“IN BETWEEN…”
Designer Maggie Fan presents a darkly romantic Spring/Summer 2027 collection exploring the space between life, love and death
New York-based couture label Tang Chi Couture made its New York Fashion Week debut on September 11th at The Georgia Room, unveiling the Spring/Summer 2027 collection titled “In Between…”.
The 25-look presentation marked the brand’s first-ever solo runway show in New York, following its formal runway debut during London Fashion Week in September 2025.
Tang Chi
Photos: Karla Tomanelli
Founded by Taiwan-born, New York-based designer Maggie Fan, Tang Chi Couture is known for its emotionally driven design, sculptural silhouettes, and intricate craftsmanship. For Maggie, bringing the brand’s first solo runway to New York was deeply personal—the city where she developed her design language and built her experience as a designer.
“This collection feels like the next chapter of me and my brand’s story,” says designer, Maggie Fan. “After exploring ‘time’ last season, I wanted to look at what exists within it—life, love, and eventually, death. It’s darker and more romantic than my previous work. I’ve always been a melancholic person, and this collection allowed me to embrace that side of myself and translate it into something beautiful,”
Following the previous collection’s exploration of time, “In Between…” asks the question: what comes next? The collection examines the fragile distance between life and death, and the relationship between darkness and light. At its heart is the connection between love and mortality—the idea of loving until death, sacrificing oneself for something deeply loved, or being drawn toward something dangerous, like a moth to a flame.
The result is a world of quiet violence and deadly romance, where beauty, darkness, love, and mortality exist simultaneously.
A palette of bone, parchment, dusty blush, bruised mauve, dried burgundy, antique ochre, earthy brown, deep charcoal, and stark black and white evokes flowers in decay and beauty preserved just before it disappears. Silk duchess satin, taffeta, chiffon, and velvet are paired with hand-worked beading, feathers, felting, handmade flowers, and resin 3D elements.
Nature remains a central source of inspiration for Maggie, with the collection introducing fully customized fabric prints created from personal objects and natural references. Flowers gifted to Maggie by her other half were allowed to naturally dry and wither, their curved, melancholic forms becoming the foundation for the collection’s floral prints. A custom dotted velvet motif draws inspiration from the intricate patterns of moth wings.
BEAUTY, OBSESSION AND DANGER
Among the collection’s standout looks are dramatic gowns adorned with hand-felted birds, bringing a sense of fragility and mourning to the silhouettes. One gown transforms a love letter into a death threat, featuring a black bird and handwritten red notes; the concept continues into the footwear, with a shoe stepping onto a threatening love letter.
A pair of fully hand-felted sculptural twin looks explores the opposing forces of light and darkness. Together, the pieces capture the emotional duality at the center of “In Between…”—where something can be simultaneously beautiful and haunting, delicate and heavy.
New techniques explored this season include laser cutting, handcrafted flowers, feather embellishment, custom textile development, and expanded resin 3D modeling.
A NEW DIRECTION FOR TANG CHI COUTURE
While preserving the craftsmanship and distinctive identity of the house, Maggie has evolved the collection toward pieces that feel more wearable and accessible, opening Tang Chi Couture to a broader audience.
Felting, one of the brand’s signature techniques, is reimagined across the collection through couture pieces, handfelted birds, and ready-to-wear designs. The season also introduces Tang Chi Couture’s first ready-to-wear footwear line, translating the brand’s conceptual approach to shoes into more wearable, accessible designs.
The collection’s 25 looks span couture, made-to-order, and ready-to-wear, allowing Maggie to tell a more complete story while demonstrating the evolving range of the house.
For its New York debut, Maggie created an immersive runway experience designed to feel like stepping into another world—dark, mysterious, emotional, and slightly surreal. Through theatrical pacing, music, lighting, movement, and atmosphere, the presentation extended the narrative of “In Between…” beyond the clothes themselves.
With the first solo NYFW runway, Tang Chi Couture enters a new chapter- one that brings the house’s darkly romantic aesthetic and meticulous craftsmanship to a broader audience while remaining rooted in the emotional storytelling at the heart of Maggie’s work.
ABOUT TANG CHI COUTURE
Tang Chi Couture is a New York-based couture label founded by Taiwan-born designer Maggie Fan. Rooted in emotional storytelling and artisanal craftsmanship, the brand explores themes of memory, nature, beauty, and human emotion through sculptural silhouettes, intricate hand-worked techniques, and distinctive textile development. Known for its darkly romantic aesthetic and signature use of felting, Tang Chi Couture balances couture artistry with an evolving ready-to-wear offering. Following its runway debut during London Fashion Week in 2025, the brand continues to develop its distinctive design language from New York.
For more information, visit www.TangChiCouture.com or follow @TangChi_Couture on Instagram.
