Awaylee Unveils SS27 at Shanghai Fashion Week: Dream of the Red Chamber

AWAYLEE presents "Dream of the Red Chamber". Spring/Summer 2027 collection at Shanghai Fashion Week

Drawing from one of China’s most enduring literary works, the collection considers what it means to live inside circumstances we did not choose, and what remains possible within them. As in the novel, love, beauty and prosperity exist under the shadow of impermanence, shaped by the tension between individual desire and forces beyond our control.

This tension between what is given and what can be changed finds expression in the cycles through which life unfolds. Rather than positioning fate and free will as binary, SS27 explores the space between them: what is written and what remains unwritten. Flowers bloom and fall; abundance gives way to absence; beauty is precious precisely because it does not last.

Heritage-inspired, fluid forms meet precise modern tailoring, while layered constructions and elongated silhouettes evoke movement and transformation. Silk, organza and feathers shift between structure and dissolution, permanence and impermanence.

As Dream of the Red Chamber is also known as The Story of the Stone, AWAYLEE finds a reflection of this duality in jade itself, a material prized in Chinese thought for embodying warmth and resilience within the same form. It is a gentleness that does not compromise its strength.

One of the most technically intricate and time-intensive pieces in the show is an embroidered ceramic corset, co-designed and crafted by AWAYLEE in collaboration with the team at Wenying Ceramic Embroidery Studio in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, China. Eight colors of silk thread are used to capture the vitality of the flowers, making them appear to grow organically from within the ceramic, quietly coming into bloom. Rather than opposing one another, the two materials exist in a subtle and harmonious balance.

This dialogue between ancient craftsmanship and contemporary technology continues in another piece from the show: a corset inspired by mutton-fat white jade and blood amber. Through intricate 3D printing and hand sculpting, AWAYLEE recreates the translucency, delicacy, and soft luminosity of jade on a single corset. Together with the ceramic corset, these works bring centuries-old craftsmanship into dialogue within a single collection.

The collection’s palette follows a similar progression, from soft porcelain neutrals, powdery pastels and delicate botanical tones to richer reds, mineral blues, earthy browns, charcoal and black. This gradual descent from lightness into shadow gives color a narrative role, mirroring the collection’s movement from abundance and possibility toward impermanence and inevitability.

Craft remains central to AWAYLEE’s expression more broadly. Traditional techniques, including embroidery, dimensional florals and hand-worked surface treatments, are interpreted through contemporary construction and material experimentation, continuing the house’s approach to Chinese heritage as a living design language rather than a static reference. The SHFW runway is conceived as a dark, mist-filled dreamscape, suspended between reality and illusion. Silhouettes emerge through shadow and diffuse light before disappearing again, reflecting the collection’s exploration of fate, impermanence and the fleeting nature of beauty.

Dream of the Red Chamber - SS27