4 Chinese Fashion Brands to Watch
How Pet-Tree-Kor, Fax Copy Express*, Nullus, and Aenrmous Are Redefining ‘Made in China’ for Global Fashion.
A couple of weeks ago, I introduced five Chinese fragrance brands worth watching and explained how cultural confidence and creative storytelling fueled a guochao (国潮) wave in the fragrance industry. The same forces are reshaping fashion. Young Chinese consumers—more discerning than ever—are no longer seduced by big foreign logos alone; they crave authenticity, strong narratives, and homegrown perspectives. This shift has opened the doors for independent designers who celebrate Chinese identity in fresh ways.
China’s new generation of brands is making its mark at home and abroad, catching the eye of global retailers and platforms—from independent boutiques to online giants like SSENSE.
As a follow-up to the fragrance article, here are four rising Chinese fashion labels—Pet-Tree-Kor, Fax Copy Express*, Nullus, and Aenrmous—that capture this creative surge. Each tells a distinct story: tranquility of nature, office core, Zen minimalism, and theatrical storytelling. Collectively, they point to a fashion future that is culturally nuanced, boldly genderless, and increasingly global.
Pet-tree-kor
Founded in Shanghai in 2021 by Xinyu, Wanqing, and Dong, Pet-Tree-Kor (a play on "petrichor," meaning the smell of soil after rain) is all about reconnecting urban life with nature. The brand fuses architectural tailoring with organic forms—think technical jackets with petal-like panels or coats adorned with vine-like drapery (kinda reminds me of Post Archive Faction). Their central question: can cities feel alive again?
This philosophy also comes to life in their flagship Shanghai store, which opened in late 2024. The space is a futuristic greenhouse: living plants intertwined with concrete and metal. Their debut FW24 collection, shown there, explored garments that blend city utility with natural textures—like a parka with moss-like details or cracked-earth prints on trousers.
A standout moment was their capsule with Taiwanese label Namesake, which merged raw-edged knits in leafy hues with industrial cuts and hardware—a poetic dialogue between steel and soil.
Pet-Tree-Kor’s subtle guochao approach avoids overt traditional motifs. Instead, it taps into the lived experience of China’s mega-cities: seeking nature amid concrete jungles. This modern ecological narrative resonates with China’s Gen Z and creative class. Their cultural relevance, paired with a striking aesthetic, has earned them placement in Dover Street Market stores worldwide and niche boutiques from Tokyo to Paris. Pet-Tree-Kor exemplifies a Chinese brand that roots itself locally while blooming globally.
Fax Copy Express*
Despite the office-supply name, Fax Copy Express* is one of China’s most distinctive emerging fashion labels. Founded in Shanghai in 2020, it channels a playful reinterpretation of '90s corporate culture and reimagines it through a sleek, gender-fluid lens. The aesthetic leans not toward streetwear, but rather what might be called "office siren core"—a blend of minimalist tailoring, sensual structure, and unassuming power dressing.
Think pleated skirts, halter tanks, sculptural blazers, and deconstructed suiting that blurs the line between boardroom and art studio. The designs are understated yet provocative, using muted tones and tactile fabrics to elevate familiar silhouettes. There’s often a subtle irony at play: garments that reference bureaucracy while subverting it entirely.
At its core, Fax Copy Express* is about sincerity, wearability, and versatility. Many of its pieces are gender-neutral, with clean lines and clever construction that allow for personal styling. The brand avoids gimmicks in favor of strong tailoring and long-lasting design.
Having launched during the pandemic, it smartly built momentum through social media and e-commerce, gaining traction on Xiaohongshu and TikTok. Its following grew organically—thanks in part to its “officecore” aesthetic resonating with young urbanites seeking playful yet polished outfits. It’s now stocked by SSENSE, Net-A-Porter and gr8 among others, reaching international customers who appreciate its sharp but subversive sensibility.
Fax Copy Express* captures a new kind of Chinese cool: quiet confidence, intellectual edge, and a modern approach to workplace aesthetics that balances professionalism with personality.
Nullus
Nullus, launched in 2022 in Shanghai, takes its name from the Latin word for "nothing." And that’s the point. Its philosophy: remove the unnecessary to reveal the essential. The brand delivers garments that are calming, minimalist, and quietly complex.
Designs feature concealed fastenings, asymmetric seams, and flowing shapes that blur gender lines. A trench coat might have an internal pocket that gently distorts its drape; a blouse might hide its structure until it moves. Nullus invites a second look.
The color palette lives in soft neutrals: off-whites, sage greens, pale taupes. The mood is Zen, but modern—echoing Chinese philosophies like Song Dynasty aesthetics or the classical concept of 'shen yun' (神韵), which emphasizes inner spirit and poetic elegance. There are no logos, just quiet elegance.
Nullus is technically a menswear brand, but in practice it’s entirely genderless. Their pieces are designed to be worn by anyone, styled any way, fitting a growing Gen Z appetite for fluid fashion.
What sets Nullus apart is its insistence that absence is a form of presence. In a world of visual overload, it offers pause, clarity, and poise. Its refined vision has gained traction in Asia and Europe, appearing in concept stores and Paris showrooms. It stands as a serene but strong voice in China’s fashion chorus.
Aenrmous
Avant-garde and unapologetically imaginative, Aenrmous (often stylized as ÆNRMÒUS) is pushing the boundaries of Chinese fashion with theatrical flair. Where the other featured brands thrive on subtlety, Aenrmous is all about grand narratives and experimental design. Founded in the early 2020s (and a fixture in Shanghai’s cutting-edge Labelhood designer community), Aenrmous has quickly become known for its conceptual collections that feel more like storytelling than mere clothing lines. Even the brand’s name hints at its ethos: a tweaked spelling of “enormous,” it suggests something vast in scope, and indeed Aenrmous aims to create an immersive world around each season’s theme.
Each collection unfolds like a tale. Fall/Winter 2025, titled "Calamity Town I," imagined a post-trauma 1805 village reborn into peace. Models shed heavy, battle-worn garments mid-show to reveal flowing, delicate silhouettes—a performance of renewal.
Design-wise, Aenrmous is street couture: voluminous trousers, sculptural coats, and modular tailoring that blends techwear with romanticism. It pulls from many sources—Chinese history, cyberpunk, classic tailoring—but always reinvents.
Unlike brands that use Chinese motifs directly, Aenrmous references heritage abstractly: robe-like shapes, armor echoes, poetic prints. It channels tradition through imagination, not replication.
The brand has shown at Paris Fashion Week and is stocked in avant-garde boutiques from Hong Kong to Seoul. Online, it’s gaining cult status among fashion subreddits and Grailed collectors. While some pieces remind me of Rick Owens, personally, I prefer Aenrmous.
The Future of Chinese Fashion: Cultural Confidence Meets Global Vision
Together, these four labels paint a vivid picture of China’s fashion future: design-first, globally ambitious, and unafraid to be distinctly Chinese. Pet-Tree-Kor channels urban nature into wearable storytelling; Fax Copy Express* reimagines the workplace wardrobe with sharp irony and inclusive tailoring; Nullus expresses quiet strength through minimalism; and Aenrmous transforms heritage into conceptual spectacle.
What binds them isn’t a look, but a mindset. These brands radiate a new cultural confidence. "Made in China" no longer implies imitation or mass-market churn—it signals originality, craftsmanship, and global relevance. The guochao movement has evolved. No longer a visual pastiche of dragons and Hanzi characters, it now breathes through subtle materiality, narrative layering, and gender-fluid design.
They’re also in sync with broader global shifts: from inclusivity and sustainability to storytelling as a core brand pillar. They speak the language of a generation that’s cosmopolitan yet grounded. And crucially, they’re being backed. Labelhood, the Fashion Farm Foundation, and e-commerce platforms like SSENSE are helping bridge the gap between China’s creative output and international audiences.
Digital word-of-mouth is doing its part, too. A viral Aenrmous runway clip, a Nullus feature on Instagram, or a Fax Copy Express* lookbook circulating on Xiaohongshu—all now have global ripple effects. The barriers are falling. And with this growing infrastructure, Chinese fashion is no longer looking outward for cues; it’s looking inward—and then exporting that point of view to the world.