SHANGHAI — Independent fashion publication A Magazine Curated By on Saturday will bring its 25th anniversary exhibition, which debuted in Paris this past spring, to Shanghai Fashion Week with a local touch.
Working with Labelhood, a retailer and talent support platform that has become synonymous with Chinese designer fashion, a second part will be added to highlight leading designers who have helped shape the Chinese fashion landscape over the past decade.
Running till the end of October, the exhibition will take place at Suhe Haus, an old warehouse-turned-art space by the storied Suzhou Creek.
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In addition to personal objects from guest editors of previous issues, such as Yohji Yamamoto’s pack of Hi-Lites, Kris Van Assche’s Libertad o Muerte necklace, Martine Sitbon’s Bambi figurine and a custom Hermès Kelly bag designed by Jun Takahashi, which were part of the original Paris exhibition, 24 Chinese designers have worked on special commissions that best showcase their creative voices.
Blake Abbie, editor in chief of A Magazine Curated By, who has also appeared in the reality show “Bling Empire New York” and the TV series “Meteor Garden,” said the latest chapter of the project is rooted in his longstanding connection to Shanghai and his growing interest in the city’s creative community.
“I’ve been going to Shanghai since 2017, and obviously, there was a pandemic in the middle of it, but I have been integrating myself bit by bit into the local community. After China opened up again, I started going more often, because there’s an interesting and burgeoning community with great talent, and, with Labelhood, an incredible support system,” added Abbie, who is of Chinese and Scottish descent.
The idea of the exhibition sprouted organically as 2025 marks a milestone both for A Magazine and Labelhood.
In 2015, the latter’s founder Tasha Liu relaunched what was once known as Dong Liang Shanghai as Labelhood and expanded into talent support the same year during Shanghai Fashion Week.
At the time, no one knew whether it would work. There were some Chinese names in the world of fashion, like Uma Wang, Huishang Zhang and Guo Pei, but there hasn’t been a collective recognition like the Antwerp Six or London’s Newgen.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition “China: Through the Looking Glass” the same year was also a wake-up call to many in China that the West had no idea what modern Chinese fashion means. The exhibition mostly looked at how Chinese elements were interpreted through an Occidental lens, with Guo Pei being the only Chinese designer featured in the showcase.
But Liu was confident that the era for Chinese designers is coming. With so many Chinese students graduating from top fashion schools around the world, and local consumers looking for one-of-a-kind pieces that are culturally tied to them, Shanghai Fashion Week in 2015 added a trade show element and invited buyers across China to meet with young designers.
A decade later, the designer fashion market exploded in China as concept stores replaced department stores as the preferred fashionable shopping destinations, and Labelhood, in the process, became a major part of Chinese fashion and Shanghai Fashion Week. Many of the top names on the calendar, such as Shushu/Tong, Oude Waag, and Mark Gong, show exclusively under Labelhood.
On the world stage, Liu has also been promoting Chinese fashion via Labelhood with Chinese New Year pop-ups in Harrods and exhibitions at Pitti Uomo. Next week it will unveil a Chinese designer-focused pop-up at The Hyundai Seoul department store in the affluent Gangnam area of the South Korean capital.
“What was really important for her was that she wanted to create a space that could, in some way, educate the next generation of people to support designers, customers and the ecosystem. It’s also about finding a way to be able to offer a bit of a cultural background for people outside of fashion,” Abbie said of why Liu approached him.
Abbie said the magazine’s curatorial vision aligns with Labelhood’s ethos.
“A Magazine is a publication that celebrates creativity with designers at its core. There are really incredible opportunities for new conversations to happen about that in Shanghai. Of course, these creative dialogues are not explicitly about what Labelhood does. It’s more about what Labelhood represents globally for the Chinese market and the Chinese diaspora in the world,” he added.
Some 24 Chinese designers were paired up by Abbie and Liu for the new chapter of the exhibition, as 12 is a very important number in Chinese philosophy.
The pairings are: Uma Wang with Re Shui, Xander Zhou with Caroline Hu, Chen Peng with Feng Chen Wang, Märchen with Penultimate, Oude Waag with Ruohan, Shushu/Tong with Mark Gong, RUIbuilt with Yayi, Oscar Ouyang with Yueqiqi, Windowsen with Yuhan Wang, Samuel Gui Yang with M Essential, Ao Yes with Pronounce, and Swaying/knit with Yirantian.
The pairing idea was also derived from the designer-on-designer interview series in the anniversary issue featuring Hussein Chalayan and Olivier Theyskens; Thom Browne and Stephen Jones; Kim Jones and Chitose Abe, and Francesco Risso and Simone Rocha.
“We asked each designer to consider a look that is representative of themselves as a designer, and then offer an object that is representative of themselves as a person. For example, Xander Zhou picked an airplane suit with wings, and picked juice and pilates socks to represent himself. Shushu/Tong offered an ashtray full of cigarette butts that have been used in the studio forever to represent the long hours,” Abbie said.
The Shanghai exhibition will also feature a translated version of the anniversary issue of A Magazine Curated By, which saw 32 past curators contributing fresh material, with Margiela designing the cover featuring a gold metallic balloon in the shape of the letter A, and a series of public-facing designer conversations.
Following Shanghai, Abbie said he would like to take the exhibition to places like New York, Los Angeles, London or Tokyo.
A Magazine was initiated in 2000 by Walter Van Beirendonck. The publication started its “Curated By” era in 2004, with a first edition with Martin Margiela. It has since published issues with guest editors such as Alessandro Michele, Haider Ackermann and Pierpaolo Piccioli, in addition to releasing special print projects with the likes of Gucci, Acne Studios and Jordan Brand.
Last year, under Fatine Layt, a veteran investment banker, investor and entrepreneur who three years ago took over the magazine owned by her late husband Évence-Charles Coppée following the Belgian media executive’s death from cancer, the publication branched out into consulting, with the launch of A Lab Curated By, a new entity that uses AI-powered data intelligence to offer market and trend insights as well as advisory services.