About 50 runway shows are going on at Xintiandi and the Shanghai Exhibition Center from October 15 to Wednesday as part of Shanghai Fashion Week 2015 Spring & Summer (SFW 2015 SS). While the majority of these are showcasing the latest fashion developments for women, men are also being well represented.

The Global Times has been keeping tabs of the new trends in menswear that have been on display at SFW, and asked four fashion designers for their tips for next year's styles.

Reaching for outer space

With futuristic prints featuring colorful spectrums and emanating dots, the latest collection by Kay Kwok takes inspiration from the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), an umbrella term for a range of programs focused on analyzing data to uncover signs that could indicate the existence of alien civilizations. 

Gowns, short pants and even skirts have colored ray prints with blurred boundaries, producing a sense of mystery. Sometimes, the rays go in different directions, while in other designs the rays collide to produce irregular shaped dots, giving the garments a chaotic vibrancy. Wavy embroidered patterns decorate the front portions of deep-colored suits, combining the formal with the playful. According to the designer, Hong Kong-born Kwok Tsz-fung, the waves represent interstellar radio signals. Another highlight of the series is that Kwok creatively cuts fabrics commonly used to make formal suits into stylish sleeveless shirts and seven-tenth length pants. Stiff suit fabrics are also combined with soft materials in his gown designs.

Tibetan inspiration

Wander is a new fashion brand created by Li Dengting earlier this year. Trained in traditional Chinese painting, Li has positioned the brand as a platform for sharing his findings from his explorations of the traditional cultures of China and other parts of the world.

This new collection brings Tibetan culture alive through low-profile designs. Colors prevalent in Tibetan clothing such as black, dark red and green are used extensively in the collection, which also features a range of ethnic weaved patterns as another highlight. A series of fat pants, whose irregular shaped legs bloom like sacks, give models cone-like body contours, narrowing in the upper part and widening at the base. According to Li, the contour is inspired by Nepalese lamas, who usually wrap layers of cloth around their waists.

The shiny surfaces of a series of gowns made of silk and satin add a touch of elegance to the collection. Meanwhile, slim pants decorated with low-key weaved patterns demonstrate the refinement of ethnic arts and crafts.

The designer has added big pockets to the garments to make them more practical, and has used light fabrics such as cotton, gauze, silk and satin as his main materials.

An outfit from Wander

 

Aery Illusion

Taking nostalgia for childhood as inspiration, Guangdong-born designer Ye Weicheng has created a series of pastel-colored clothes imbued with the spirit of fun and youth and that use imagery derived from the sky.

Named Aery Illusion, the latest collection from Ye's brand Y-Vison Homme uses images such as clouds, skylines, paper airplanes, parachutes, and colorful semicircular shapes resembling the rising sun.

In this series, Ye abandons the common "cocoon" shapes of his previous works in favor of a more form-fitting tailoring, which makes for a more neat and nimble figure. He uses multiple fabrics and combines them to create an illusionary visual effect on the body. Pastel colors also collide with strong colors and even metallic pigments, producing a vigorous tension and demonstrating the designer's philosophy of differing from the norm. The number pi, remains the theme of the brand, representing the infinite possibility in creating clothes. Prints of the number recur throughout the collection on items such as frock coats, jackets and pants.

A runway show by Y-Vison Homme Photos: Courtesy of Shanghai Fashion Week

Back to the origin

As always, black and white form the basis for designer Ban Xiaoxue's new designs. However, this season, red is used as the third major color in his new collection, Yiyang, under his Banxiaoxue label.

As it is for Ye, childhood is a major inspiration for Ban's latest collection, focusing on the carefree mindset of the idyllic childhood, which is pure, free and reckless.

Arbitrary and disorganized sketches appear on men's shirts and pants, producing an abstract beauty and reminding people of the free drawings of an innocent mind.

The careless mind is also demonstrated through Ban's bold experiments, mixing different materials in the collection.

For instance, appliqués and embroideries are done on mesh, which ensure the functionality of the clothes and create a romantic feeling.

A new look from Banxiaoxue