SHAO × adidas Originals · Shanghai Fashion Week AW26
A Shared Language of Reinvention
During Shanghai Fashion Week AW26, SHAO joined adidas Originals China for a project that moved between two distinct settings: the intimacy of the Originals Lounge and the controlled spectacle of the runway.
The Shoe
CHANGLE, Reframed
The collaboration centered on the adidas Originals CHANGLE, a slim-soled sneaker whose low profile offered an unexpected counterpoint to SHAO's sharply constructed tailoring. Rather than treating the footwear as an isolated product moment, SHAO absorbed it into the larger language of the collection, allowing it to take on a different character through proportion, styling, and context.
The Lounge
Inside the Originals Lounge
From March 26 to 29, adidas Originals opened the Originals Lounge at 127 Yongfu Road, creating a temporary salon during Shanghai Fashion Week. The setting drew on the atmosphere of a private residence, with warm wood, collected objects, archival footwear, and domestic furnishings arranged throughout the space.
The lounge presented the brand's latest slim-soled styles through the Chinese characters 安、福、常、乐, connecting the names of the shoes to ideas of ease, fortune, continuity, and pleasure — less a conventional product display than a study in how global design can be translated through local language and everyday cultural references.
The Runway
CHANGLE on the SHAO Runway
Days later, the collaboration shifted from the lounge to the SHAO AW26 runway. For UNDERWORLD ROYALE: DARKNESS UNDER NEON LIGHTS, CHANGLE appeared beneath sculpted jackets, elongated trousers, leather surfaces, and sharply controlled layers. Its low, grounded profile changed the posture of the looks, tempering the severity of the tailoring without making it feel casual.
SHAO did not use the sneaker to soften the collection. Instead, it introduced another kind of precision — a clean base for silhouettes built around strong shoulders, long lines, and cinematic proportion. On the runway, CHANGLE became part of the construction of the look rather than a disruption of it.
The Idea
A Shared Language of Reinvention
SHAO AW26 draws from the visual mythology of 1990s Hong Kong gangster cinema, where clothing communicates hierarchy, self-control, and survival before a character speaks. Familiar forms are reconsidered through cropped proportions, exaggerated shoulders, piercing hardware, and a darker, more physical approach to tailoring.
CHANGLE carries the recognizable codes of an archival sports shoe, but its meaning shifted once placed inside SHAO's world. Heritage becomes relevant not through repetition, but through use: framed through language and place in the lounge, transformed through styling and silhouette on the runway — two distinct identities producing something neither could create alone.
Explore SHAO AW26
Underworld Royale
Discover UNDERWORLD ROYALE: DARKNESS UNDER NEON LIGHTS, presented at Shanghai Fashion Week AW26 in collaboration with adidas Originals China.
