Roughly a 20-minute drive from Shanghai’s Xintiandi, the main venue of Shanghai Fashion Week, along the shore of the Huangpu River at the West Bund, crowds gathered inside a massive dome structure on October 10.
The new venue was being used by RoomRoom, a novel agency founded by the fashion week’s principal trade show platform Ontimeshow. It hosted a five-day fashion gala with eight prominent designer brands: Haizhen Wang, Qiuhao, KEH FORME, Jarel Zhang, SUSAN FANG, XIAO LI, Sweetpotato Chiu, and Angel Chen.
Ontimeshow’s RoomRoom, located in the West Bund Dome at Shanghai’s West Bund. Image by Wang Junjie
“Right now, we are offering a new creative showcase,” said Aroma Xie, the co-founder of Ontimeshow. As Aroma explained, the dome space, officially called ‘West Bund Dome,’ was formerly a factory but is now Asia’s largest venue for fashion shows.
On October 10, at noon, one of the eight designer brands, SUSAN FANG, staged its show under the dome. As music echoed throughout the space, models adorned in ethereal and rainbow-inspired dresses lined up to walk onto the stage and wow hundreds of guests — editors and writers, buyers, KOLs, celebrities, and fashionistas.
SUSAN FANG’s heart-shaped water installation at West Bund Dome. Image courtesy of Susan Fang
During SUSAN FANG’s showcase, audiences were treated to an exciting surprise in the form of a misty heart composed of tiny water droplets suspended above the stage. (It’s creation the result of a simple — yet effective — system of thin pipes.) The heart was symbolic of the designer brand’s central theme this season, ‘Air Love.’
SUSAN FANG’s 2022 spring-summer collection. Image by Wang Junjie
“It’s about loving yourself,” Susan Fan (the designer), who was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 ranking in 2019 and 2020, told RADII.
The West Bund Dome provides a vast space for brands to experiment and allowed the designer’s team to ambitiously tackle the heart-shaped installation — which stood 9 meters tall and took three months to create.
SUSAN FANG’s ‘Bubble Bag’ is a signature design and an in-demand item on social media. Image via Wang Junjie
The five-day gala began on October 7 and concluded yesterday, October 12. (No show was held on October 8.)
Cover image courtesy of Susan Fang
