“This is to show that the pictures you’re about to see are not AI-generated.” That’s the PSA that Xander Zhou shared on his social media, accompanied by video footage of his collection on set, ahead of the rollout of this lookbook. There’s no questioning why such messaging felt necessary. Of late, Zhou has been toying with the boundaries of our perception and the limits of our sartorial comprehension. He’s added wings and screens and arms to various tailored pieces, considering themes of innovation, evolution, and the potential implications of living in the age of rapid technological advancement.
This season, he outdid himself. The idea, he said, was to consider menswear formality as a “default interface” that has been systematically assigned to people. Meaning, the suit is the standard and the uniform, a marker of identity in the context of society—it helps signal what folks do and where they fall within the traditional social hierarchy. In Zhou’s tech jargon, the suit is the data framework of identity, and it’s started to glitch.
This meant misplaced features or others that were duplicated or multiplied. You know when you’re on a computer and the cursor glitches and starts endlessly repeating across your screen? Zhou has done that with clothes, not digitally or with AI, but quite literally—and physically—by multiplying everything from lapels and plackets to sleeves, hats, and even entire jackets and trousers. The results are perplexing and outlandish, some more wearable than others, yet fascinating altogether. The button-down in look 35, for instance, flares into multiple plackets, while the jacket in look 1 has been exquisitely tailored to a slim fit but similarly opens into an abundance of bodices. Other shirts have multiple closed collars with ties included, and knit sweaters repeat themselves in such ways they start to resemble something painted by Salvador Dalí or Rene Magritte.
In the context of this concept-driven collection Zhou is rethinking seasonality altogether. This lookbook, presented as spring 2026, is the beginning of what Zhou is labeling SSAW (Spring Summer Autumn Winter). “It’s shifting the focus from seasonality to context, setting, and character,” he said, describing “an inquiry into states of existence within an unstable world.” Zhou has also done away with his recurrent use of technology; there are no LED screens or high-tech propositions. “This is a profoundly futuristic collection created through pure craftsmanship and tailoring,” he said.
For all his inventiveness, Zhou still provides some seriously covetable and wearable pieces. His silhouette this season is flattering and elegant, and items like the leather bomber with tuxedo lapels are simply desirable. What makes him matter in Shanghai and beyond, Zhou is a rare designer who can articulate his thoughts fluently with his clothes: Can our dependence on algorithms and technology cause our identities to bifurcate and corrupt? Will society’s increasing reliance on tools like Chat GPT make our personalities mere extensions of artificial intelligence? The questions are equal parts frightening and fascinating. Zhou doesn’t have the answers, but he knows to ask the right questions.
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