Chongqing — Chongqing officially launched the 2026 Chongqing Guochao Fashion Week on June 27 in the city's historic Shibati Traditional Scenic Area, transforming the centuries-old hillside neighborhood into an open-air runway that blends Chinese cultural heritage with contemporary fashion.

The opening ceremony also marked the inauguration of the Art Management and Cultural Industry Research Center under the School of Art and Humanities at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, bringing together academic research and the city's growing creative industries.

"Guochao," or Chinese-style fashion, combines traditional Chinese cultural elements with contemporary design. In recent years, it has gained increasing popularity both in China and overseas, with traditional aesthetics finding new expression through fashion, music and lifestyle brands.

Taking advantage of Shibati's unique stepped streets, this year's fashion week presented its runway across the neighborhood's layered stairways against the backdrop of the Yangtze River. The show integrated Chongqing's mountainous urban landscape with Oriental-inspired fashion, featuring original designs that drew inspiration from Bayu brocade, traditional stilted architecture and Three Gorges stone carvings.

The Guochao fashion show at the launch ceremony. (Photo/ the organizer)

Beyond the runway shows, the event will also host fashion development salons designed to connect designers, original brands and commercial districts, promoting collaboration across design, exhibition and consumer markets.

Qian Keren, general manager of Chongqing Shibati Cultural Development Co., Ltd., said the event is the country's first city-level Guochao fashion week to use mountain streets as a natural runway.

"By integrating urban history, intangible cultural heritage and young designers, the fashion week creates a distinctive cultural identity for Shibati while further unlocking the district's value as a cultural landmark," Qian said.

Following the launch ceremony, young designers from the design department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and emerging Chinese fashion brands presented more than 100 original outfits inspired by Chongqing's local culture and architecture.

"We want the world to see that Guochao is not China's nostalgia, but a new global trend," said Fang Yunfei, a representative of the fashion week's organizing committee. "Just like the stairways of Shibati, one end connects the past of Bayu culture, while the other reaches toward global audiences."

Known as China's "8D Magic City" for its dramatic urban landscape, Chongqing has become an increasingly popular destination for international visitors in recent years. Yuzhong District, home to many of the city's landmark attractions, is positioning itself as the core area of Chongqing's international consumption center while expanding its fashion and design industries through original apparel, Oriental aesthetics and emerging consumer brands.

The district has also been promoting the revitalization of intangible cultural heritage and fostering the growth of local Guochao brands, aiming to build a fashion ecosystem that combines international brands, creative events and distinctive consumer spaces.