2024 AUTUMN WINTER
With her Autumn-Winter 2024 collection, Chinese designer Shuting Qiu married the profound artistic legacy of Vietnamese artist Le Pho with the timeless grace of traditional Vietnamese attire. This collection narrates the rich tapestries of Asian and Western cultures, encapsulated through Le Pho’s introspective exploration of nature and the human emotion.
Le Pho, a master of oil painting, is renowned for his ability to blend the vivid landscapes of his Vietnamese heritage with the delicate sensibilities of French Impressionism, a skill honed during his formative years at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It is this intricate dance between two worlds that Shuting Qiu has adeptly channeled into her latest collection. Her recent trip to Vietnam served as a rite of passage, immersing her in a cultural exploration that profoundly shaped her seasonal creative vision, imbuing her work with an authenticity and spirit that is palpably Vietnamese. This journey into the heart of Vietnam allowed her to experience first-hand the vibrant tapestry of its culture, the warmth of its people, and the unspoiled beauty of its landscapes, all of which have found their echo in her designs.
The palette of the collection is a tribute to Le Pho’s canvas, where shades of pale gold and charcoal grey meet the intensity of rose red, bright yellow, and indigo blue, evoking a sense of serene vibrancy. The garments themselves are canvases, with floral motifs rendered in abstract forms on coarse wool, creating geometric patterns that mimic the hems of traditional dresses, while large, ethereal flowers bloom on layers of tulle. Intricate embroideries adorned with sequins and beads add layers of texture and opulence, reminiscent of Le Pho’s “La Fleuriste”, a masterpiece that celebrates the beauty of flowers with a depth and complexity that invites the observer to lose themselves in its narrative.
The silhouettes of the collection pay homage to the iconic Ao Dai, reimagining its signature side slits and rounded, low necklines in a modern context. A standout piece is the boat-neck feather-down jacket, a nod to the “Ao Dai Madame Nhu,” which seamlessly blends traditional elements with a contemporary aesthetic. The collection also features strapless long dresses with high-side slits and asymmetrical one-shoulder designs, a testament to Shuting Qiu’s skill in fusing modernity with tradition.
Beyond its allure, the collection is a testament to Shuting Qiu’s commitment to sustainability, with each piece crafted from eco-friendly fabrics, underscoring a dedication to environmental stewardship. With her Autumn-Winter 2024 collection, Shuting Qiu continues to build a dialogue between culture and apparel, where each garment narrates a story of Eastern culture and the sublime beauty of nature, inviting wearers to partake in a journey that is both visually stunning and deeply meaningful.
2024 SPRING SUMMER
“Island Dreams and Ocean Preservation”
Inspired by North Africa and the Enchanting Tenerife Sea
MILAN, ITALY, September 9th, 2023 – Shuting Qiu, the renowned fashion designer, is set to unveil her highly anticipated Spring-Summer 2024 collection at Milan Fashion Week. Inspired by her recent journey to North Africa and the captivating waters of Tenerife, this collection pays homage to natural beauty and environmental conservation.
Qiu’s creative genius shines through as she seamlessly blends nature’s allure with her artistic vision, collaborating with skilled artisans from Hangzhou to breathe life into tropical island flora and fauna using traditional embroidery techniques. The starfish, symbolizing oceanic enchantment, takes center stage, intricately interwoven with floral patterns and juxtaposed with bold plaid designs.
Sustainability lies at the heart of this collection, with sustainable denim fabric serving as the canvas for Qiu’s artistic expression. Vivid hues harmonize elegantly with modern stripe elements, bridging the gap between sustainable fashion and creative innovation. The collection features five to six striking looks featuring UGGs treated with second-hand design techniques, reinforcing the brand’s commitment to eco-conscious fashion and environmental preservation.
Shuting Qiu’s SS24 collection is a celebration of nature’s wonders. Each piece captures the lush landscapes and untamed beauty of tropical islands, inviting wearers to immerse themselves in a paradise of oversized tropical leaves, graceful starfish motifs, and opulent ostrich feathers. Three-dimensional floral embellishments bring the essence of blooming flora to life, while whimsical butterflies and coastal charm infuse playfulness and seaside allure. With textured patterns inspired by coastal rocks and relaxed silhouettes embodying freedom and comfort, this collection offers a serene and beautiful oceanic experience, paying homage to the diversity of the natural world.
2023 AUTUMN WINTER
In her autumn-winter 2023/2024 collection, Shuting Qiu expertly combines warm and cold colors, such as red, green, and blue, paying homage to French abstractionism through Frantisek Kupka’s painting ‘Compliments.’ The designer draws inspiration from Kupka’s ability to transform natural phenomena into alternative realities, creating new links between painting and clothing to communicate elegant and resilient femininity.
The collection boasts floral motifs that blossom in lively dynamism between geometric shapes and bold lines while smiling faces add an element of playfulness. Bold collisions of tones, jacquard and tweed stitching, and ecological furs in pink, yellow, and blue embellished with beads complete the look. In collaboration with Triumph, known for its romantic and sparkling character, the collection includes eye-catching lingerie pieces with intricate embroidery.
For SHUTING QIU, colors are emotions, each unpredictable and different, just like the designer herself. Memories also come metaphorically to life through fabrics from previous seasons, combined with sustainable garments that define the entire collection.
Shuting Qiu’s commitment to supporting and protecting the environment is reflected in a playful and lighthearted manner, with a mix of vibrant colors and edgy layering. The brand exudes an energetic and bold spirit, giving women a fresh perspective to express their courage through a keen sense of lightness boldly.
2023 SPRING SUMMER
AS A BUTTERFLY CHASING THE SUN
As a unifying theme with previous collections, SHUTING QIU’s SS23 collection draws inspiration from the work of artist Bernard Frize. Frize, a French abstract painter, has produced innovative works since the late 1970s, experimenting with the minimal essence of painting and the pure application of color and paint to canvas. In SS23, SHUTING QIU pays homage to Frize’s abstract and blurred flowers through embroideries and fabric applications that closely reference his work. Newly introduced fringes seek to reproduce the irregular mix of wide brushstrokes and precise, rigid lines found in Frize’s paintings, resulting in colorful and diverse abstract patterns that are dear to the Chinese designer.
Flower and butterfly-shaped sequin embroideries are paired with delicate beaded accessories such as necklaces and pins made with recycled sequins and beads, adding strength and personality to feminine elegance. Bold combinations of bright stripes, floral prints, contrasting colors, and shiny sequins are further enriched with crystals from Swarovski®, applied to formal tailored styles and the most casual pieces. The designer collaborated with crystals from Swarovski®, reusing leftover crystals and stones, which she applied to the hems of striped dresses, tube skirts, and tailored jackets.
The collection is a substantial study on the range, with SHUTING QIU aiming to produce a full and more comprehensive woman’s wardrobe. Tailoring incorporates short coats, cropped jackets, and midi skirt styles juxtaposed with more casual hoodie bombers. The collection also includes a sportswear and swimwear line, combining the brand’s iconic mix of floral and striped patterns embellished by applications of leftover beads.
Overall, SHUTING QIU SS23’s collection presents a fresh perspective on feminine elegance, incorporating innovative techniques and unifying themes to create colorful and diverse abstract patterns that pay homage to the work of Bernard Frize.
2022 AUTUMN WINTER
“Holds her own bouquet in the sky” Florine Stettheimer
Shuting Qiu’s collections consistently celebrate daring romanticism and offer an invitation to explore the work of strong female artists. Her Autumn/Winter 2022 Collection delves into the colorful and dreamy world of Florine Stettheimer, an artist who was a painter, feminist, theatrical designer, poet, and salonnière. Stettheimer’s work addressed controversial issues, such as race and sexual preferences, subtly concealed in the depiction of the social gatherings of her New York City circle. Her paintings were characterized by bright, often unmixed, primary colors and were unapologetically domestic and über-feminine, earning descriptions such as ‘faux naïf,’ ‘rococo subversive,’ or camp.
Shuting Qiu boldly experiments with asymmetry and silhouettes, using a rigorous and original approach to fabrics, intricate embroideries, and juxtapositions of linear and floral prints. Her play on textures and prints, mixing simplicity with complexity, echoes the subtleties of femininity and womanhood. The same descriptive terms used for Stettheimer’s work, such as über-feminine and ‘faux naïf,’ could easily apply to Shuting Qiu’s creations.
Florence Stettheimer was imaginative, living in a dream-like world while coexisting in another. She effortlessly combined her self-consciousness with the collective consciousness, rejecting or digesting the provocations of the world around her. The Autumn/Winter 2022 SHUTING QIU collection mirrors Stettheimer’s rhetoric. Delicate beaded accessories, colorful and sweet cropped jackets, blazers, and mini-skirts, and the introduction of knits softly envelop powerful sequined embroideries and neon-hued bodysuits, reflecting inner strength of character and determination presented in a colorful and dreamy bundle.
Shuting Qiu channeled Florine Stettheimer’s fusion of the outside and the inside when she conceptualized her collection. The forced introspection of Shanghai’s 60+ day citywide lockdown and her longing for social gatherings were significant factors in her design process.
2022 SPRING SUMMER
Shuting Qiu’s collections frequently invite exploration of the work of strong female artists. For her Spring/Summer 2022 Collection, Shuting chose self-discovery as her inspiration, drawing from the landscapes of her hometown and recalling paintings of the beautiful scenery that once surrounded her. The design process became a remembrance of the past and an intimate exploration of self.
Romanticized memories of Hangzhou dictated a transitioning color palette that followed the seasonal changes in the landscapes of her childhood memories. Blues for the ever-changing color of the cherished lake, greens for her beloved meditative forest, oranges and yellows reminiscent of changing autumnal leaves, and pinks, purples, and lilacs for treasured flowers.
While staying true to her brand signatures – a daring, modern, romantic combination of prints and patterns – Shuting inserts new, softer energy into her classic florals. Blurred recollections of memories are now imbued with “fog” and “rain,” making colors appear subdued and opaque. The florals are no longer consolidated, and they have a novel sense of solitude and independence.
Shuting Qiu created an identity based on the principle that fashion is the armor to navigate society, where one does not advance quietly. With her latest collection, she makes a more introspective statement, one of quiet strength and self-empowerment.
2021 AUTUMN WINTER
Female artists often inspire Shuting Qiu’s collections, and for her Fall/Winter 2021 Collection, she looked to the works of Swiss artist Miriam Cahn for inspiration.
Cahn’s haunting and intimate artwork is infused with quiet emotion. She expertly uses color to bring the inner life of her figures to the forefront while contrasting them against subdued background tones that represent society.
Shuting’s signature daring and modern romantic style shines in a similar contrast, exploding into a palette of fluorescent colors like bold shades of yellow, fuchsia, and electric blue when inspired by Cahn’s compositions. These bright motifs brush against calm, wintery shades of medium grey, charcoal, and navy, creating a fusion of exuberance and melancholy.
The brand’s classic prints and check patterns blend with bright eco-fur applications on jacquard, while the introduction of a bomber jacket, down jackets, and jerseys adds casual intent to the brand’s signature tailored silhouettes.
As a self-proclaimed feminist who enjoys a good fight, Cahn often quotes Barbara Kruger’s phrase, “Your body is a battleground.” Similarly, Shuting Qiu has created an identity based on the idea that fashion can be an armor to navigate society in a way that does not advance quietly.
2021 SPRING SUMMER
The short film “Summer Wonderland” was created in collaboration with Nowness China and directed by Qing Fan. Inspired by Martin Parr’s beach photography, the film showcases holiday scenes on an imaginary beach during an ordinary summer. The film captures Asian girls in the SHUTING QIU SS21 collection between amusement and reflection. The designer drew inspiration from her exotic journeys and the constraints of being unable to travel during the collection’s creation. SHUTING QIU SS21 collection is inspired by Russian artist Natalia Goncharova’s colorful neo-cubist paintings.
The collection features the brand’s signature use of colorful prints, oral and beaded embroideries, silk metallic jacquards, and bold check and stripe suiting, all realized in lighter fabrics and brighter color palettes. The collection’s design aims to bring a playful and cheerful tone to Shuting’s woman, who is described as daring yet soft, powerful yet romantic, and solid yet cheerful. Overall, the SS21 collection presents elegant, confident heroines who reveal a lively, light-hearted, yet profound spirit.
2020 AUTUMN WINTER
The Shuting Qiu brand embodies a woman of seeming contrasts – one who is daring yet soft, powerful yet romantic, and robust yet cheerful. Designer Shuting Qiu skillfully merges these opposing qualities into her garments, creating a cohesive and harmonious collection.
2020 SPRING SUMMER
Shuting Qiu said, “If I were not a designer, being a writer would have been my dream. My expression gradually changes from words to rely on visuals to deliver emotion.”
In her collection inspired by Virginia Woolf, Shuting Qiu combined masculine tartan fabrics with rich oral prints sourced from a mill that creates 100% recycled fabrics using polyester from plastic water bottles. She also incorporated colorful beaded embroidery made from recycled beads with stories to tell.
Through her sustainable collection, Shuting Qiu sought to convey the ethos of Virginia Woolf, presenting a free and heroic, romantic, and neurotic “writer” who cares deeply about the environmental impact of
fashion.