The AW2026 Beijing Fashion Week, themed “A New Chapter Begins,” concluded its seven-day main venue run on March 23, presenting over 120 fashion activities with new-product debut sessions up 75% year-on-year. Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) embroidery emerged as the season’s defining highlight, as designers moved beyond surface-level cultural motifs to interrogate the roots and spirit behind traditional craft.
Liuli and Zhuzifu: A Dual-Chapters Opening Statement
The opening show was delivered by Shangze International with its two heritage brands, Liuli and Zhuzifu, under the theme “Splendid Attire, Dual Chapters.” Eighty couture looks traced the deep lineage of Chinese sartorial ritual — Liuli drawing on traditional wedding culture, restructuring the “six rites of marriage” through contemporary design language, while Zhuzifu resurrected the dignity of ancient ceremonial dress in red and purple, recasting that regal gravitas for modern social occasions. One vermilion embroidered gown featured layered gold-thread cloud-and-thunder motifs that preserved the solemnity of imperial court dress while aligning with the clean geometry of modern fashion. The brand’s design director stated: “We want Chinese sartorial culture to be seen and inherited by more people. Every stitch of embroidery is reverence for tradition; every design is an interpretation of contemporary aesthetics.”
ICH Embroidery Reimagined Across Designers
The creative reinterpretation of ICH embroidery spanned multiple designers. Designer Li Wei juxtaposed the gentle refinement of Su Embroidery with modern workwear silhouettes, infusing delicately stitched peony patterns with the spirit of independent, confident women. Gu Yuanyuan married the opulent precision of Jing Embroidery with casual wear, using gold and silver threads for minimalist motifs that brought heritage craft into daily wardrobes — a practice she described as “ICH for daily life, fashion rooted in local culture.” Designer Liang Yan noted: “People used to think ICH embroidery was remote — an artwork elevated beyond reach. Through fashion design, we make it wearable, appreciable, and usable.”
China’s national ICH inventory lists 77 embroidery-related entries — Su Embroidery’s gentleness, Xiang Embroidery’s vividness, Shu Embroidery’s clarity, and Yue Embroidery’s brilliance together form a rich tapestry. This season, these distinct traditions were ingeniously blended: some designers adopted innovative techniques such as “zipper embroidery,” while others replaced traditional base fabrics with leather or eco-friendly textiles, achieving dual breakthroughs in both material and method.
Gu Axin’s “Seeing the Orchid” haute couture presentation centered on the orchid as a motif, with over 60 looks merging traditional dyeing-and-weaving, ICH embroidery, and modern silhouettes. French designer Christophe Guillaume closed the show with his eponymous brand, fusing French haute couture romance with Beijing’s urban character — minimalist forms accented by Chinese embroidery patterns. The heritage brand Xuan Jin appeared concurrently at Moscow Fashion Week, bringing ICH embroidery and Chinese sartorial elements to an international stage.
At Ritan Park, designer Li Wei’s Eastern philosophy, German designer Kathrin Von Rechenberg’s East-West synthesis, and YIMOSIS’s trend-forward aesthetics interwove beneath ancient cypresses in a genuine cultural exchange — not merely a showcase, but a dialogue of mutual beauty. The “2026 China Fashion Going Global Season” market at Ritan Park offered immersive experiences blending fashion consumption, cultural exchange, and spring garden strolls, with a two-month cross-border purchasing season at the Yabao Road commercial district facilitating precise matchmaking for international buyers.
Youth, Technology, and the Future of ICH
A Youth Designer Support Plan gathered 20 emerging talents from Tsinghua University, University of the Arts London, and Rhode Island School of Design, exploring ICH deconstruction, Eastern silhouette innovation, and digital-national-style expression through shows and salon exhibitions. The digital fashion segment assembled over 10 domestic and international designers probing the frontiers of fashion-technology convergence. Meanwhile, brands like Yun Wanqian applied AI remote body-measurement technology and seven software-copyright-empowered customization systems to scale ICH craft from artisan workshops to replicable personalized production, expanding from one-person-one-pattern to exports across 27 countries.
Duan Zhiqiang, director of Beijing Fashion Week Co., Ltd., emphasized that the event had broken traditional runway boundaries, achieving deep integration of fashion with industry, culture, technology, and commerce — “making fashion truly enter life and serve the people.”
