Lisa Von Tang and the Quiet Rewrite of the Cheongsam

2026-05-01 · By Splendid

In: Singapore

Some designers earn your wardrobe slowly. Lisa Von Tang earns it in one season, then keeps it. Born in rural Canada to a Chinese-German family, raised between cultures, based in Singapore for the past decade, she launched her eponymous label in 2017 with a collection of silk bomber jackets that were loud, slightly camp, and entirely her own. They sold out within weeks. Eight years later, the loudness has been refined into a quieter point of view: a wardrobe built around heritage Chinese silhouettes, reinterpreted with the discipline of contemporary couture and the comfort of clothes you actually want to live in.

She has been quietly assembling the kind of brand that a hundred more obvious designers will spend the next decade trying to copy.

What makes her work matter is the balance. Cheongsam references usually lean costumey, or modernise so far the form loses its soul. Von Tang sits between. Mandarin collars softened to sit closer to the body, peplum hems with the line of something old in fabric that could only belong to now. Her factory in southern China is solar-powered, the fabrics breathable, the result clothing that feels considered rather than designed. Built from Singapore with a small team, shown at New York and Milan, flagship at New Bahru where she also retails the younger designers she mentors.

Below, the two looks Splendid is wearing this season — the silk peplum and the kimono-sleeved Andromeda — and four further pieces from the fall collection worth ordering before they sell through. Shot the way Splendid actually wears them: in real light, in a room at the edge of evening.

LOOK ONE — THE PEPLUM

The silk button-up peplum top is doing real work. The mandarin collar is there but reduced to a quiet detail at the throat, finished with a covered button you barely notice unless someone leans in. The peplum line is pure Lisa Von Tang signature, falling exactly where flattery becomes posture. The silk has weight, the kind that drapes properly rather than clinging, and the construction holds its line through a long day. Worn with the wide-cut pleated maxi skirt in the same fabric family, the look reads dressed without trying. We have been wearing the set in deep navy through evenings and the lighter cream through European summer days.

Wear it to a long lunch. Dress it down with leather sandals through warmer cities. Layer it under a coat once October arrives. The peplum holds its shape in a suitcase, which is the kind of small detail that turns a beautiful piece into one you actually pack.

LOOK TWO — THE ANDROMEDA

The Andromeda kimono-sleeves dress is the piece you will wear three times a year and remember. The kimono sleeve is Von Tang at her most architectural. The shoulder is dropped, the sleeve is wide and falls to the mid-arm, and the line at the back is built to move when you do. The bodice is fitted just enough to balance the volume above. The skirt is a clean column that finishes mid-shin. The black is a true black, deep and matte rather than the thin watery synthetic that lesser dresses default to. The dress holds its shape through a long evening. We wore ours to a winter wedding and an opening at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai in the same week, with no styling decisions to be made beyond the shoes.

It packs flat, which is the small thing that turns a wedding-friendly dress into an actually-useful dress. The kind you keep in the wardrobe and wear without ceremony when something good comes up.

FOUR MORE FROM FW26

The fall collection is the strongest Lisa Von Tang has shown to date. The cuts are cleaner, the colour palette has tightened, and the small details (covered buttons, hand-finished seams, the way a sleeve is set into a shoulder) read as the work of a designer who has had eight years to figure out exactly what she wants to make. Four pieces we bought, in the order we will probably wear them through autumn.

One-Shoulder Cerulean Aura Midi Dress

The blue is the colour of the season and Von Tang's draped one-shoulder is its best expression. The drape is built into the cut rather than added on top, which means it sits cleanly even when you move. For dinners in warmer cities, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore itself, where the air is too soft for tailoring.

Asymmetrical Cream Mandarin Collar Sleeveless Top

A cleaner version of the cheongsam's collar on a top you can wear under suiting or alone. The asymmetric line at the front is a small piece of architecture that gives the silhouette a centre. Cream is the right neutral to anchor the rest of the wardrobe through autumn and into the early winter.

Moonlight Polka Mandarin Blouse

Soft polka in a tonal palette that reads as texture rather than print. The blouse you wear with denim and feel pulled together. The mandarin collar gives it the one detail it needs. The kind of piece that looks at home with everything from cropped trousers to a long pleated skirt.

Imperial Sienna Wool Jacket

The sienna is unusual and exactly right for autumn travel. Cut close, structured but not stiff. A piece to throw over almost anything in the carry-on. The wool is heavy enough to read as outerwear in a temperate winter, light enough to layer under a heavier coat in a cold one. The kind of jacket that earns the closet space.

Lisa Von Tang has built one of the most specific design points of view of any contemporary Asian designer working today, and one of the few that does not ask you to choose between heritage and now. The clothes look the way they look because the designer is exactly who she is. We wear them because they hold up. Buy the peplum top and the Andromeda dress before the rest of FW26 sells through. The cerulean midi will go first. The sienna jacket is the one you will be quietly reaching for through October. The full FW26 collection is available at lisavontang.com, with the flagship inside New Bahru in Singapore — worth the detour for the rails alone, and for the smaller designers she retails alongside her own.