Designer Yueqi Qi presented her SS25 collection in a car park in Tokyo, with the Chinese character for the word “love” threaded throughout the collection of intricate detailed pieces with various mixed materials such as from woven earphones, metals, ribbons to mesh. With intricate, vividly-crafted embroidery and glass beads interlaced in effervescent printed fabric, every piece was given a unique silhouette. Models featured ethereal make-up by Jewel Y and donned mystic hair and wigs by Tomihiro Kono, with music by Thomas W Lamb. For SS25, YUEQI QI also collaborated with adidas, with the brand’s key three stripes interwoven into runway looks.

With a vibrant otherworldly vision, Yueqi Qi’s background stems from knitwear-focussed studies at Central Saint Martins in London, to working within CHANEL’s embroidery atelier in Paris, including joining the panel at VOGUE Forces of Fashion 2021 and becoming a LVMH Prize semi-finalist in 2022.

Driven by her goal as a designer to tell narrative-driven stories through the medium of fashion design, Yueqi Qi holds a continuous exploration and experimentation of traditional craftsmanship and hopes to inherit delicate beading techniques and develop innovative fabrics, pushing the boundaries of womenswear culture. Champ Editor Joanna caught up with the designer after her Tokyo show to discuss the collection’s key reference of iron work and its conceptual likeness to athleisure, to the importance of her relationships with her longtime collaborators.

What inspired your SS25 collection ‘Gilded Speed’ and how did you develop the concept into the final show?

This collection was inspired by iron work. In the early research stage of this season, I was looking at rattan furniture and wrought iron fences. I was struck by the beauty in the recurring motifs and dug deeper into wrought iron gates. That as the jumping off point. I considered iron work as a medium; through brute force, something beautiful can be forged. There is also a through line with iron which thematically links to sports, such as grid iron for American football and chain link fences which surround stadiums. Grid iron is mass produced, economical, and extremely functional. This is what athleisure wear is to me. I have no shame in my fondness for it.

How important were your collaborators in your SS25 show and collection? 

It’s extremely important to work with artists you trust and respect. This was my first time collaborating with Jewel but I have been familiar with her work for a while. She brought something very special to the collaboration. She understood the source material and used her medium to make the collection bigger than the sum of its parts. We call Thomas the chief creative husband (CCH) and he calls himself the eternal intern. He has been helping me develop every season since I was a student. He used to help me string beads at CSM. He works with me from the very beginning of every season to develop a theme, do research, develop or purge ideas, production on set, photography, videos, in house PR, and of course, he makes the music every season. He is indispensable.

I have been working with Tomikono since 2020. I respect him very much as an artist. He always helps me breathe life into the world we create. He always brings something new that enhances the designs.

What are your next goals for the year ahead!

It’s been about 2 weeks since my show and I’m already working on next season. There are some thematic ideas from last season that I want to lean further into, but I will be introducing many new elements next season as well. I’m sure it will mutate a lot before we dim the lights for AW25. Our collaboration with UGG will be launching on October 15th so we are very busy preparing for that.

Photos: ELS for Champ Magazine
With Thanks: Yueqi Qi & Thomas W Lamb
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Editor-in-Chief: Joanna Kawecki

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