Accompanied by soothing music, on Friday night, models wearing pink wedding dresses from Vera Wang's 2014 spring/summer collection gracefully graced the runway show at Taiping Lake in Xintiandi that concluded the 11th Shanghai Fashion Week (SFW), held from October 16-25.

Big names such as Wang, Qiu Hao and Ji Cheng were undoubtedly the most-anticipated designers to unveil new collections over the past 10 days. However, a group of emerging talent participating in SFW for the first time also presented unforgettable shows to fashionistas in town. The Global Times spoke to three new designers featured this year.

Rico Lee

Outdoor fashion

Shanghai-based label Rico Lee's debut on SFW's catwalk also marks the first time in its 10-year history that SFW has embraced an outdoor apparel brand. A graduate of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Li Weigang, whose English name is Rico Lee, is currently the research and development director of Leeway Sports in Shanghai. Before he joined the sportswear industry five years ago, Li had been active in the fashion design field for roughly a decade.

Li believes that the outdoor and sports apparel market in China started to take off around five years ago, although the market was confined to a relatively small group of consumers.

With the concept of "function makes life beautiful," Li's spring/summer 2014 collection named New.Outdoor aims to change the common image of outdoor apparel and combine functional technology with fashion elements in its stylish outfits.

The major colors for the collection are gray and black, augmented with orange or blue lines. The contrast of different materials, such as leather and woolen cloth-like material, also adds a stylish touch to the collection.

"It's advances in technology that make my designs possible. If it was several years ago when I couldn't get those materials, this collection would not be possible," Li told the Global Times after the show. According to Li, the light, thin and semitransparent materials featured in the collection are the latest inventions for outdoor apparel; they are water and wind-proof and can easily be compressed into a small bag to save space. Meanwhile, the woolen cloth-like material is specially made to counter heavy rainfall.

Set up earlier this year, Rico Lee is not yet stocked in stores in the city, but Li disclosed that he is planning sales of his brand.

threeSociety

American influence

With the collaboration of Swiss watch brand Tendence, the first show of menswear label threeSociety drew praise during SFW.

The latest collection of the Shanghai-based label takes inspiration from a native American tribe which worshipped animals and plants, and presents a vibrant and youthful series featuring floral patterns and stars. The combination of printed silk and leather with traditional suit materials is also a highlight of the collection.

ThreeSociety was set up by Edward Lee and George Chen, two alumni of New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, in 2010. Chen is the brand's creative director. A believer in "effortless dressing," Chen aims to provide fashionable outfits without a need for time-consuming dress up. The handsome touch of his designs is usually not complicated, but is refined with exquisite details. Growing up in America, the Chinese-born Chen is fascinated by the fashionable spirit of the young denizens of Brooklyn, and is interested in integrating the influences of both countries in his designs.

ThreeSociety currently has two stores in the city (157B Jinxian Road and B109 Xintiandi Style) and they also plan to make clothes for women in the future.

Xinyu Hu

Younger force

Born in 1988, Hu Xinyu is probably one of the youngest designers to be showcased at SFW. Although the Shanghai native recently graduated from London College of Fashion, her stylish menswear has been featured in a number of magazines in Europe, among them Kaltblut, Amelia's and Vogue.co.uk.

Hu was also one of only two independent menswear designers featured at the 2013 London College of Fashion Press Show. Her SFW show marked the debut of her namesake line Xinyu Hu on the Chinese mainland.

Named XXX, the collection draws inspiration from Picasso's cubist works and creates a sense of 3D stereoscopy through patterns of overlaying color blocks and geometric shapes.

Xinyu Hu

"To create the ideal geometric patterns, the overall color theme of a set must be matched, which means I had to spend a lot of time on selecting clothing materials. I often had to go through hundreds of different materials to finally select a few for my designs. I want my designs to be comfortable to wear as well," said the young designer.