2021 marks the eighth anniversary of Istituto Marangoni Shanghai, China, as well as the tenth year since its famous Chinese alumni designer Rico Manchit Au founded his RICOSTRU brand.

RICO and Istituto Marangoni Shanghai have recently partner to launch China’s first Mentorship  Project, supporting the new generation of Chinese designers and showcasing the creative power of China’s “Oriental Future” on the stage of the SS/2022 Shanghai Fashion Week.

Placing an emphasis on the country’s creative ambitions for the future, Istituto Marangoni called upon all students from Shanghai campus to participate in a creative campaign involving clothing, accessories, textiles and visual marketing. Designer Rico served as the school's project creative director and design mentor, who personally guided the students through the process. Their personal creations is featured with a dedicated show as part of Shanghai Fashion Week and compete for the "Best Creative Scholarship" sponsored by RICOSTRU.

As part of the mentorship project, Rico and his independent brand RICOSTRU collaborated with Istituto Marangoni to develop a conceptual fashion series based on an “Oriental Futuristic” theme. With a bold vision for the future, RICOSTRU and young fashion designers from Istituto Marangoni Shanghai integrated inspiring elements such as "The Oriental", "Chinese Knight", "Landscape" and "Recollection" into illusory stories that make up the world of the future: artificial natural landscapes become the construction trend of future cities, an ancient and mysterious chivalry organisation is secretly "sowing" the ancient urban memory of humanity.

They are dressed in surreal "skin coats," combining light and shadow, integrated with nature and architecture, wandering in a cold future planet, transferring the warmth and memory of ancient human civilization to a vast dream-like landscape.

The RICOSTRU fashion series incorporates iconic sculptural tailoring, surreal oriental elements, reconstruction techniques, futuristic textile research and development, the concept of oriental chivalry and an otherworldly colour palette, leveraging the brand’s innovative spirit and sustainable development concept, while joining forces with China’s new generation for the SS 2022 Shanghai Fashion Week. A journey through time and space, coordinating eastern creativity while sowing the future.