Neo-Chinese fashion is the latest style craze | Canada Voices

Fashion in the Beijing of Ou Ma’s youth skewed conservative. It was influenced by Western design, she said, but lacked the daring personal style she encountered after moving to New York in 2010.

“I feel like it’s become the opposite now,” said Ma, a designer and founder of bridal couturier OUMA. The Vancouver-based brand has additional boutiques across Canada and the U.S., as well as in Shanghai, Singapore, Japan and Korea.

Now, on her visits to Shanghai and Beijing, she notices a level of creativity she seldom sees on the streets of Vancouver or New York. It’s an energy, she believes, that’s been shaped by a burgeoning appreciation for neo-Chinese style, which blends traditional Chinese-style elements such as cultural motifs and silhouettes with modern techniques.

“There’s a growing appreciation of Chinese work in fashion,” she added. “It’s a breath of fresh air that’s not concentrated [in] those traditional fashion places,” said Ma, referring to high-fashion hubs New York, London, Milan and Paris.

Driven by designers such as Feng Chen Wang and sportswear brand Li-Ning, the trend is gaining traction online and in retail: estimates from the state-backed China Textile and Apparel Council put the value of the new-Chinese style market at 1-billion yuan (roughly $197-million) in 2023, according to CNN Style.

This momentum has also influenced Ma’s work. Her designs draw inspiration from the fine brush strokes in Chinese calligraphy and painting, using lace, tulle and pleated satin to create the rhythm, movement and patterns of shui-mo – water-and-ink paintings that were one of the “four arts” learned by scholars in the Tang dynasty (618-907).

Details, she said, are meant to be discovered over time. “It’s almost like a Chinese garden: You walk through a path and discover the elements slowly.”

Ma has also expanded into evening wear, with a collection that features traditional floral motifs, silk applications and Chinese knot techniques that she learned from her grandmother.

“I’ve seen an appetite from my customers for clothing that has a story to it – some cultural context. Once they learn about the techniques behind the design and where those techniques come from, they’re intrigued,” she said.

International brands have taken notice. In October, Adidas closed Shanghai Fashion Week with a show called “Power of Three,” building on online hype around what streetwear fans call the Adidas Chinese New Year Jacket. The jacket was initially released last year, ahead of Lunar New Year.

The Tang Jacket blends the brand’s signature three-stripe tracksuit design with elements of the tangzhuang – a jacket that dates back to the Qing dynasty and is known for its mandarin collar and frog toggle closures. Originally released in salmon and mustard colourways, the brand has since put out additional options inspired by traditional satin jackets.

“What makes it special to me is how I feel when I wear it – it’s like a small act of cultural reclamation,” said Cynthia Chang-Christison, a Chinese-Canadian marketing director based in Calgary. “It’s not about trends or brands; it’s about connection, belonging and pride.”

She said the Adidas fashion show reflects guochao, or the “national wave,” a term that describes the surge in national pride and embrace of Chinese culture among young people in China and abroad – a broader cultural trend that includes neo-Chinese fashion.

Osmud Rahman, a graduate program director in the School of Fashion at Toronto Metropolitan University, has observed global demand for Chinese-inspired clothing steadily grow over the past two decades. He expects the trend to continue as China cements its position as a global powerhouse and national pride deepens among Gen Z consumers, who are driving its popularity in China.

In Canada, more overt expressions of the trend have popped up in retail, including at the Vancouver-based lifestyle fashion boutique InFashion Canada, which offers a curated neo-Chinese silk collection. Toronto-based House of Tytan makes custom made-to-order bowties featuring Chinese motifs; and Toronto designer Wanze Song’s playful Dumpling Bag became her brand’s hero product when it was released in 2022.

Designer Sunny Fong, winner of Project Runway Canada’s second season, draws on techniques he learned from his Chinese parents and grandparents as the creative director of Canadian luxury brand VAWK.

In 2013, Fong was commissioned by the Shangri-La Toronto to create the uniform dresses worn by the lobby lounge and champagne room attendants, inspired by the Chinese artwork in the hotel’s common spaces. His designs draw on Chinese black and gold lacquer furniture, Asian floral motifs and the silk embroidery skills he grew up seeing.

The most interesting aspect of the design movement, he said, is how brands have moved away from literal interpretations of Chinese fashion – such as qipao dresses or dragon motifs – toward other periods and expressions of Chinese history, culture and identity.

Ma identifies Hong Kong-born, London-based designer Robert Wun as someone who does this especially well. The jellyfish-inspired outfit he recently created for tennis champion Naomi Osaka at the 2026 Australian Open captured the attention of global fashion publications. To Ma, Wun is one of the leading Chinese diaspora designers challenging Western ideas of what Chinese fashion can be.

Pointing to the country’s 5,000-plus years of history, she said, “It’s phenomenal to see how Chinese designers are rediscovering and reinterpreting that.”