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Design future glitters at WDCC with a distinctly Shanghai flair 2025-09-28
Innovation sparkled in recyclable lipstick cubes, unfolded in modular electric scooters, and lingered in coral-red incense water at this year's World Design Cities Conference (WDCC) in Shanghai. The future of design, it seems, is rooted not only in sustainability but also in storytelling – and increasingly, in Shanghai's own aesthetic DNA.
From Makeup to Message: When Beauty Goes Biodegradable
FancyCube, a Shanghai-born makeup brand, caught the attention with its compact cubes of blush and highlighter, not because of the pigments alone, but because of how they are delivered. Designed like Lego blocks, the color pods are housed in transparent, recyclable acrylic packaging. The pigments themselves? Food-grade, child-safe, and swappable.
"It's not just about what color you wear; it's about how you wear it – and how lightly you leave your trace behind," said Tang Xiao, the brand's makeup artist. Drawing inspiration from Chinese ink painting's idea of liubai (the art of leaving blank space), the application technique favors soft diffusion over sharp contouring, a look better suited to Asian skin tones and cultural preferences for subtlety over saturation.
FancyCube isn't just a makeup line; it's a mini-architecture of choice, modularity, and responsibility – proof that modern Chinese beauty can be playful, green, and philosophically grounded at once.
Wheels That Think in Petal Logic
Italian design firm Icona introduced a concept electric scooter that appears to prioritize pet-friendliness over power consumption. This lightweight and expandable vehicle features compartments for pets and storage, as well as swappable battery modules tailored to various use cases. Notably, the choice of materials is striking: rather than using sprayed plastic – often a source of pollution – Icona has selected pre-colored, recyclable plastic mixed with magnesium-aluminum alloys.
"This way, we avoid secondary chemical processing while improving strength and reducing weight," said project manager Lilly Gao. "It's design thinking that respects both engineering and ecology."
Icona is currently in talks with several Chinese manufacturers, a sign that even luxury design studios are moving away from showboating and toward problem-solving.
Old Brands, New Bloom
Shanghai's heritage brands also tapped into the conference's central theme of "ecological design" by leaning into poetic local symbolism. At the booth of household care brand Bee & Flower, visitors walk through a stylized Chinese garden, where every scent – wood, water, flower, and fruit – is tied to a narrative of ecological balance.
Shanghai Watch showcased its Yulan Magnolia Series, a line of embroidered watches that honors the city's official flower through intricate Su Xiu needlework. "It's not just a timepiece; it's a wearable piece of feminine resilience," said brand rep Chen Xin.
Even menswear got a cultural upgrade. Domestic brand K-Boxing launched its "Han Moon" overlapping collar jacket, which reimagines traditional hanfu drapery into urban silhouettes. The design has already received national patent recognition.
A Future That Wears Its Roots Lightly
What emerged from WDCC wasn't just a parade of products. It was a quiet resistance to loud global sameness – a reclaiming of local rhythm, softness, and accountability.
The fragrance label DOCUMENTS distilled this blend of tradition and invention into its coral-red bottle, inspired by the circular panxiang incense coil, with scent notes drawn from Chinese sandalwood, musk, and agarwood. The bottle's mortise-and-tenon architecture and warm palette rooted the otherwise minimalist design in unmistakable cultural references.
As the conference drew to a close, one thing became evident: for many designers in Shanghai, beauty had shifted from being about the wow factor to a focus on the underlying reasons. In a world increasingly concerned with sustainable futures and more significant aesthetics, "Made in Shanghai" was evolving to encompass memory, material, and mindfulness.
Source: Shanghai Daily
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