HUBING SELECTS: From Shanghai 1930 to 3030 at London Fashion Week

By Xinlin Wang

There is something compelling about the way a city carries its history. Its architecture, movement and people become part of a living record, one that continues to evolve with each passing generation. That same imagination comes alive on the runway in HUBING SELECTS: URBAN GRACE – LEATHER AND LIGHT, where the classic meets the urban, and Eastern materiality finds expression through Western silhouettes.

The collection moves through three imagined moments, 1930, 2030 and 3030, carrying elements of the past into a futuristic vision. Haining leather runs through the collection, becoming lighter, softer and more fluid as the three chapters progress.

The show begins with a pianist playing Debussy’s Clair de Lune. As the music shifts between different piano scores, models fall in line, lithe and graceful, their movements carefully controlled yet theatrical. The opening chapter, Ritual White, draws from the visual language of the 1930s, pairing matte white leather with silk and gauze.

In the short documentary Hu Bing: Fashion in Motion, released by London Fashion Week just days before the event, we see the considerable effort that Hu Bing and his team put into every show, not only in selecting the Asian designers featured in the showcase, but also in choosing the models for the runway. Models are coached to move in a way that captures the exact amount of theatrics and artistry needed for each collection.

In URBAN GRACE: LEATHER AND LIGHT, a model emerges decked in an olive green leather vest and an asymmetrical tulle skirt. The structure of leather stands in sharp contrast to the weightlessness of her skirt, which floats around her like mist.

A high-neck collar appears next, its vivid red set against a structured leather vest and pleated skirt. Elsewhere, an avant-garde cut-out leather top drapes over a model’s torso like armour, paired with billowing white trousers. These looks belong to Flexible Armor, the collection’s 2030 chapter, where black leather is worked with wine red and cognac tones and sculpted shoulders, chest and waist.

The mise-en-scène is meticulous, with romantic details set against sharp tailoring. Shanghai, where Hu Bing originates from, serves as both memory and reference. The Shanghai of the 1930s comes alive on stage, before meeting London, the city where the fashion week is taking place.

By the final chapter, Gown of Light, the collection arrives in its imagined 3030, with leather transformed into something closer to a metallic second skin and gauze appearing almost weightless around the body.

Already a Chinese superstar for many years, Hu Bing has been closely associated with London Fashion Week for more than a decade. A wearer of many hats, model, actor and now fashion philanthropist, 2026 marks the 11th year of his relationship with the international fashion calendar. In 2015, the British Fashion Council named Hu Bing the first International Ambassador for London Collections: Men. In 2024, he was appointed a British Fashion Council Ambassador and founded HUBING SELECTS, created to bring Asian designers onto international stages.

This season also marks the introduction of “Finishing in China”, Hu Bing’s proposition centred on the craftsmanship and technical expertise behind the final garment. Working through Haining’s leather supply chain in Zhejiang, the collection traces the process from material selection and sampling through to final garment production, placing the finishing of a garment within the creative process itself.

When Hu Bing himself takes the stage at the end of the show, the presentation comes full circle. His presence is not simply that of the star of the evening, but of someone who has spent years bringing Asian fashion and designers into the wider international fashion conversation.

After more than a decade on the international fashion calendar, his focus now extends beyond his own representation towards the designers, craftspeople and brands following the road with him.