For SS26, Susan Fang’s whimsical, hyperfeminine world hit fast forward to the year 5025, exploring a future where technology and nature live in harmony through the lens of character Nasus. In an animation created by Susan Fang that teased the show yesterday, we see illustrations of the imagined future world that 11-year-old Nasus lives in, with blooming flowers and floating, bubble-esque homes. But how does Susan Fang’s animated world visualising her dream for the future manifest as a fashion show?
This season, Susan Fang took over the Barbican Conservatory, a space teeming with foliage. Hitting up the venue was like being transported to another world – a vision of the future where glass and flora blend as seamlessly as water and air. This symbiosis was reflected Susan Fang’s designs, which aimed to replicate the sensual feeling of nature by using technology. For example, she explained “my husband 3D printed dress design where he coded the flowers growing with the wind pattern.”
This dress was apparently the most challenging piece in the SS26 collection, not just because of just the technical execution, but the entire philosophy behind it. Susan said, “we wanted technology to literally grow like nature. Orelio [Susan’s husband and Head of Footwear & Accessories at Susan Fang] spent months building digital ecosystems using computational design and coding, where the dress and accessories would evolve according to nature’s own logic.”
“He essentially created these 4D objects that grow and change through time in the digital space, almost like watching a coral reef or mushroom colony develop over years, and then he had to capture the perfect moment to freeze and 3D print.” Many of the dresses felt alive with animation, and that was intentional. Susan Fang described wanting to replicate the feeling of connecting wind with emotion, which was achieved through “[adding] a lot of space for air between the clothes, or [making] the colour of dress through feathers between the transparent organza.”
Susan Fang isn’t only known for floaty organza dresses, though. Her footwear is grailed, consistently selling out, and this season she linked up with three different footwear brands to bring new visions to life. Her collaboration with Nike this season appeared in the form of the Dunk and V2K styles with forget-me-not blue tones and jacquard bases. Talking about the link up, Susan said, “The whole design feels ethereal and sci-fi futuristic—like capturing our most blissful moments in a shoe.”
She also collaborated with Melissa, creating “this romantic yet futuristic sporty ballerina adorned with cherry blossoms, which in China are the most important symbol for love.” And finally, Susan Fang described how her brand’s Rockfish partnership developed “furry boots and Mary Janes with bubble droplets, crisscross ribbon bows, and little spider web details on the hats represent that childlike wonder from Nasus’s world. They’re cozy and cute but still have this fantastical element.”
Explaining her inspiration behind the collection, Susan Fang explained that she wanted to envision a world “where technology and nature aren’t in conflict. In this future, clothing isn’t just something you wear—it becomes a way to amplify your senses.” But she also said the meaning behind SS26 boils down to a simple idea: “in a time of so much uncertainty, I wanted to create a fantasy that reminds us that feeling—truly feeling—might be our most powerful technology of all.”
Read our full interview with Susan Fang below:
Can you talk us through the inspiration behind your SS26 collection?
“What fascinated me was imagining a world where technology and nature aren’t in conflict—which is how we often see them today—but we have actually merged into this beautiful symbiosis. In Nasus’s world, their AI has fused with organic energy over 3,000 years, creating something that is neither artificial nor natural but both at once. It made me question: what if our assumption that progress means choosing between technology and nature is completely wrong?”
“In this future, clothing isn’t just something you wear—it becomes a way to amplify your senses. Nasus talks about wanting to ‘feel like flowing wind’ or understand ‘a flower’s yearning for the sun.’ So we created these extremely flowy silhouettes and developed new techniques like our ‘air-puzzle’ and ‘beaded bubble smock’ that give the clothes this breathing, living quality.”
“There’s also this deeper philosophical layer where we’re asking: could our reality itself be a simulation? All our prints look like romantic vintage wallpapers or fruit paintings from afar, but when you come close, they’re entirely made up of codes, numbers, and symbols. It’s this visual metaphor for how, as AI becomes more prevalent, we have to wonder—is our ability to feel emotions what makes us real?
“Ultimately, the collection is about hope and healing. Nasus’s message to us in 2025 is simple: ‘Don’t worry. Everything unfolds as it should. Be present. The answers will come.’ In a time of so much uncertainty, I wanted to create a fantasy that reminds us that feeling—truly feeling—might be our most powerful technology of all.”
Who do you envision wearing this collection (whether that’s one specific person, or the kind of person you imagined when designing it)?
“This season we are imagining in the future if people are more sensual and connecting with the wind with nature with people’s emotions, it will need to have a lot of flow, how the texture will feel against the wind, so we added a lot of space for air between the clothes, or make the color of dress through feathers between the transparent organza, or my husband 3D printed dress design where he coded the flowers growing with the wind pattern. Or a lot of petal-covered dresses and our new technique of air-puzzle, feeling very sea coral, we are imagining our fictional character Nasus from year 5202 and the girl in 2025 together.”
“But in general I think we never imagine just one specific person, but a setting or energy that the person feels free jubilant and full of joy, we are always imagining the person dancing or feeling bliss, we always consider the fabric under the light, the dress in movement or the temperature, we always want to play with the space between the fabric itself and the wearer. We are feel so happy in the recent years to see people ordering our show pieces for their wedding or birthdays that it can be a part of their special moment in life. Some of them can be quite daily, and we think about what craft element, or a natural crystal element can give them a boost of lucky energy or feeling of warmth.”
What’s your favourite look or piece from this collection?
“Our favourite is maybe the air-puzzle dress and the bubble smocked dress, these are both new techniques developed for this season, one uses circular puzzle pieces, with multiple colors 3D puzzle pieced together and eventually creating a very feathering coral effect, creating a natural prismatic effect. The other one is using hand smocking inspired by the shape and fold under a mushroom , and on top is hand beaded bubble bead, they both take very long to create ranging around 2 weeks to hand make. the air-puzzle more conceptual but the color gradients very naturally and is quite abstract that people can imagine many similar natural textures, the bubble-smocking creates very commercial pieces with natural elasticity but adds a layer of surrealness with almost tiny water droplets floating on the surface.”
What was the most challenging piece in the collection to create?
“The most challenging piece perhaps was the 3D printed dress that my husband Orelio created, along with the entire system of 3D printed accessories. What made it so complex wasn’t just the technical execution, but the entire philosophy behind it—we wanted technology to literally grow like nature.
Orelio (Susan’s husband and head of footwear & accessories at Susan Fang) spent months building digital ecosystems using computational design and coding, where the dress and accessories would evolve according to nature’s own logic. He essentially created these 4D objects that grow and change through time in the digital space, almost like watching a coral reef or mushroom colony develop over years, and then he had to capture the perfect moment to freeze and 3D print.”
“The dress itself is extraordinary—its entire surface is alive with these flower-like organisms that appear caught mid-movement, as if ocean currents are pushing them in wild, unpredictable directions. It’s this coral-like system where every element feels organic and grown rather than designed we then hand dyed them in a painting effect, so they could resemble mushrooms or gradients or coral more realistically. The challenge was teaching technology to craft with what Orelio calls ‘nature’s patient unpredictability’—you can’t fully control it, you have to let it evolve and then recognize the beautiful accidents.
The accessories were equally complex. We have bags with clustered mushroom formations, branching structures that seem suspended in invisible currents, and eyewear where fungi appear to grow wild across your vision. Each piece required building these biological pattern systems from scratch.”
“What’s fascinating is this perfectly embodies our collection’s concept from Nasus’s world, where technology and nature have merged into one. These pieces prove that computational design can channel nature’s creative force—but it requires completely rethinking how we approach digital creation. Instead of forcing precise outcomes, we had to learn to guide organic growth and embrace the unexpected. It’s the most technically ambitious thing we’ve ever done, but also the most philosophically aligned with our vision of a future where technology flows as naturally as breath.”
I know you have footwear collaborations with Nike, Melissa and Rockfish this season – what were your main sources of inspiration behind these link ups?
“Each footwear collaboration was inspired by extending our Air-evolution philosophy into different emotional territories, while staying true to the idea of technology and nature in symbiosis.
With Nike, we focused on themes of bliss and memory, which felt so aligned with our story about connecting 2025 to 5202. The forget-me-not blue tones we used are literally about not forgetting—about memory and beautiful moments. What’s really personal is that we created jacquard bases using my mother’s paintings from joyful family travels, so there’s this intergenerational memory woven into the shoes. We adorned the Dunk and V2K styles with our signature transparent bubble beads and prismatic organza lace, plus olive-shaped flowers that symbolize luck and victory. The whole design feels ethereal and sci-fi futuristic—like capturing our most blissful moments in a shoe.”
“For Melissa, we wanted to translate Orelio’s intricate growth system philosophy into something more commercial but equally magical. We created this romantic yet futuristic sporty ballerina adorned with cherry blossoms, which in China are the most important symbol for love. The gradients of green, pink, and blue feel like these digital flowers blooming—it perfectly embodies how computational design can become romantic and organic.
Rockfish brought the whimsical, comfort aspect—the playful side of our future vision. The furry boots and Mary Janes with bubble droplets, crisscross ribbon bows, and little spider web details on the hats represent that childlike wonder from Nasus’s world where children play in floating bubble homes. They’re cozy and cute but still have this fantastical element.”
“What’s beautiful is that each collaboration represents a different facet of how we might dress in this imagined future—Nike for movement and memory, Melissa for this fusion of digital and romantic, and Rockfish for comfort and play. Together, they create this complete vision of footwear that amplifies different sensations, just like Nasus describes wanting her clothes to help her feel the world more deeply.”
What do you think is the biggest hurdle emerging fashion designers face today?
“I think especially after covid, there is a big change to people’s lives and habits, and perhaps its even more competitive, new brands after covid may feel more pushed to be more commercial, yet the commercial market is also shrinking. I think it’s definitely more challenging for new brands after covid, and for those who wish to be more conceptual may find harder to get support as compared to pre-covid.”
If you had to give yourself five years ago one piece of advice, what would it be?
“I think definitely to believe in yourself more and to enjoy the process! I’m really appreciative that a lot of our dreams have come true, and made a lot of new friends along the way. I hope during those stressful moments I can enjoy the process a bit more, and know that everything will be ok.”
Featured image via Getty©
