At Shanghai Fashion Week, one brand stood out not just for its craftsmanship, but for its cultural commentary: Shushu/Tong. Known for its unapologetically feminine aesthetic, the brand—founded by Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang—once again challenged convention by reimagining what womanhood means in the 21st century, and more specifically, what it means to Chinese women today.
Their latest collection wasn’t simply a fashion show; it was a carefully constructed narrative. It weaved together the tension between old and new, past and present, soft and structured. The result? A dynamic visual language of femininity that both honors tradition and pushes boundaries.
Take, for example, the standout gray blazer dress—a modern reworking of the 1980s office attire once worn by China’s white-collar women. Paired with a turtleneck and oversized glasses, the look felt like a time capsule from a period when femininity in China was defined by restraint, pragmatism, and modesty. But Shushu/Tong doesn’t stop there. By emphasizing a cinched waist and strong silhouette, the look also becomes a reclamation of power, suggesting that femininity can be professional and assertive.
In another breath, the collection flips that standard on its head. Oversized outerwear and exaggerated accessories disrupt any fixed idea of how a woman “should” dress. These were not clothes designed to please the male gaze. They were expressive, bold, at times awkward—and precisely for that reason, beautiful. The friction between these styles reveals a deeper truth: femininity isn’t monolithic. It’s fluid, contextual, and evolving.
This interplay of contrasts—traditional vs. modern, structure vs. softness—felt particularly poignant in Shanghai, a city that itself embodies a constant tug-of-war between heritage and progress. What Shushu/Tong achieved through fashion mirrors what many young women in China and across the world are grappling with today: how to navigate identities shaped by both inherited expectations and newfound freedom.
Their work also reflects a larger cultural moment. Across Asia, there’s a movement in fashion that doesn’t seek to Westernize tradition, but to remix it. Shushu/Tong joins a wave of designers who are reclaiming cultural symbols not as nostalgia, but as raw material for future-facing expression. This is feminism not through slogans, but silhouettes.
And perhaps that’s the quiet power of this collection. It doesn’t shout. It whispers, nods, reinterprets. It says that you can wear your history on your sleeve—literally—and still step forward. In an industry often criticized for its detachment from the real world, Shushu/Tong reminds us that fashion can be political, personal, and poetic all at once.
As trends come and go, Shushu/Tong’s collection stands as something more lasting: a meditation on the coexistence of tradition and rebellion. And in doing so, it offers a new vocabulary for femininity—one that’s far more inclusive, more complex, and, above all, more human.
Written by Cassie Zheng
