“I want to share my work with an international audience, and I don’t feel like I’m able to that in the way I want [if I’m] staying in China,” Qi tells Tatler when we speak to her nine days before the show. An additional bonus, she got to work with a team of Japanese creatives, including famed Japanese wig artist Tomihiro Kono, a long-time collaborator of hers. It was a full house at Coffee Seibu, a hidden kissaten, or coffee shop, in Shinjuku which opened in 1964 but had to close its doors for good this year. “We felt that the set was a perfect match for the clothes this season which orbited thematically around the idea of being able to see into the past and future with the same transparency,” Qi says.

Titled Edge of Time, Qi’s autumn-winter 2023 collection explores outer space and time. The café’s hallway is reminiscent  of the train cabin in Wong Kar-wai’s 2046, only, instead of the qipaos of the film’s characters, the travellers here are dressed in heavily embroidered skirts, boots, cosmos-coloured knits and dreamy wigs. On the runway, beaded nets of laser-cut plastic evoked lace, while scattered sequins and crochet added a fashion-forward spin to everyday essentials. “I used the couture technique I have been developing which entails draping laser-cut garlands,” Qi explains.

“I was able to bring this element from couture into some of the skirts. I also continued to explore the maximalist use of feathers which I have been using for the past couple of seasons.” Other highlights from the show included zips across the sleeves and legs of oversized denim jackets and Nineties-style track pants that opened to reveal printed solar system motifs, and a circle of glitter that was painted onto the baby bump of Japanese singer Kom I who walked the runway. 

Qi has created a whole universe, connecting old-world glamour, sub-cultural aesthetics and futuristic silhouettes. The Central Saint Martins graduate sharpened her skills at Chanel’s embroidery atelier before founding her eponymous label in 2019; within three years, Yueqi Qi was stocked by 18 retailers globally, including Farfetch and Machine A and had been named a semi-finalist of the LVMH Prize 2022 for being “a strong proponent of the Chinese handicraft revitalisation movement and [and her] emphasis on intricate beadwork”. Since she started out, the designer has treated beads like fabric, stringing together hundreds of silver, gold, jade beads into purses, brooches, necklaces, ties and collars. She also makes palpable reference to Chinese folklore, evoking collective memories. 

The craftsmanship of her couture-adjacent, avant-garde and theatrical designs led to her being selected as one of six rising Asian couturiers including Tomo Koizumi and Sohee Park to show at The Love of Couture: Artisanship in Fashion Beyond Time exhibition at Hong Kong’s K11 Musea, an opportunity she relished. “Couture pieces reflect who you really are,” she says. “We are able to sacrifice functionality in order to demonstrate skill and push the boundaries of our medium. Couture is art.”

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While her works are often seen as “neo-Chinese fashion”, where east meets west, due to her crafting and cultural references, she has no interest in defining it as such. “China is a very large country with many cultures and ethnic groups within. I dare say the north and south are as different as London and Tokyo,” she says. “I have a great deal of respect for my Chinese contemporaries, but I don’t want to be thought of as a Chinese artist. I’m an artist from China.

“My focus is on storytelling. For as long as I am Chinese, my work will have Chinese elements, but it has never been a conscious choice for me,” she says. “I see it as a byproduct of telling stories which are rooted in personal experience.” This approach has become increasingly evident in her recent work; for her spring-summer 2023 collection, she directed a film called Ventura, [inspired by a Chinese saying about heaven and Earth but whose theme is beyond geographical bounds. The collection itself offers an array of textured styles made from knit, upcycled denim to feathers and laser-cut fabrics enabling 3D effect with nary a “typical” Chinese motif in sight. 

At the time of writing, Shanghai Fashion Week was back in full force, with 72 physical shows of both local and Asian brands, trade shows, off-schedule exhibitions, awards and live streams spread out through the nine-day showcase. The latest Yueqi Qi collection had also been brought from Tokyo to a showroom in the Chinese fashion capital. While the fashion industry is keen to explore new talents and the evolving business models of post-pandemic Chinese market, Qi is concerned that some individuals are taking advantage of this interest to encroach on a shared reputation they have yet to earn.

“More and more Chinese students are studying fashion, domestically and abroad. There are some artists who are very serious about creating a world and sharing something of value, then there are a number who are just trying to get rich off the backs of people who are putting in the work,” she says. “For the emerging designers who are serious [about their work], I encourage them to stay on course and have confidence that their process will be evident through their work.”

And despite being a young designer who is leading her generation and who has worked with a prolific list of collaborators, Qi doesn’t believe she has “made it” yet. “I’m a humble fashion designer who shows up to work every morning with a long list of things to do. I enjoy the process,” she says. “This is the true joy of creation.”

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