“That is to point out that the photographs you’re about to see will not be AI-generated.” That’s the PSA that Xander Zhou shared on his social media, accompanied by video footage of his assortment on set, forward of the rollout of this lookbook. There’s no questioning why such messaging felt mandatory. Of late, Zhou has been toying with the boundaries of our notion and the bounds of our sartorial comprehension. He’s added wings and screens and arms to numerous tailor-made items, contemplating themes of innovation, evolution, and the potential implications of dwelling within the age of fast technological development.
This season, he outdid himself. The concept, he stated, was to contemplate menswear formality as a “default interface” that has been systematically assigned to folks. Which means, the go well with is the usual and the uniform, a marker of identification within the context of society—it helps sign what of us do and the place they fall throughout the conventional social hierarchy. In Zhou’s tech jargon, the go well with is the information framework of identification, and it’s began to glitch.
This meant misplaced options or others that have been duplicated or multiplied. You already know once you’re on a pc and the cursor glitches and begins endlessly repeating throughout your display? Zhou has performed that with garments, not digitally or with AI, however fairly actually—and bodily—by multiplying every little thing from lapels and plackets to sleeves, hats, and even whole jackets and trousers. The outcomes are perplexing and outlandish, some extra wearable than others, but fascinating altogether. The button-down in look 35, as an illustration, flares into a number of plackets, whereas the jacket in look 1 has been exquisitely tailor-made to a slim match however equally opens into an abundance of bodices. Different shirts have a number of closed collars with ties included, and knit sweaters repeat themselves in such methods they begin to resemble one thing painted by Salvador Dalí or Rene Magritte.
Within the context of this concept-driven assortment Zhou is rethinking seasonality altogether. This lookbook, introduced as spring 2026, is the start of what Zhou is labeling SSAW (Spring Summer season Autumn Winter). “It’s shifting the main focus from seasonality to context, setting, and character,” he stated, describing “an inquiry into states of existence inside an unstable world.” Zhou has additionally performed away along with his recurrent use of know-how; there are not any LED screens or high-tech propositions. “This can be a profoundly futuristic assortment created via pure craftsmanship and tailoring,” he stated.
For all his inventiveness, Zhou nonetheless gives some severely covetable and wearable items. His silhouette this season is flattering and chic, and objects just like the leather-based bomber with tuxedo lapels are merely fascinating. What makes him matter in Shanghai and past, Zhou is a uncommon designer who can articulate his ideas fluently along with his garments: Can our dependence on algorithms and know-how trigger our identities to bifurcate and corrupt? Will society’s growing reliance on instruments like Chat GPT make our personalities mere extensions of synthetic intelligence? The questions are equal elements horrifying and interesting. Zhou doesn’t have the solutions, however he is aware of to ask the fitting questions.