The boho-chic boat has docked in Shanghai with the subtlety of a pair of pirate boots and a frilly, flouncy frock.
The current economic situation in China has inspired local designers to lean into commercial stories with global appeal. Until as recently as last season, the dominating trend on the runways was New Chinese Style, which encompassed riffs on traditional garb, but this week’s collections have, for the most part, switched gears to boho-chic. The takeaway: Be gone, Mao jackets, and welcome back, ruffled white dress.
Except that’s an oversimplification—take Xuzhi Chen as an example, a standout designer who returned to Shanghai Fashion Week after a brief absence to celebrate 10 years of his label. Chen is a Central Saint Martins graduate who cut his teeth at Craig Green and JW Anderson and established his label in London in 2015, having been nominated for the LVMH and Woolmark Prizes. Rather than looking derivative of Parisian boho, his version is a compelling interpretation of the aesthetic, one that makes sense out of an undeniably Western style in the context of Chinese fashion.
Even taking into consideration that Chen name-checked Jane Birkin as an inspiration backstage after the show, he gave new depth to the standard European interpretation of “chic” by imbuing it with an Eastern sense of ease. It consisted of an amalgamation of familiar bohemian tropes—shaggy, fringed hems; roomy, balloon-hem separates; crafty embroideries and beadings—and the very elements and proportions that gave this collection the aforementioned twist: things like folds and drapes rather than ruffles and frills, and Chinese crystals, stones, and medals used as ornaments.
Most novel of all was Chen’s menswear—for all the boho talk in womenswear, few designers have even attempted the translation of the look in the men’s space. It’s no easy task—boho for men can go from cool and chill to a background character in Pirates of the Caribbean in the blink of an eye—but Chen managed it with aplomb. See the embellished jeans and crewneck sweaters, the ultra-suede outerwear, and a trio of suits in fabrications that, when described out loud, sound like they shouldn’t work but actually do: a cream crepe collarless jacket and matching pants with Art Deco embroideries, another in the same color whose lapel and collar were distressed and frayed, and a third in a powdery pink velvet that Chen styled shirtless with a thin scarf.
“With so much of Chinese fashion changing these days, I thought I’d go back to [make] a very old-school, traditional fashion collection,” Chen said. He said he’s looked to the 1920s in the past for inspiration, and that this being his 20th collection gave him the license to revisit the decadence of the time. He merged that with the ’70s bohémienne rather than the 2000s reinterpretation, which made a strong case for going straight to the source.