Ming Ma is an OG of Shanghai Fashion Week. His label, founded in 2018, weathered the repeated storms of the pandemic and returned to the catwalk for the fall 2023 shows – when SHFW celebrated its twentieth anniversary with its first full season post-Covid. Since then things have gone a bit quiet and he has stepped away from the catwalk to show his collections during showroom appointments.
The change has served him well. His fall collection in particular is a good fusion of his romantic, playful sensibilities and the commercial pragmatism of a seasoned designer.
“This season is about mixing inspiration from arts and cultures,” Ma said, pointing to prints of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s lush paintings and Ray Petri’s styling work for the Buffalo movement of the ’80s. He is adept at bringing together and interpolating references and techniques, and his collections are often a living mood board of artistic footnotes. “I wanted to change a little [away] from what we did before; of all the full looks that we do for the shows and do something [that’s] more about the existing item and about rotating it,” the designer added.
Ma developed beautiful flowers, some printed and others intricately decorated with sequins and embroidery, to create relaxed slips and sophisticated dresses, which he shaped around a subtle wasp silhouette, focused on the hips. He expanded his sartorial offering with some great jackets and draped a wonderfully puffy mini circle skirt, styled over tights, and often under pretty sweaters and cardigans. The combination of these elements made for a playful, smart wardrobe, but Ma’s real revelation this season came from his Buffalo styling nods, which introduced a touch of androgyny to his world and gave new context and texture to his familiar classics.
Who would have thought that a maxi dress with a swan print t-shirt or a bubble skirt would look as good on men as it does on his regular modeling group, or that Ma could cut a black suit as nice as a prim sheath ? This is the kind of research that Ma should continue to welcome into his practice. The runway isn’t going anywhere.
