly positioned him as considered one of China’s most unconventional new voices in style. By combining classical influences with graphic parts, sharp tailoring and deconstructed, androgynous silhouettes, Sankuanz’s collections efficiently steadiness eccentricity with skillful precision. The model’s designs typically painting genderless figures infused with philosophical reflections on collectivism and perception.
Sankuanz debuted at Shanghai Style Week and by 2015, Shangguan was a finalist for the celebrated LVMH Prize. Since 2016, the label has been an everyday fixture on the official Paris Style Week Males’s calendar, gaining international recognition and a cult following. Right this moment, Sankuanz’s thought-provoking strategy to modern menswear is a testomony to Shangguan Zhe’s dedication to creating Chinese language style an internationally recognised energy participant.
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Xander Zhou
A real pioneer of Shanghai streetwear, Xander Zhou’s means to steadiness experimental style with on a regular basis, “wearable” items has made his collections extremely wanted each in China and past. Recognized for his genre-defying strategy to menswear, Xander Zhou attracts from a multicultural background formed by industrial design research in China and style design coaching within the Netherlands. His collections are marked by playful disruptions resembling rainbow prints, exaggerated silhouettes and surprising graphic accents that problem conventional notions of masculinity and magnificence. Impressed extra by private intuition than by heritage style homes, Zhou’s designs replicate a fascination with youth tradition, fluid identities and the emotional response that garments can evoke.
Whereas Xander Zhou is based in Beijing, his robust presence at Shanghai Style Week has made him an influential determine within the metropolis’s style scene, alongside common appearances at worldwide occasions like London Style Week Males’s. The truth is, Xander Zhou was the primary menswear clothier from China to be a part of London Style Week Males’s. Right this moment, his boundary-pushing items are stocked internationally in cities like London, New York, Tokyo and Seoul.
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SHUSHU/TONG
Based by Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang in 2015, SHUSHU/TONG redefines standard notions of femininity with a daring, irreverent spirit. Based mostly in Shanghai, the duo — each womenswear MA graduates from the London Faculty of Style — carry a directional edge to unabashedly female codes like ruffles and bows, stripping them of “primness” and infusing them with a relaxed, fashionable perspective. With refined in-house tailoring strategies, SHUSHU/TONG bridges the boundary between “girlhood” and “womanhood” in a method that feels concurrently youthful and polished.
After early stints at Simone Rocha and Gareth Pugh, the designers rapidly captured worldwide consideration. Their debut assortment was picked up by Lane Crawford, and as of writing, the model is stocked globally at prestigious retailers together with Dover Avenue Market, Opening Ceremony and 10 Corso Como.
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Chen Peng
Specialising in outsized outerwear, Chen Peng’s designs have caught the attention of worldwide celebrities and style influencers alike. His work combines consolation with luxurious, mixing wealthy textiles and progressive patterns to create one-of-a-kind, statement-making items. Based by designer Peng Chen in London in 2015, Chen Peng reimagines modern style by way of the lens of physique inclusivity and individualism. A graduate of London Faculty of Style’s MA menswear programme, Peng developed the idea of “One-Sized Style,” designing items that transcend standard sizing and embrace a spectrum of physique shapes. His work challenges conventional concepts of magnificence, highlighting private options somewhat than adhering to straightforward beliefs.
Chen Peng rapidly rose to worldwide consideration, with collections now stocked in over 70 boutiques and department shops worldwide, together with Dover Avenue Market, SSENSE, Opening Ceremony and Galeries Lafayette. His designs have been worn by main names like Rihanna, Woman Gaga, Bella Hadid and Fan Bingbing.
Mixing daring creativity with sensible perform, Peng’s aesthetic mixes outsized silhouettes with surprising detailing, providing a contemporary voice in fashionable style. His profession highlights embrace being appointed chief costume designer for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, a collaboration with Moncler Home of Genius, and being named Designer of the 12 months on the BAZAAR Design Awards 2022. Chen Peng continues to reshape the dialog round style equality and individuality on a worldwide scale.
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Samuel Guì Yang
Based by Samuel Yang and Erik Litzén, Samuel Guì Yang is a London-based studio with deep ties to each Shanghai and London. The model weaves collectively Chinese language and Western influences to create fashionable wardrobe necessities distinguished by refined, dramatic particulars and a wealthy cultural dialogue. Their design ethos centres on mixing historic references with modern types, leading to clothes that “carry a quiet, enigmatic power”. Dedicated to sustainability, the studio embraces aware material decisions, moral manufacturing strategies and considerate design practices. On the coronary heart of their imaginative and prescient is a want to “redefine perceptions of Chinese language creativity”, crafting items that hone in on artistry and cultural innovation for a brand new era of fashion-conscious customers.
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Jacques Wei
Based in 2010, Jacques Wei’s namesake label was created to problem conventional concepts of glamour with couture-inspired craftsmanship. Recognized for his consideration to element, Wei reimagines traditional silhouettes and sharp tailoring by way of the usage of luxurious supplies. With an infusion of romanticism, his designs seize the essence of the “fashionable girl” whereas drawing on the subtle aesthetics of the ‘90s. Specialising in clear, exact cuts, Jacques Wei’s collections mix silhouettes incessantly seen within the ‘90s (minimalist clothes, structured corset slings and outsized fits that replicate the last decade’s rebellious spirit) with timeless parts.
Every bit is thoughtfully designed, with a powerful deal with tailoring and high-quality particulars. Wei’s newest assortment is a tribute to the daring muses of the ’90s, incorporating playful butterflies, floral patterns and hanging cutouts. Their newest assortment, seen in the course of the Shanghai 2025 Fall assortment, options wealthy silks, luxurious feathers, comfortable leathers and an array of elaborations, together with crystals and mirrors, including an opulent contact to the signature designs.
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Oude Waag
Named after the Seventeenth-century Amsterdam weigh home the place items had been as soon as measured and valued, Oude Waag attracts on concepts of custom, value and quiet introspection. Based in 2017 by Jingwei Yin, a Central Saint Martins and Royal Faculty of Artwork graduate, the Shanghai-based label is rapidly changing into considered one of China’s most compelling new voices in luxurious style. For Yin, designing is akin to “preserving a diary” — a deeply private, evolving report of human expertise, marked by fleeting, summary moments of emotion and intimacy. Oude Waag’s aesthetic is outlined by its mental and empathetic exploration of the connection between thoughts, clothes and physique.
Yin’s sharp chopping, fluid draping and a focus to understated magnificence are central to his design language, revealing clothes which might be delicate but structured, poetic but subversive. There’s a refined stress at play: a celebration of female power that additionally critiques the best way the physique has traditionally been idealised and objectified. Having skilled beneath visionary designers like Haider Ackermann and Hussein Chalayan, Yin brings a razor-sharp sense of workmanship and a quietly radical spirit to every assortment, bridging Asian sensibilities with the precision of European tailoring.
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Yueqi Qi
Based in 2019, Yueqi Qi’s namesake label is a vibrant testomony to her intuition, craft and creativeness. A graduate of London’s prestigious Central Saint Martins, Qi honed her expertise at Chanel’s embroidery atelier earlier than launching her model, which rapidly caught worldwide consideration with collaborations for Gucci’s GUCCIFEST and Vault tasks. Her work — typically a stunning interaction of intricate beading, embroidery and cutting-edge material improvements — weaves narrative threads that discover time, reminiscence and identification.
Whether or not showcasing at Tokyo pop-ups or strolling the runways of Shanghai, Qi’s creations — seen on stars like Blackpink’s Lisa — fuse conventional Chinese language artistry with an avant-garde, futuristic sensibility. A semi-finalist for the 2022 LVMH Prize and a participant within the Love of Couture exhibition at Hong Kong’s K11 Musea, Qi is a part of a brand new era rewriting the codes of couture with out being confined to geographical labels. As she was quoted in an interview saying, “Couture is artwork,” and for Qi, each bead, feather and laser-cut element is a brushstroke on a canvas of creativeness.
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Louis Shengtao Chen
At simply 27 years previous, Louis Shengtao Chen is reshaping the thought of glamour on his personal phrases. A graduate of Central Saint Martins and a former mannequin, the Beijing-born designer established his namesake label in 2021 with a mission to problem conventional notions of luxurious. His creations — typically a collision of exaggerated colors, dramatic textures, and unconventional supplies (exploring sustainable supplies like Ultrasuede) — have a good time storytelling, craft and an offbeat sense of magnificence. Based mostly in Chongqing, a metropolis sometimes unassociated with style, Chen’s avant-garde designs — assume uncovered hoop skirts, furry sneakers, and sequinned leg heaters — have received followers from Blackpink’s Lisa to Caroline Polachek.
A semi-finalist for the 2023 LVMH Prize, Chen continues to make his mark globally, displaying in Paris and Milan whereas staying true to his instinct-driven, experimental ethos. For Chen, glamour is just not polished perfection however one thing uncooked, emotional and fiercely alive. Whereas Louis Shengtao Chen is just not based mostly in Shanghai, his work has undeniably contributed to town’s rising affect within the international style scene, serving to to form a brand new wave of Chinese language designers pushing past the regional boundaries of the posh style business.
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