A GQ Editorial Frame
Somewhere between a GQ editorial, a reconstruction of 1930’s Shanghai, and a humanoid robot walking 100 kilometers without falling, SHAO A/W 2025 begins to take shape. The SHANGHAI 1930’s Collection moves through these references without hierarchy, placing tailored leather garments, historical tension, and emerging machine autonomy within the same frame, as if they have always belonged together.
For this editorial, clothing is not isolated as the central subject, but positioned alongside systems, movement, and evolving definitions of labor and identity. The result is less a presentation of garments and more a condition, one where fashion, technology, and cultural memory operate simultaneously rather than separately.
Reconstructing 1930’s Shanghai
1930’s Shanghai existed as a city of contradictions, where power and instability coexisted beneath a surface of refinement. It was a place where clothing signaled status, intention, and strategy, operating as both protection and performance within a rapidly shifting social order.
SHAO reconstructs this condition through tailoring that resists finality. The garments are not fixed in meaning, but adaptable, reflecting a world in which identity is constantly negotiated rather than defined.
The Black Leather Bomber with detachable dickie introduces modularity into a traditionally formal structure, allowing shifts between states of presentation. The Jet Black Leather Asymmetrical Pleated Trousers disrupt symmetry, creating a silhouette that feels controlled yet unstable, precise yet unpredictable.
Together, they form a system rather than a look.
The Machine Enters the Frame
Alongside the garments, the presence of humanoid robotics introduces a parallel narrative that cannot be separated from the collection. Agibot’s Expedition A2, a humanoid robot capable of walking 100 kilometers without falling, represents a new threshold in machine autonomy.
This achievement is not defined by perfection, but by repetition. Behind the stability of that walk exists a history of failure, recalibration, and persistence, as engineers refine movement through continuous iteration. The machine does not arrive fully formed. It is built through collapse.
Placed within the editorial, the robot is not treated as spectacle, but as context. It exists within the same visual and conceptual space as the garments, shifting the conversation from appearance to function.
From Performance to Labor
The distinction between performance and labor becomes central. Historically, machines have been confined to controlled demonstrations, operating within boundaries defined by human input. The transition toward autonomy changes this dynamic.
The humanoid no longer exists to perform for observation. It begins to operate within systems of work, repetition, and endurance, areas that have traditionally defined human contribution.
This shift introduces the concept of the electronic laborer, not as speculation, but as an emerging reality. The machine’s ability to function without fatigue or hesitation repositions it within structures that prioritize efficiency over subjectivity.
Garments as Systems of Control
Within this context, SHAO’s tailoring takes on a different significance. The garments are not simply aesthetic objects, but systems that regulate how the body moves, how it is perceived, and how it adapts to its environment.
Leather, as a primary material, reinforces this tension. It introduces rigidity while remaining responsive, shaping the body in ways that feel both protective and restrictive. The asymmetry of the trousers and the modularity of the bomber disrupt traditional balance, mirroring the instability introduced by technological advancement.
The body, like the machine, becomes part of a system.
Human, Machine, or Something Between
While the robot completes its movement without hesitation, human response becomes fragmented. The question of whether the machine can be considered human reveals less about the machine itself and more about the instability of human identity.
We build systems in our image, then question their legitimacy once they begin to function independently. The boundary between human and machine becomes less defined, not because the machine has changed, but because our definitions can no longer contain it.
Within the editorial, this tension remains unresolved.
A New Condition
SHAO A/W 2025 exists within a space where historical reference and technological reality intersect. The SHANGHAI 1930’s Collection draws from a past defined by contradiction, while engaging with a present shaped by systems, automation, and shifting definitions of labor and identity.
Framed through a GQ editorial lens, the collection does not attempt to separate fashion from context. Instead, it situates garments within a broader condition, where the future is already in motion, and where the distinction between human and machine continues to blur.
What remains is not a conclusion, but a question. Not about what machines are capable of doing, but about how their presence reshapes the structures through which we define ourselves.
Creative Direction & Production: BOH Project
Photography: Feng Li
Styling: Zhaohai
Styling Assistants: Xiao Yue, Anna, Eve
Makeup: Beata
Hair: Zhou Nan (Black Duck Studio)
Art Direction: Shawn Ma (FISHCAT STUDIO)
Casting: Kopa (TheSoloistStudio)
Production: Raven & Lu (Radiant Girls)
Models:
Dong Chengwei (CBMODEL), Yang Jiaxuan (MO:STAR & YU), Choi Fu Man (Meta Model), Song Junyi, Kim Baoyi (THE.Management), Zhang Yunwei (TERRA–MO:STAR)
Art Assistant: Tao Tao (FISHCAT STUDIO)
Photography Assistant: Xie Miaowei
Equipment Support: Shanghai Shangde Elephant
Discover the Black Leather Bomber with detachable dickie and the Jet Black Leather Asymmetrical Pleated Trousers. Explore the full SHANGHAI 1930’s Collection.
