Shanghai Fashion Week 2025: Towards greater internationalization and diversity

On March 25, Chinese national fashion brand EP YAYING presented a fashion show-themed “Elegance” (Ya), kicking off this season’s Shanghai Fashion Week. With the concept of “Shaping New Dimensions, Building the Unseen,” the Shanghai Autumn/Winter Fashion Week 2025 showcased nearly a hundred new product debuts, a thousand brand-first exhibitions, and dozens of high-profile international collaborative launch events.

On the opening day, EP YAYING showcased an opening show at the Xintiandi venue, themed around three narrative dimensions: “Elegant Realm” (Ya Realm), “Elegant Melody” (Ya Melody), and “Elegant Motion” (Ya Motion). Featured were cross-disciplinary collaborations with Yang Jinqiu, an inheritor of Miao paper-cutting, and Zou Yingzi, a national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor (Suzhou embroidery), deconstructing the urban fabric of Shanghai and the cultural genes of the Jiangnan region with contemporary artistic techniques.

Beyond the runway, EP YAYING also launched several initiatives at the 2025 Shanghai Autumn/Winter Fashion Week. One notable initiative is the Shanghai EP YAYING House, a key venue in the brand’s commercial strategic layout. This cultural lounge, housed in a century-old mansion, was co-created with architectural designer Lv Yongzhong and reconstructed under the concept of “home culture,” reviving the essence of “home.”

Additionally, EP YAYING collaborated with renowned costume designer Huang Wei to present the fashion art exhibition “Time-Woven Brocade: Peony Dream.” This exhibition, centered around the brand’s signature elements—peonies and jade—recreates millennia of fashion evolution through installation art, showcasing the dialogue between traditional patterns and modern silhouettes.

EP YAYING not only brought its fashion show to Shanghai Fashion Week but also deeply participated in Shanghai’s fashion “infrastructure” construction, co-creating and prospering in multiple dimensions such as creative design, intangible cultural heritage inheritance, spatial art, and channel construction. This opening of Shanghai Fashion Week also foreshadowed the brand’s focus on the global market, with Shanghai as its pivot.

Chairman Zhang Huaming emphasized in his speech: “The beauty of great elegance, inherited in a single garment. With its long history, the 36-year development journey of Chinese culture has nurtured EP YAYING’s growth. In this new era of national rejuvenation and cultural confidence, EP YAYING is guided by outstanding traditional Chinese culture, striving to cultivate this beautiful career, focusing on creating beauty, and serving customers’ beautiful lives with heart.”

The ecology of Shanghai Fashion Week has continuously supported more young Chinese design brands from the creative level to the commercial level. The two official show venues of Xintiandi and Labelhood are based on such positioning settings. 

This season, established designer brands Comme Moi, Xuzhi, Short Sentence, Shushu/Tong, Yirantian, Oude Waag, WMWM, Private Policy, Ruiruirul, and Youwei insisted on connecting with their buyers and key consumers through runways. In contrast, emerging brands such as Zita Tan, Guest House, Tongwang, and Papi Lav debuted during fashion week. To commemorate its 88th anniversary, Three Gun, the prestigious national brand, hosted a fashion show at Xintiandi and concurrently held the “Three Gun 88th Anniversary Brand Exhibition” on Huaihai Road.

In the trade sector, the total area of the 2025 Autumn/Winter Fashion Week Mode exhibition reached 15,000 m², attracting over 200 brands from 34 countries, with overseas brands accounting for 57%, demonstrating the strong magnetic effect of the Chinese market. The number of visitors on the first day of the Mode exhibition increased by 29% compared to the previous season (October 2024), and the number of buyers and agents visiting the exhibition also increased during the five-day event.

The international elements of this season’s trade exhibition were also fully displayed. Driven by the “Africa Reimagined China Market Program,” 22 top African brands—highlighting handmade weaving, natural dyeing, and environmentally friendly processes—were able to showcase the global potential of African fashion at Mode.

MIK Fashion from South Korea brought 12 local Korean brands, presenting the innovative momentum of the Korean fashion industry with cutting-edge technology, experimental design, and sustainable concepts. The Royal Thai Embassy Shanghai Office (DITP) and the Commercial Office of the Royal Thai Consulate General in Shanghai joined hands with Ontimeshow to bring 16 Thai fashion and lifestyle brands this season.

The “Bangkok Showroom” series of events made its China debut in Shanghai. It presented the unique charm of Thai design to Chinese consumers and industry professionals and promoted in-depth cooperation between the Chinese and Thai fashion industries. In addition, brands from more than 30 countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Japan, Vietnam, and India, gathered at this season’s fashion week to explore the diverse opportunities in the Chinese market.

Notably, in the broader context of global fashion integration and in-depth exchanges, Deary Raphael, a senior buyer from Paris Printemps‘ menswear department, and Ash Ghazali, creative director of Singapore’s luxury multi-brand retailer Club 21 under the COMO Group, were in attendance. Their participation underscores the growing collaboration between the global fashion industry and China.

“The Chinese market presents significant potential. As a vast and rapidly evolving fashion landscape, it is undergoing increasing maturation. Consumers are becoming more discerning, recognizing the distinctions between the international fashion industry and its domestic counterpart. Chinese designers aiming to compete globally must be acutely aware of these nuances. Nevertheless, this market offers an exceptional launchpad for many designers within China,” commented Raphael.

In the events schedule, two special projects initiated by the Shanghai Fashion Designer Association (SFDA) were presented during the week. In collaboration with Yehyehyeh, the Sustasia Fashion Prize 2025 exhibited eight finalists from across Asia with their unique design pieces based on sustainable materials and creative craftsmanship, redefining the intersection of fashion, cultural heritage, and global sustainability, and announced Chinese designer Ruohan as the winner of the prize.

In partnership with SFDA and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI), the “Supported by Dolce & Gabbana” program collaborated for the first time with the Chinese designer brand Susan Fang. Following the Milan Fashion Week showcase, a special exhibition and forum were organized, aiming to explore how international brands can empower and accelerate global and Chinese creative talent from a global perspective.

As Angelo Flaccavento, an international independent fashion critic, commented, “The last time I came was six years ago. Everything was very pop, very booming, and very bold. Instead, I find everything in Shanghai now—I mean, of course, the market is having a downturn, and it’s a little bit smaller, but I also find the proposal very interesting because many designers are working around their Chinese roots in the crafts or the colors or the shapes. And it gives a very strong identity to what I’ve seen. I really like the shows and showrooms here because I found them very well-defined as an aesthetic, very personal, and very well made.”

Today, the significance of Fashion Week to a city has far surpassed that of a mere fashion event; it is a pinnacle showcase of the city’s capabilities. From the global debut of Chinese designs to the first exhibitions of international brands, Shanghai Fashion Week is redefining fashion discourse with its “premiere power.” As global creativity converges here, the world’s fashion trends are set in motion.

Written by SHEN Yin
Edited and translated by Sissi CHU