Shanghai Fashion Week: Nostalgia, Pastels and Utility

Shanghai Fashion Week has become a fixture in the international fashion conversation, and this season made the point with unusual clarity. Rather than operating in a bubble, Chinese labels engaged directly with European references: the playful schoolgirl spirit associated with Miu Miu, Prada’s intellectually subversive elegance, Chloé’s romantic lightness and traces of Jonathan Anderson’s Dior signature all surfaced in the collections.

The interesting part is what designers did with those references. Very few seemed content to reproduce them faithfully. Instead, inspiration served as a springboard, fused with local materials, unexpected cuts and cultural cues and then translated into a vocabulary that feels distinctive rather than derivative. The result read as homage, not imitation. Running through the same collections was an unbroken appetite for Y2K: low-slung silhouettes, glitter finishes and soft pastel shades, alongside underwear pieces deliberately promoted to outerwear status. Five developments captured the season best.

Bloomers move out of the underwear drawer

Gathered puff shorts finished at the hem, bloomers spent decades strictly behind closed doors. In Shanghai they took to the runway with confidence. Xiaoli and Xu Zhi showed shorts trimmed with lace and threaded with drawstrings, styled alongside broderie blouses and crochet tops for a gentle, nostalgic mood. Balloon-like volume gave the outfits a playful edge, reinforced by lace-up sandals and ankle-high boots.

Markgong offered its own reading: sheer turquoise bloomers finished with a ruffled feather hem, worn with a plunging black waistcoat and flat lace-up shoes. The collocation was cheeky, almost childlike in its irreverence, and neatly demonstrated how nostalgia and Y2K energy can meet in a single garment. What was once hidden now carries the whole look.

Cargo details softened by femininity

Utility motifs arrived in Shanghai stripped of their purely practical purpose. At Avvenn, a knee-length olive green cargo skirt met a lace-trimmed camisole and glittering ballet flats, setting robust hardware against delicate trim. Xu Zhi paired wide khaki cargo shorts with a mint puff-sleeve top decorated with floral embroidery and ribbon ties, a romantic counterweight to the tough fabric.

Markgong pushed the idea furthest. Bright red Bermuda shorts with patch pockets appeared alongside a pink double-breasted jacket, subverted with a fluffy feather collar and a visible bra. Patent-style lace-up shoes and a small pouch completed the story. The shorts read less like workwear and much more like a deliberate statement piece.

The hips take centre stage

At Shushutong, Markgong and Xu Zhi, the hip was the point of focus, and volume rather than constriction did the work. Shushutong placed a white miniskirt with a flared flounce low on the hips, held with a belt, and finished the outfit with a cropped daisy-print jumper, pulled-up knee-high socks and a headband: a light schoolgirl reference without the costume feel.

Xu Zhi built the silhouette through a white dress with a dropped waist, lace trim and a flared skirt panel. Markgong chose instead a cream blazer with broad shoulders worn over a pleated skirt that swings as it moves, finished with an upturned hem. In each case the eye lands at the hip line first.

Pastels with traditional cues

The season’s dreamier register came through in pastel shades at Huamushen, Awaylee and Markgong. Mint green, sky blue and pink appeared at Huamushen and Awaylee on tops with Mandarin collars and frog closures, a direct reference to traditional Chinese tailoring. Sequins, beadwork and three-dimensional embroidered lotus flowers gave those pieces a delicate, almost sculptural quality.

Bubble-hem skirts and flowing satin trousers kept the looks light rather than precious. The effect is a genuine hybrid: familiar soft colours and embellishment techniques anchored in a construction language with local roots, which is precisely the kind of translation that keeps reference from tipping into reproduction.

Underwear worn as a visible layer

Underwear as outerwear shows no sign of fatigue. At Shao, bras were declared outright as tops: a black underwired style with a fine lace edge worn beneath an open pinstripe waistcoat, echoed by a low-slung, asymmetrically cut skirt in the same fabric. Elsewhere the bra appeared as a peek of lace beneath tailoring, as at Markgong.

Lace trims, bralettes and slip dresses were styled throughout as visible outer layers, thrown over knitwear or under jackets with apparent effortlessness. The appeal lies in that ease: a piece traditionally kept private becomes the hinge of an outfit, softening tailoring and adding a Y2K-adjacent edge without demanding a whole new wardrobe.

A reference that has become a dialogue

What binds these five trends is confidence. Cargo pockets, pastel Mandarin collars, exaggerated hip volume, underwear-as-outerwear and bloomers are not new ideas in themselves, but the Shanghai versions manipulate proportion, material and cultural detail until the source is no longer the point. Designers here are no longer joining the international conversation from the outside. They are shaping it, and the rest of the industry is taking note.