At Shanghai Fashion Week, Xu Zhi’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection unfolded like a lucid dream – an ethereal exploration of motion, memory, and self-discovery. Inspired by Arthur Rimbaud’s later years of wandering, designer Xuzhi Chen reimagined the poet’s restless spirit through a lens of modern introspection. The result was a collection that moved not with spectacle, but with quiet conviction – a meditation on the poetry of becoming.

Chen’s garments read like pages from a traveler’s diary written in fabric. Diaphanous silks, crinkled cottons, and sheer voiles were layered delicately, forming silhouettes that seemed to float between substance and shadow. Wispy dresses trailed with elegant disorder, while ballooning pantaloons and cropped blouses echoed a soft, unhurried rhythm. Muted hues of pearl, tobacco, and dusted rose replaced flamboyance with feeling, creating an atmosphere more reflective than celebratory.

In womenswear, fluidity reigned supreme with fluttering ruffles, sheer layering, and tailoring that whispered rather than shouted. Denim, hand-stitched and reworked, added a subtle grit, while translucent silks suggested vulnerability rather than seduction. The menswear, however, revealed Chen’s boldest evolution: sculptural three-piece suits in luminous brocade, worn with ease and intimacy, shirts unbuttoned, skin revealed, and boundaries blurred. Super-short shorts, tasseled sandals, and fluid capes punctuated the lineup with a sense of soft provocation.

Xu Zhi’s SS26 collection was less about reinvention and more about refinement. It celebrated freedom as an inner state found not in rebellion against structure, but in harmony with it. By distilling bohemianism into a language of restraint, Chen delivered a body of work that felt deeply human: reflective, tactile, and beautifully alive in its imperfection.