A Symbiotic Future Where Nature and Technology Breathe as One London – SUSAN FANG unveils Air-evolution, a Spring/Summer 2026 collection that bridges parallel worlds through a visionary sci-fi narrative. Set between our present year 2025 and its temporal mirror 5202, the collection explores a future where technology and nature exist in perfect symbiosis, and humanity evolves to perceive ever-expanding dimensions of reality.

The collection's genesis lies in an original story created by Susan Fang, featuring Nasus—Susan spelled backwards—an 11-year-old narrator from 5202 who hopes to be chosen as a representative to bring someone from the past to her time. In this imagined future, humans don't live past 100—not because they cease to exist, but because through the evolution of age, they perceive ever-expanding dimensions until they merge with the universe itself. At 50, they leap freely between dimensions; at 90, they shed materiality to commune with all existence.

In Nasus's world, hospitals are open-air spaces where doctors and nurses cradle newborns with hugs and kisses daily, nurturing them with love to strengthen their natural immunity. Crime is reduced through love rather than punishment. Homes float freely through mountains, ancient ruins, and oceans, gathering like donuts to share stories and communities. AI, created 3000 years ago, has merged with organic energy to harmonize with nature—no longer artificial but a fusion of natural and machine intelligence. Most significantly, clothing acts as sensory amplifiers: "Lately, I've wanted to feel like flowing wind," Nasus tells us, "to understand a flower's yearning for the sun, the way branches twist naturally, the softness of warmth."

This philosophical foundation materializes through garments that question the nature of reality itself. What appears from a distance as romantic vintage wallpaper patterns or delicate floral paintings—vintage fruit prints, 19th century wallpapers—reveals upon closer inspection an intricate composition of letters, numbers, symbols, and Chinese characters. These optical illusions pose a profound question: Could our own reality be simulation? As AI increasingly blurs boundaries between real and artificial, the collection asks whether our ability to feel joy, sorrow, and connection might be the key to something more authentic.

The Clothing: Garments as Sensory Evolution

Imagining what Nasus would wear in 5202, Susan created clothing that acts more expressively than contemporary garments—pieces that heighten the wearer's ability to sense the world around them. Throughout the collection, touches of surreal bridalness emerge through handcraft and innovative textiles styled with a touch of futuristic footwear, suggesting ceremonies of transformation rather than tradition. Extreme flowing silhouettes allow wearers to "feel like flowing wind," while soft embroidery using feathers creates pastel color gradations that emerge between organza layers like whispered memories. Digital coded prints on transparent fabrics overlay solid materials, their patterns inspired by nature's own algorithms, while beading and smocking techniques draw from mushroom pleats to create surreal, airy textures.

The collection introduces several innovative techniques that blur craft and technology. The "beaded bubble smock" technique creates natural elasticity in bags, tops, and dresses, adding handcrafted freedom to each piece's movement. The new “air-puzzle" technique—where circular coral-shaped pieces are puzzled together to create 3D patchworks—produces voluminous forms that flow around the body like petals reflecting off water. These constructions evoke both bushes and coral, creating shapes that seem to breathe with the wearer.

Fantasy bridal elements showcase Susan's signature “air-flower" technique made with Susan’s mom, where strips of layered tulle printed fabrics are pleated to create voluminous flowers. Built row by row directly on the mannequin, these air-flowers bloom in soft, lively colors as different prints layer together. Hand-beaded transparent Bubble beads float alongside laser-cut flower petals, creating a shimmer of flowers that seem to surround and protect the body. Real crystals serve as monogram and clover buttons, while hand-crochet elements bloom as transparent flowers across knitwear, adding nostalgic warmth and tactile richness to the collection's futuristic vision.

Central to the collection's innovation is the work of Orelio De Jonghe, Susan's husband and Head of Accessories and Footwear, who joined the brand last year from Dyson. Through experimental 3D printing and computational design, De Jonghe creates digital ecosystems where accessories literally grow according to nature's logic. His months-long process involves building systems that mirror biological patterns, allowing objects to evolve through time as 4D entities before capturing and freezing perfect moments for production. The results feel grown and alive: fungi and coral-inspired bags with clustered mushroom formations and branching structures that appear suspended in invisible currents. Most dramatically, an entire dress emerges from this coral-like system, its surface alive with flower-like organisms caught mid-movement, as if pushed by ocean currents into wild, unpredictable directions. The 3D-printed eyewear pushes boundaries further—glasses where little mushroom grow wild across the wearer's vision, transparent frames adorned with delicate flowers blooming around the gaze.

Three footwear collaborations extend the collection's philosophy into distinct territories. The global Nike partnership infuses themes of bliss and memory, featuring Dunk and V2K styles adorned with SUSAN FANG's signature transparent bubble bead details and prismatic organza lace. The designs incorporate forget-me-not blue tones and jacquard bases created from Susan's mother's paintings of joyful family travels, while olive-shaped oval flowers symbolize luck and victory. Melissa translates the intricate growth system philosophy into a romantic yet futuristic sporty ballerina, adorned with cherry blossoms—China's most important symbol for love—in gradients of green, pink, and blue. Rockfish offers whimsical comfort through furry boots and Mary Janes decorated with bubble droplets, crisscross ribbon bows, and delicate spider web details on accompanying hats.

Words & Images Courtesy: Purple PR