SHANGHAI — The physical return of Shanghai Fashion Week after China reopened to the world saw team members from Harrods, Galeries Lafayette and Machine-A coming back to envision out how local talents, who mostly focused on the Chinese market over the past three years, have evolved.

The atmosphere this season felt drastically different from how things were pre-pandemic, a time when local young talents were combating pricing, production and provide chains like the remainder of the world.

Because of a fashion boutique boom in the course of the pandemic, where buying internationally became almost inconceivable, local designers seized the chance and transformed their businesses to cater higher to local demand.

Brands similar to Xiao Li, Xuzhi, Renli Su and 8on8, whose founders were trained at top fashion schools like Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art, now are in a position to sell to retailers at competitive price points which can be around half of what their global peers are asking due to near-shore sourcing and manufacturing.

Now that the in-person communication between East and West has resumed, lots of them express the need to return to the international fashion calendar, only this time with much healthier businesses at home to fund the showcase.

The 8on8 brand, for instance, which was founded by Gong Li and recently got financial backing from local fashion giant Peacebird, will present its spring 2024 collection in addition to its collaboration with Asics in London this fall.

The Chongqing-based designer Louis Shengtao Chen, a semifinalist on this 12 months’s LVMH Prize, is searching for a Paris-based public relations firm to work on his possible Paris showcase.

“I’m looking forward to being in a really culturally bumping environment where designs are presented in an aggressive way. I don’t mean aggressive negatively, but to be very sharp and sure of themselves, each visually and in the shape of presentation,” Chen said.

Meanwhile, on their very own turf here in Shanghai, a handful of brands proved that they can stage elevated shows with collections which can be Milan or Paris-worthy.

Oude Waag, an avant-garde fashion brand founded in 2017 by Royal College of Art alum Jingwei Yin, had models wearing Dune-like creations walking around two giant oval installations held on the ceiling. The gathering showcased his precise proportions, and the way fabric interacts with the body when moving.

Yin said the gathering was inspired by colourful marble, a stone that serves as a metaphor for foreign conquest and a logo of power and strength in the times of the Roman Empire.

“We combined its hard, cold elements with soft body parts to form an enormous stone in organic form, which represents our understanding of the complexity of ladies today. We suspended it within the air of the show to create a futuristic and primitive atmosphere.

“We also developed these abstract marble prints on different textures to create soft armor that’s each sexually charged and sculptural but in addition transformed right into a second layer of soppy skin that’s the polar opposite, representing two distinctly feminine forces,” explained Yin post-show.

The designer added that he’s eyeing presenting his next collection in Paris.

For Zhao Chenxi, founding father of Fabric Qorn, a self-proclaimed “unapologetically Chinese” contemporary label that plays around with nostalgic kitsch, the showcase presented him with a possibility to understand “the forgotten beauty in Chinese society and blur the lines between the grassroots and elite, high and low.”

Taking inspiration from the grassroots class in modern Chinese society. Zhao used a northern China red flower fabric as the liner of coats and jackets, and he deconstructed hotel towels from the ’80s to make shirts. He also used Chinese door handles on trenchcoats and gave the Mao suit a timely update for today’s wearers.

The show set was based on what a weekend farmer’s market looks like.

“We made installations like pick-up trucks, corn, coal piles, and all varieties of Chinese old items to match the theme. This kind of gathering regularly lost its meaning because the exchange of products and money goes online on this 5G era, however the market didn’t disappear. It’s still alive in rural parts of China since the market has a deeper meaning than simply buying and selling. Individuals who attend the farmer’s markets will talk for hours. This hustle and bustle of city life can’t get replaced by the web,” he said.

Susan Fang took her misting dress idea, first presented in London, to a recent level in Shanghai with an off-schedule show on the rooftop of the water-facing Yicang Art Museum, a spot where Fang had wanted to indicate since 2019.

“For a few years, I all the time hoped to do a show outdoors, and in addition in an art museum; it felt more connected to nature with an open space and more creative and modern energy in a museum. Yicang has this stunning view of the Shanghai skyline that’s super unique,” she said.

Fang styled the gathering very in a different way for the repeat show, with more surreal hair and makeup, and cute shoes from her collaboration with Ugg. She also installed eight color-changing craters to create a sense of misting clouds floating within the sky so as to add to the fantastical element of the showcase.

While the mist in London was blended with rose extract, the Shanghai edition was mixed with the brand new scent Lili Fantasy from Juliette Has a Gun, the French area of interest fragrance brand backed by the Cathay Capital private equity group.

“Our theme is Air-Topia, which it’s a few positive outlook for our future, inspired by this book for kids called ‘Ami, Child of the Stars,’ where the law of the universe is love, and love ought to be the priority above technology, knowledge, every little thing. It was very inspiring and idealistic, and charming the way it brings back our inner child and the way we will embrace technology with positivity if we keep that imagination and love we’re born with,” she said.

For the finale, to color an image of what that a love-embracing world would appear to be, a model walked out with all the youngsters holding hands and wearing the designer’s debut kidswear line.

M Essential Noir, a successful local brand that opened Labelhood two seasons in a row, continued to explore the opulent nature of traditional Chinese aesthetics. Muki Ma, creative director of the brand, took inspiration from the British fantasy opera “The Tales of Hoffmann,” making a “Dream Ball” with models in strappy sandals and flower pedals dangling from their eyelashes. Traditional Chinese garments, including qipao and Chinese jackets, were combined with high-waisted ballgowns that had exposed crinoline or corsets, which Ma called “semi-eveningwear.”

“We desired to explore the underlying influence of Western culture on Eastern aesthetics and the way it plays on in womenswear throughout history,” Ma said. “The Noir collection is a more girly version of the M Essential important line. Thus we could more freely explore the melange between Western codes and traditional Chinese garments.”

At showrooms similar to Not Showroom, Tube Showroom and Ontimeshow’s Roomroom, local talents displayed thoughtful concepts paired with commercially friendly pieces which, to some extent, painted a greater picture of what Shanghai has to supply.

Sakura Chan, a womenswear brand heavily inspired by the ’70s rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic, took a page from The Velvet Underground and Nick Cave this season.

“Rockers are all the identical, they’re eternally rebels, so I couldn’t help but see some similarities between the way in which Lou Reed and my boyfriend, the way in which they went about on the earth,” said Chan of her partner Liu Ge, the lead singer of Beijing’s favorite underground band The Molds.

Chan designed a leather blazer akin to what Liu would wear at concert events but bleeding red silk throughout, to emulate how Liu would sometimes get into heated rows and hurt himself.

A tormented musician calls for a strong-minded woman to tame the beast. More leather jackets with rivets punched throughout, silk blouses that cinched tightly on the waist and super high-waisted sheer bodices accomplished the portrait of a tormented rocker’s girlfriend while the models were made as much as appear to be their faces were bruised. “The theme of this collection is Jesus’ Ball & Chain,’ love can hold you captive, but sometimes it hurts you, yet you possibly can’t let go,” Chan said.

Qiuhao, the primary Chinese winner of the distinguished Woolmark Prize 15 years ago, has been stationed on the Roomroom by the West Bund for the past few years. His brand occupied an airy white cube that showcased his modern and minimal designs favored by powerful women.

The black and white collection, with dashes of red, continued to explore wardrobe staples similar to turtleneck wool bodysuits, stretchy leather biker jackets and cocooning wool jackets that formed a fierce silhouette.

“For me, design is working through the essential pieces and refining the small print,” said the designer of his namesake brand.

A fragrance collection crafted with the Chinese perfumer Yili Li and Qiu Hao’s partner, the perfume influencer Jun Huang, was also being presented on the brand’s showroom, adding a touch of romance to Qiu Hao’s expansive universe.

Untitlab, a footwear and accessories brand founded by Sans Peng, Tian Cai and Justin Zen, continued to play with a various range of materials and color stories in its latest collection.

Inspired by surfer shoes, flat sneakers with daring embossment allow the wearer to “feel the bottom under your feet,” Peng said. “I prefer to walk around so much in town now that I live in London, so I designed a shoe that has a really thin sole. It’s also a slip-on, which is much more freeing.”

The brand’s bestselling derbies, cowboy boots, hitch boots and shoulder bags are all updated with a natural dyeing technique present in Yunnan province, which offers the wearer the liberty to oscillate between formal attires or “sporty vibes.”