DESIGNER IN FOCUS - YUHAN AO
Fashion Week 2026 / YUHAN AO AW 2026
'WHAT THE HANDS REMEMBER' :
FALL / WINTER 2026 Collection
At Cramer Art Gallery during London Fashion Week, Yuhan Ao staged a Renaissance-like tableau to reveal the hidden craftsmanship of tailoring in his AW26 collection.
Yuhan Ao Turns Craft
into Ceremony
At Cramer Art Gallery during London Fashion Week, Yuhan Ao presented a collection that felt less like a traditional runway and more like a carefully staged moment in time. Guests entered the gallery to discover an unexpected scene: a long table set at the centre of the space, evoking the atmosphere of The Last Supper.
The installation carried echoes of a Renaissance banquet, with knightly helmets, vintage objects and fragments of history arranged across the table as if memory itself had been assembled into a still life.
Before the first model appeared, a pianist quietly took his place and began to play, setting the tone for what unfolded next. Then the first model entered, not from backstage but directly from the street outside.
Crossing the threshold into the gallery, the figure approached the table with a theatrical sense of romanticism, eventually taking a seat among the objects and beginning to eat — transforming the runway into a living tableau.
BACKSTAGE WITH
YUHAN AO
The collection itself revealed the core of Ao’s practice: craftsmanship. Tailoring was turned inside out, exposing the structures usually hidden beneath garments.
What is traditionally concealed within the ateliers of Savile Row; internal seams, construction lines and the architecture of tailoring; was brought fully to the surface.
The garments carried a quiet confidence, allowing the process of making to become part of the visual language.
Titled “What the Hands Remember,” the Autumn/Winter 2026 collection reflects on resilience, labour and memory. Inspired by the poetic exile of Arthur Rimbaud alongside the designer’s own rural memories of hand-spun hemp, the work builds a quiet elegance shaped by patience and craft.
Layering, wrapping and deconstructed tailoring formed the foundation of the collection. Each piece seemed to hold the trace of the hands that made it — a folded collar, a thread that refuses to break, the discipline of structure carried through every seam. Rather than chasing spectacle, Ao’s work felt introspective, proposing beauty through labour and dignity through construction.
Captivated by the strength of the presentation and the meticulous craftsmanship within the garments, we took the opportunity to speak with Yuhan Ao backstage after the show. In our conversation, the designer reflects on the ideas behind What the Hands Remember and the role that memory, poetry and the act of making play within his work.
YUHAN AO PRESENTS 'WHAT THE HANDS REMEMBER' FOR
Autumn/Winter 2026
AW26 What the Hands Remember is a study of solitary dignity. It places Rimbaud’s sense of exile beside the designer’s rural memories of hand-spun hemp and rebuilds a quiet, resilient elegance from scarcity. Through layering, wrapping and deconstructed tailoring, the collection reveals a structural beauty shaped by labor, patience and unspoken ritual. It is created for those who continue moving through a world that offers no welcome, guided only by what their hands remember.
A folded collar,
a thread that refuses to break,
a small warmth held against desolation.
AW26 is for those who let their hands remember.
For those who carry poetry through labor,
and stitch dignity into the seams of everyday life.
BACKSTAGE PHTOGRAPHY: EMILY GEORG
RUNWAY PHOTOGRAPHY: HEO JANGBEOM
SHOW STYLING: MAO MIYAKOSHI
MAKE UP: NEUSA NEVES
HAIR: KEIICHIRO HIRANO
CREATIVE&ART DIRECTOR: YUHAN AO
SET DESIGN: TONY HORNECKER
VENUE: CRAMER ART GALLERY
CHOREOGRAPH: TED ROGER
SHOW PRODUCER: MEIHUI LIU
SHOW BRAND MANAGER: YUTIN YANG
VISUAL DIRECTION & PR: JESSI LIN
SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS:
CHARLES&KEITH
KANDM
HOMEWARD EXPRESS
HOWARD ATELIER
Samples request can be send direct to YUHAN AO studio @yuhanao.official
