SHANGHAI RISING

An international fashion presence and an appreciation for the city's own talent are powering a renaissance in China's largest city.

- TODD PLUMMER

A year ago, Louis Vuitton wrapped the giant warehouse space housing Fotografiska Shanghai in electric blue. The occasion? "Nóng Hó, Shanghai" (Shanghainese for "Hello, Shanghai"), a four-week cultural festival of book clubs, architecture tours, and live music to promote the maison's City Guide Series. "Everything was built in 48 hours, whereas in London that would've taken weeks," says Shem Jacobs, a recent transplant to Shanghai and Fotografiska's director of partnerships, Asia. "The efficiency here is really amazing." That a luxury brand could transform an entire warehouse in the formerly sleepy Suzhou Creek neighborhood into a branded playground in a matter of days is par for the course in this town.

China's largest and most cosmopolitan city has a reputation for its breakneck pace-neighborhoods that wax and wane in popularity seemingly overnight, skyscrapers that rise up like real-life time-lapse videos, and trends that come and go at a dizzying pace. And despite several months of intense COVID-era lockdowns-not to mention downturns in luxury consumer spending-fashion types are dancing until dawn at clubs like System and Le Baron. Shanghai feels back: busier, and hungrier than ever for fashion.