Yueqi Qi Shanghai Fall 2024 Collection

After showing in Tokyo for two seasons, Yueqi Qi brought her collection back to her native China, where she staged an off-calendar show on the first night of Shanghai Fashion Week. The designer described her collection as her own ‘Ride of the Valkyries’. And while this nod to the Richard Wagner epic ties in with her idea of ​​a group of Yueqi Qi-clad heroines battling the ubiquity of the URL in hopes of coming back to life IRL, one can’t help but notice this depiction of a return to Valhalla against her own homecoming.

Guangzhou-based Qi launched her label in 2019 after graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2018 and cutting her teeth as an intern at the Chanel embroidery atelier. She was a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize in 2022 and one of the emerging labels selected by Alessandro Michele to be part of the first edition of Gucci Vault. Qi’s interplanetary biomorphic aesthetic, featuring intricate floral constructions made up of hundreds of laser-cut petals, has become popular with celebrities — fans include FKA Twigs and Blackpink’s Lisa, for whom the designer created a painstakingly embellished corset for Coachella in 2023. Fun fact: Qi’s work featured in a few looks at the first Vogue World in New York in 2022. Needless to say, Yueqi Qi is very much a thing.

It should come as no surprise that when Qi called her customers and asked them to donate their clothes for an upcycled project within this collection, they showed up in droves. They donated everything from jeans and sweaters to old headphones. What Qi understands well and knows how to utilize is a concept that often eludes many of her counterparts: community. “They were excited to participate because it is a different way to be part of the brand,” Qi said in her showroom. Moreover, they will all have the right to say that what they might have seen as trash, Qi deemed worthy of turning into a runway-worthy treasure.

The headphones in question, many of which came from airlines, Qi said, were separated by color and braided and knitted into intricate floral ornaments and jewelry. The knits were unraveled and reknitted into playful crochet floral dresses, and the denim and rest of the garments were laser cut into hearts and layered over each other and pieces of recycled plastic to create Qi’s floral wonders. Adidas provided sneakers, which Qi deconstructed for the show to further her upcycling storyline (they were cool and covetable, this is a budding partnership that Adidas should pursue as a formal collaboration). The most bizarre was the way Qi incorporated Apple Watches into her lavish jewelry, setting them in crystals and using them instead of gemstones.

Qi has made a name for herself with the way she combines the natural with the futuristic, but her vision is both timeless in its ingenuity and perfect now in its portability. Whether it’s a space-y headset headpiece, a laser-cut floral gown ready for a red carpet, or a fabulous pair of jeans to take to the store, Qi is making her brand the fashion mecca for today’s Valkyries .