CLAUDIA WANG'S DREAM STATE

At Indra Gallery, waiting for Claudia Wang’s SS26/AW26 LFW presentation to begin, the atmosphere already feels faintly surreal. Three stacks of silk pillows sit deliberately against the concrete-grey flooring — soft interruptions in an otherwise austere gallery space. Their presence feels intentional rather than decorative, as though the audience has stepped into a staged dream rather than a traditional runway venue.

The crowd — largely young, distinctly Gen Z — moves with urgency, phones already raised. Wang has clearly secured her following. Her practice is where art and fashion converge: a graduate of Practical Design, later completing a Master’s in Interactive Design at Taipei University in Taiwan, Wang has already attracted international attention through Vogue International and Vogue Taiwan. Her practice merges virtual technology with fashion artistry, cultivating a slower, more considered approach to presentation that treats garments as objects of value rather than fleeting trend pieces. In an industry defined by rapid turnover and micro-trends, this resistance to haste feels deliberate.

Images courtesy of Raymond Leung

This season, Wang is constructing a fairytale of her own. A short film flickers to life: AI-generated unicorns move across the screen and along a cloud-like padded runway in an ethereal prelude, blurring the line between artificial fantasy and emotional memory. Models emerge and trace the curved runway as if sleepwalking, some the same pillows as those scattered across the gallery floor. Their pacing is measured, almost suspended, poised between girlhood fantasy and adult disillusionment. It feels as though Wang is exploring that liminal space where innocence meets experience and softness persists despite the inevitability of growing up.

Images courtesy of Raymond Leung

Cohesion defines the collection. Pillows reappear as motif and prop; blue and pink hues soften sleek silhouettes; subdued florals temper minimalism. Even the styling reinforces the dreamlike atmosphere: understated hair and make-up, with subtle inclusions of Y2K barrettes. The collection speaks to a woman who has matured but refuses to relinquish playfulness. There is strength in softness here. 

Images courtesy of Raymond Leung

The garments themselves, however, feel grounded in everyday wearability. Metallic trousers catch the gallery lighting with a subtle sheen, while lace cut-outs and sheer layering introduce sensuality without excess. These silhouettes reference late 1990s and early 2000s aesthetics without collapsing into nostalgia; instead, they feel recalibrated for a contemporary audience. A sculptural pink dress, exaggerated at the hips, stands out as one of the collection’s most forward-looking pieces, its volume shifting the body’s proportions in unexpected ways.

BTS Photography courtesy of Madoka Takei

Runway shows have long been criticised for their excess — elaborate productions condensed into a few fleeting minutes. In response, a number of designers have shifted toward presentation formats that blur installation, narrative and performance. Houses inlcuding as Maison Margiela and Iris van Herpen have long embraced immersive, conceptual presentations, while designers like Virgil Abloh at Off-White reframed the runway as a cultural and narrative platform. Even Prada has experimented with scenographic environments that elevate atmosphere over spectacle. These approaches privilege immersion over theatrical grandeur, encouraging audiences to experience fashion rather than simply observe it. In this context, Wang’s presentation feels like a positioning of fashion as an experiential medium rather than a transactional one.

Conceptual film, extract courtesy of designer via Instagram

Ultimately, Claudia Wang's runway presentation resists the disposability that defines contemporary fashion cycles. By transforming the runway into a site of installation and narrative immersion, Wang slows time itself. The pillows, the sleepwalking figures, the digital fairytale all insist that fashion is not merely to be consumed, but contemplated. It is also a strategic move on Indra Gallery’s part to lend its artistic space to fashion presentations such as this, aligning itself with a low-impact yet still luxury-minded modus operandi. In an industry obsessed with acceleration, such quiet surrealism feels almost radical.

---

Zoë Goetzmann is an arts writer and podcaster based in London.