With her fall 2025 presentation, Feng Chen Wang handily scooped the distinction for most unusual accessory. The fierce and mysterious dragon-lion creatures that models carried down the runway were inspired by an imaginary bestiary called Shan Hai Jing, a masterpiece that dates back some 2,500 years. Today’s otherworldly creatures were the designer’s invention, a metaphor for the meeting of perfection and imperfection, handmade in collaboration with artisans from Jingdezhen, the ceramic capital of China. Post-show, as she cradled a buttercup yellow beastie that conveniently matched her leather jacket (as well as one of her favorite looks here, number 6), the London-based designer allowed that she’d always wanted to be an artist.
“There are all these things in my head, it’s not always just clothes, clothes, clothes—in the end it’s about combining and contrasting,” she said.
Gesturing to a pair of the outsized, sculpted 3D stompers that have become a signature, she added, “it goes along with what I create, these are part of the imaginary details that come together.” For fall, a fire-breather of a shell was fitted with the new Tasman Lug shoes by UGG. “I know they’re crazy, but that’s how I see putting wearable things together with imagination: I want to show it as a whole world coming together,” she said.
On the runway, much of it was indeed very wearable, but not all was as it seemed: what looked like twill was in fact a new fabrication in bonded neoprene, worked into an earthy brown jacket or trousers with a dragon print inspired by traditional Chinese ink paintings (that reference appeared on bamboo bags, too). Knitwear is a focus this season, notably with fuzzy finishes and a gradient zigzag motif. Embellishments abounded, like pull tabs and patches in ceramic, or a royal blue neckpiece produced using 3D printing, but such flourishes were often too subtle to translate to a screen.
Perfection is hardly of this world these days, but outerwear—sharp leather bombers with shearling linings and coats trimmed with contrasting bands, harness straps, and cargo pockets—seemed to hit all the right notes in a season of statement-makers.
