Susan Fang Spring/Summer 2027

For Spring/Summer 2027, Susan Fang returned to London Fashion Week with a collection suspended somewhere between fantasy and reality, where 3D printing meets painstaking handcraft.

At the Barbican Centre, Fang built an airy, almost otherworldly wardrobe around the tension between illusion and reality. Inspired by M. Butterfly, the collection moved from a striking red dress covered in fluttering floral appliqués into the designer’s familiar world of pastel shades, porcelain blues and flashes of neon. Sheer layers, floating flowers and delicate beadwork gave the clothes a sense of movement, as though the details were suspended between the body and the fabric rather than simply placed upon it.

Technology provided the sharper edge. Working with her husband Orelio De Jonghe, Fang incorporated 3D-printed lace, neon filaments and ASCII-inspired graphics into transparent blouses, shorts and dresses, creating a graphic counterpoint to the softness of her usual materials. A four-layer organza dress with blue flowers stitched through every level made the technique particularly striking, while 3D-printed accessories played with familiar objects in unexpected ways, including flip-flops that transformed into geometric, pixel-like forms from the side.

Yet for all its digital experimentation, the collection remained deeply rooted in the hand. A beaded qipao referenced Fang’s earlier work, while hand-painted broken porcelain details and petal-shaped jade earrings brought traditional craft into the same conversation as 3D printing. A collaboration with Crocs added another playful layer, covering the Echo Blume with clusters of 3D-printed wildflowers. At a moment when fashion is increasingly negotiating its relationship with AI and automation, Susan Fang offers a more tactile proposition: technology becomes most interesting when there is still a human hand behind it.

Images: Courtesy of Susan Fang