The two temporary spaces in Xintiandi that serve as Shanghai Fashion Week’s main venue powerfully remind me of NYFW’s Bryant Park tents from back in the day. The security gates, the sponsorship stands (thanks, Lays, for all the chips), the rubberneckers: functionally it works great, but this is no theater of dreams.
So props to Jacques Wei, who with just a two-hour turnaround transformed his tent from rustic to decadent. He had his models prowl out from backstage between two painted bronze black panther sculptures from his own collection. The cast then headed up the freshly carpeted showspace towards an orchestra, placed on a stage, which barely played. Afterwards Wei said that along with his forever icon Cher, this collection and show’s inspirations had included Ye’s proposal to Kim Kardashian back in 2013.
Camp, fabulous, and unconventionally maximalist, Wei is a designer whose archetype is sexy and rich, but unorthodoxly so. Musing on his formula for complex hotness, he ventured: “I like weird proportions. It’s really easy to make beautiful proportions. To make the legs long. But I feel nowadays I’m more into playing with turning something weird into something interesting. It’s never weird to see something beautiful, but I think it’s interesting to see something weird.”
This was in response to a question about his pastel silk-satin draped skirts, super-wide and low slung, that were the strongest example seen so far in the tendency towards drop-waist looks across multiple runways here.
Other enjoyable oddities included his fur-fronted (shearling) leopard pattern skirts, his longer-at-the front sheer spaghetti-strapped dress with gleaming beading at the chest worn with black hosiery and metallic sandals, and his feather-fringed miniskirts in lush color from which were hung further edges of sheer lacy tulle to the knee. There was a lot animalia, from zebra boots to python pants, and emphatically textured and colored muffish cuffs.
Around these landmarks Wei built a distinct and luxe landscape of lavishishness that ran from full-shouldered suiting with square, jewel-like buttons (sometimes worn by men) to a wide offer of draped, ruffled, and form-fitting silky dresses, roomy pants, and backless blouses. There were a lot of gleaming, low slung chains looped behind the substantial coiffes applied to much of the casting. Wei’s experiments with luxury weirdness mustered a character who was richly self-possessed and fascinatingly out there.
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