Xu Zhi unveiled his Fall 2026 collection during Shanghai Fashion Week, opening with urgent chants of mass protest over the PA system. The runway featured a mix of wearable codes from the late 1950s to 1970s, blending Beat, boho, rock, rive gauche, and hippie styles into luxury pieces evoking peace and progress.
Backstage, designer Chen described the collection as “an amalgamation of different heroes from that time,” aiming to reactivate their “peace and love energy” for a new generation. The show drew on visual languages of Western dissent, though delivered in lush fabrics that leaned nostalgic rather than radically new. An opening look paired a softly militarized jacket with a fringed maxi skirt, hinting at tension between norms and rebellion. A model wore a Lennon cap, brown leather trousers, and a gold-buttoned wool tunic jacket, capturing a polished ensemble. Leopard prints appeared throughout, on mohair cardigans, mousseline tops, and floaty maxi skirts. Other highlights included paisley trenches and waistcoats with matching tailored trousers, ruffled blouses, denim biker jackets, leather-piped wool cloaks, gold-studded embroidered waistcoats, fringed skirts, and a double-belted military jacket in burgundy felt for a menswear vibe. The most dynamic pieces were hand-beaded embroidered dresses in silky viscose with arced fringing inserts, standing out as bold statements.