4th Chongqing Urban Art Festival | “Mountain and Water Fashion” Riverside Art Show Lights Up Danzishi Square

On the evening of May 29 at 8:00 PM, Danzishi Square in Chongqing was transformed into a boundless fashion show venue—the “Mountain and Water Fashion” riverside art show grandly opened on the banks of the Yangtze River. As a highlight of the “River·Shore” art scene at the 4th Chongqing Urban Art Festival, this outdoor extravaganza used mountains and waters as its backdrop and fashion as its scenery. It showcased the graduation works of the 2026 class of the Fashion and Apparel Design departments from five universities, including the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Over 100 original designs flowed through the dazzling nightscape of the two rivers and four banks, drawing rounds of applause from the audience.

At the art show, students from five Chongqing universities used their unique perspectives and languages to interpret the dialogue between tradition and the future, and between craftsmanship and technology. Models walked rhythmically along the riverbank pathway, with the details of their garments vividly illuminated by the riverside lights.

Among them, Southwest University presented the theme “Weaving Continuity.” It views “weaving” as the stitches of time, threading millennia-old silk into the fabric of the present, while “continuity” symbolizes the breath of cultural heritage, awakening the soul of intangible heritage at the fingertips. This is not a simple reproduction of historical forms, but a thread that pierces through the past and present, extending infinitely toward the future.

Chongqing Normal University focused on the intangible cultural heritage of southwestern China. Under the theme “Pattern Transformation,” it took the thousand-year-old traditional techniques and motifs of Wuxi wedding embroidery, southwestern ethnic embroidery, and weaving as its creative foundation. Through the revitalization and creative transformation of intangible cultural heritage, the university produced original works that are cultural, artistic, and practical.

Chongqing University of Education has been deeply involved in the field of children’s apparel design for many years. This time, under the theme “Small Hands Holding Big Hands,” it used profound cultural heritage to guide avant-garde ideas. Combining intangible cultural heritage techniques such as paper-cutting, embroidery, and indigo dyeing with digital printing and 3D virtual technology, the university allowed ancient culture to be revitalized through hand-in-hand transmission.

Chongqing Technology and Business University adopted the theme “Intelligent Weaving Without End,” allowing digital technology to add a new dimension to design. With technology intervening in creation and algorithms participating in aesthetics, what is presented to the audience is not just fashion aesthetics but a burgeoning picture of the future.

The Sichuan Fine Arts Institute was the last to take the stage, with the theme “Reencounter,” bringing its unique site-specific experimental aesthetics to the show. Designers drew nourishment from profound traditions of plastic arts while boldly breaking free from the physical boundaries of fabric, juxtaposing graffiti-like brushstrokes, sculptural silhouettes, and digital printing technology. Each garment became a wearable canvas. When the final piece appeared, audience members raised their phones to capture the moment.