On Monday, Sept. 15, designer Shao Yang presented her latest collection “Futures of the Past: Chrome Legacy,” featuring projections of a half-human, half-robotic head melded together filling up the white walls in Artechouse, an art museum in Chelsea.
The Spring/Summer 2026 collection plays with traditionally modest designs and embraces futuristic flare. Through the use of an unexpected color palette, geometric patterns and genderfluid designs, Yang takes an avant-garde approach to illustrate the legacy of modern dress.
In packages that sat on every seat, Yang discussed the message behind her designs: “I envisioned my grandparents walking into the future without losing a single thing that made them who they are,” Yang wrote. “The clothes had to carry their past, live in the urgency of now and belong on the streets of the future.”
The collection unfolded through deliberate structure. Colors like sage green, bright yellow and blushy pink appeared first as an accent — on a sleeve, a lining or a pant leg — before dominating the next look entirely, as if the past were dipping its toe into the future before diving in entirely.
The opening look featured a black and white striped patchwork suit with varying sizes of lines and grids. Shao New York actively played with its proportions by accentuating the outfit with an exaggerated paperboy hat and a metallic earpiece.
The styling of the models reinforced the show’s alien-like visuals — details from uniformly slicked back hair to elongated, acrylic nails, where chains dangled from models’ fingers.
“Everyone has light blue contacts,” Luca Tejada, a 20-year-old intern with PR firm Rep Agency who worked the show, told WSN. “It looks very cool. All the visuals and all the outfits — they look like they’re from the future.”
The diverse casting and looks were a testament to the show’s message: fashion as a means of blending the past and future. Yang sees the future as not being exclusively shaped by youth, but also by those who carry the past forward. Older models walked alongside younger ones, and traditionally feminine skirts and dresses were accessorized with men’s loafers and high socks.
Sabine Dworak, an influencer and champion pole dancer who attended the show, appreciated the balance between experimentation and functionality of the pieces.
“Sometimes you see fashion and you think it’s totally out of this world, but this is still wearable,” Dworak told WSN.
The final look, a glistening silver drape dress, mimicked the sheen of a chrome, space-age design. Its classical use of futuristic aesthetics transported viewers into the future and left them with questions on what the zeitgeist will look like for years to come.
Contact Daphne Zhu at [email protected].
