Yirantian Fall Winter 2024-25 Fashion Show

Yirantian Guo transformed her fall 2024 showspace into a courtroom, with guests seated on wooden benches and leather-bound briefings placed on each seat. If "The Good Wife" were to happen during Fashion Week, Guo's show would be a fitting representation of what that would look like.

However, Guo's inspiration wasn't drawn from a fictional character or a woman confined to primetime television or streaming platforms. "It's about the working woman," Guo explained backstage after the show, "it's about what she wears every day and what makes her feel comfortable." For instance, a media executive sitting in the audience couldn't help but exclaim, "This is for me! It's what I wear!" as each look passed by.

A fixture at Shanghai Fashion Week, Guo has been a part of the Labelhood schedule since the inception of her showcase. It was also during this time that she launched Yirantian after graduating from the London College of Fashion in 2014 and returning to Shanghai. Yirantian, as Guo describes it, is about dressing "the urban woman expressing a sense of strength with non-aggressive sexiness."

Once dubbed "the Paris of the East" for its decadence and glamour, Shanghai has evolved into a fashion capital in its own right. However, remnants of sophistication and luxury still resonate, especially among the upper echelons. Guo embraces this aspect of Shanghainese style and delves into its intricacies, exploring sensuality through the city's distinct and often mature sartorial language.

Guo's tailoring was sharp, her skirts short, and she carved vertiginously plunging necklines in her shirting and evening sheaths, contrasting them with fun knit cummerbunds and playful floating shirt collars. She draped suitings into tailored tube tops and leather-trimmed capelets, fashioning funky trousers and top coats out of shaggy color-blocked shearlings. Guo excels when she takes contemporary elements and pushes them into new, unconventional territories. This season, her proposal for the working wardrobe took shape, ruling in favor of a woman whose sensuality is rooted in intrigue rather than overt sexiness.