A cinematic new collection spanning Shanghai and London, past and future, Urban Grace reframes leather through craftsmanship, cultural exchange and material innovation.
Hu Bing unveils URBAN GRACE: Leather & Light, the latest collection from HUBING SELECTS, during London Fashion Week.
Moving between Shanghai and London, the collection explores leather across three imagined moments in time: 1930, 2030 and 3030. Each chapter offers a distinct interpretation of the material, progressing from ceremonial softness to sculptural protection and, finally, a metallic second skin.
Developed through Haining’s renowned leather supply chain in Zhejiang province, URBAN GRACE brings Chinese craftsmanship and technical expertise into dialogue with an international design perspective. The collection’s three chapters – Ritual White, Flexible Armor and Gown of Light – unite heritage, innovation and a more fluid vision of the future.
At its heart is Hu Bing’s latest proposition, “Finishing in China”: a recognition of the skill, knowledge and creative contribution involved in transforming an idea into its final form.
“Finishing in China is not a claim about where materials originate. It is about who finishes the work – Chinese craft and supply chains turning design into garments the world can see, wear and buy.” — Hu Bing
THREE MOMENTS IN TIME
Time provides the creative thread for URBAN GRACE, with each chapter presenting a different relationship between leather and the body.
RITUAL WHITE 1930
The opening chapter looks to the visual language of the 1930s, drawing upon both Eastern and Western dress traditions. Matte white leather from Haining is layered with silk and gauze, lending the silhouettes a sense of restraint and ceremony. The interplay between structure and softness establishes the collection’s wider conversation between heritage and modernity.
FLEXIBLE ARMOR 2030
The second chapter, Flexible Armor, moves into 2030. Collaborating designer Aya draws on Roman gladiatorial armour, translating protective structures into contemporary tailoring. Black leather forms the foundation, worked through with wine red and cognac tones, while sculpted shoulders, chest and waist give the silhouettes an architectural quality.
GOWN OF LIGHT 3030
The final chapter looks towards 3030, imagining leather transformed into a luminous, metallic second skin. Weightless layers of gauze soften the futuristic silhouettes, suggesting a world in which fashion is no longer rooted to a single place, but carries fragments of culture, memory and identity across borders. Throughout the collection, Haining leather is treated to appear lighter, softer and more fluid than the heavy, rigid or highly polished finishes with which the material is often associated. Its transformation reinforces one of URBAN GRACE’s central ideas: that craftsmanship is not simply the execution of a creative vision, but part of the vision itself.
FINISHING IN CHINA
URBAN GRACE has been developed through Haining, one of China’s most established centres of leather production, connecting material selection and sampling with technical experimentation and final garment construction. Hu Bing’s “Finishing in China” proposition turns attention towards the expertise behind a finished piece – from material treatment and technical development to construction and craft. Rather than considering production as secondary to design, it recognises the final stages of making as a creative act in their own right. It also offers a more nuanced understanding of provenance: one defined not only by where a material begins its journey, but by the hands, knowledge and innovation that give it its final identity.
A RUNWAY BETWEEN ERAS
This London Fashion Week presentation’s sound and lighting design will extend the collection’s journey through time. Live piano will open the show with a restrained, almost ceremonial quality, before the atmosphere evolves alongside the clothes. For Ritual White, cool light will be layered with wind, birdsong and fragments of ambient sound evoking Shanghai and London. Flexible Armor will introduce warmer side lighting, revealing the depth and texture of the leather against a British deep-house rhythm. By Gown of Light, the soundscape will be pared back once more as sculptural beams of cool white cross the space, closing on the resonance of a single piano note. The result will be cinematic without feeling theatrical for its own sake: a runway poised between memory and possibility.
BEYOND THE RUNWAY
URBAN GRACE is supported by partners across fashion, technology, beauty, wellness and lifestyle, including Parodontax, AITO, Yoseido, Viee, Loch Lomond, Scabal and Junshi. Their participation reflects the broader ambition of HUBING SELECTS: to create an international platform for Chinese brands and creative talent, while fostering a meaningful exchange between Eastern and Western perspective
ABOUT HUBING SELECTS
Founded by Hu Bing in 2024, HUBING SELECTS brings Asian designers and creative talent to international stages, supporting independent design with global potential and building connections between Eastern and Western fashion cultures. URBAN GRACE marks the platform’s third season.
HUBING SELECTS forms part of 100 ICONS in Fashion, launched in September 2024 by Hu Bing in collaboration with the China Fashion Designers Association and the Chinese Costume Culture Research Association. The initiative seeks to create a more established pathway for Chinese fashion talent onto the world’s leading fashion stages.
Hu Bing’s relationship with the international fashion calendar spans 38 years. In 2015, the British Fashion Council named him the first International Ambassador for London Collections: Men. In 2024, he was appointed a British Fashion Council Ambassador and founded HUBING SELECTS.
His focus is now widening from personal representation to the championing of a new generation of Chinese designers, craftspeople, manufacturers and brands. “Ten years was a threshold; the eleventh marks a new beginning. In the next decade, I want to represent Chinese craft, Chinese supply chains, Chinese brands and the young designers walking this road with me.” Hu Bing
With URBAN GRACE, that journey stretches from Shanghai to London and from 1930 to 3030. Bridging craftsmanship and technology, memory and imagination, the collection offers a compelling vision of fashion not simply as a finished object, but as the culmination of material, knowledge and human skill.
