Inside the designers’ hearts at Shanghai Fashion Week S/S 2027
Harper’s Bazaar Korea recently featured SHAO in its coverage of Shanghai Fashion Week S/S 2027, which focused on designers who drew on their personal experiences for their collections. Here’s a look at the feature and the story behind SHAO’s latest show.
"At Shanghai Fashion Week S/S 2027, designers brought their personal stories to the runway, from childhood memories to love and loss, and all the complex emotions in between. Here are the brands that transformed their own experiences into collections."
This season, Shanghai Fashion Week felt less like a showcase of trends and more like a series of personal narratives. Harper’s Bazaar Korea looked beyond the clothes to the stories behind them, highlighting designers who used their own histories as the starting point for their work.
Among them was SHAO. Shao Yang presented Underworld Royale, Part 2: Softness in the Shadows, the next chapter of a story inspired by the Triad films of ’90s Hong Kong cinema. Part 1, Darkness Under Neon Lights, debuted in Shanghai and stayed on the outside, in the violence and atmosphere of those films. Part 2 steps inside, into the lives of the characters themselves.
The collection first came to life in September at Chinese Tuxedo in New York’s Chinatown, a setting that recalled the Bensonhurst where Shao Yang grew up, where Chinatown and Little Italy share the same streets. Now the story has returned to Shanghai, staged at Hall Blue in Xintiandi, where stage and screen meet and the audience is placed right in the scene.
"Shao Yang wove the Asian culture of her upbringing together with a New York sensibility in this collection. Soft tailoring and relaxed silhouettes capture an inner world where strength and vulnerability coexist."
The collection focuses on the characters behind the action, exploring what they deal with once the fighting stops, from loneliness and betrayal to love and loss.
On the runway, a sharply cut pinstripe suit with dark sunglasses and a slim belt keeps the sharp, commanding feel of the first chapter. Alongside it, a black satin shirt paired with a high-slit teal satin skirt brings in movement, while an oversized grey check shirt jacket over relaxed navy trousers shows the collection’s easier, roomier proportions.
For Shao Yang, whose brand draws on both her Asian heritage and her New York upbringing, bringing the collection to Shanghai made it especially personal.
