“This is the real Shanghai,” said a new Shanghainese friend after Samuel Guì Yang’s fall 2024 fashion show, which marked the designer’s return to the catwalk since July 2022. The space was a Shikumen mansion in style that functioned as a school in the 1920s, the heyday of the architectural style that first appeared in the 1860s and combined Western and Chinese stylistic elements during the colonies.
Merging East and West is Yang’s specialty. It’s a design language he not only speaks fluently, but has helped define – along with the current Chinese style that combines the country’s tradition and modernity – since launching his London label in 2015 after graduating with an MA in Fashion from Central Saint Martins (he still divides his time between the two cities). “It feels good to come back and show in Shanghai during Fashion Week,” said the Shenzhen resident, who was also shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2020, amid hugs and greetings from guests through the show.
As usual, this season Yang found inspiration in a touchstone of Chinese cultural tradition, the novel Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin. Also known as The story of the stone, the 18th-century tome is considered one of the four great Chinese classical novels. Yang explained that he was attracted to its complexity, and that he particularly focused on its first chapter, “where a confession is indicated on the stone left by the restoration of heaven.”
Yang peppered his collection with accents of bright red and deep green, weaving his own parallel story and unraveling it into a nuanced, contemporary wardrobe. He turned cheongsams into delicate tops for the day and draped them as fantastic bias-cut silk and velvet sheaths for the evening. Most special was the weightless touch with which Yang combined pants, skirts, dresses and jackets, and how he cut a tangzhuang from denim and paired it with adidas sneakers (the brands have an upcoming collaboration) to create a fresh interpretation offering the tried and true Canadian tuxedo. Yang’s stellar lineup is a shining example of what happens when a designer remains steadfast in his stance. This is a creative who has long offered a quirky take on East-meets-West, and both his local market and the global stage are finally ready to embrace it.
This collection, Yang said, was about combining elegance and practicality in a “Sino aesthetic that resists singularity.” His touch is mesmerizing, not because of an unwillingness to embrace aesthetic stereotypes, but because of the ease with which he does so. gently undermine them.
The show took place on the hottest day of the week, in the middle of a quiet afternoon, in a house named after an “enthusiast,” the name given to the communities in the city’s classic neighborhood. residential longtangs or alleys. His models walked through the intimate space with bells rattling on the hems of their skirts and bags. Every window was open; the city breeze blowing both Yang’s side and the neighbors’ hanging laundry in the background. “Maybe we should have asked them to take them down,” Yang and his partner, Erik Litzén, joked about a pair of pink panties sitting directly across from one of the windows. But that wasn’t necessary. True to his design ethos, Yang offered both a glimpse of the real Shanghai and an immersive fashion experience on Friday.
