Tang Chi Couture officially made its New York Fashion Week debut on September 11, bringing its darkly romantic aesthetic to The Georgia Room with a 25-look Spring/Summer 2027 collection titled “In Between…”
Founded by Taiwan-born, New York-based designer Maggie Fan, the couture label is known for sculptural silhouettes, intricate craftsmanship and fashion rooted in emotion. While Tang Chi Couture previously made its runway debut during London Fashion Week in 2025, this marked the brand’s first solo show in New York—a particularly meaningful moment for Fan, who developed much of her design language in the city.
After exploring the idea of time in her previous collection, Fan turns her attention to what exists within it: life, love and eventually, death.
“In Between…” lives in that space where beauty and darkness overlap. The collection looks at the connection between love and mortality, from loving someone until death to the idea of sacrificing yourself for something you care about. There’s also a darker sense of obsession running through the collection—the kind that pulls you toward something dangerous, like a moth drawn to a flame.
The mood comes through in the palette, which moves from bone and parchment to dusty blush, bruised mauve, dried burgundy, earthy brown, charcoal and stark black and white. The colors feel pulled straight from nature, particularly flowers in various stages of decay.
That relationship with nature is especially personal for Fan. Flowers gifted to her by her partner were allowed to naturally dry and wither, with their curved, melancholic shapes eventually becoming the inspiration for custom floral prints. Another dotted velvet motif takes its cues from the intricate patterns found on moth wings.
The materials are just as tactile, combining silk duchess satin, taffeta, chiffon and velvet with hand-worked beading, feathers, felting, handmade flowers and resin 3D elements.
Some of the collection’s most memorable pieces lean fully into its darker side. Dramatic gowns are decorated with hand-felted birds, bringing a sense of fragility and mourning to the silhouettes. One particularly striking look turns a love letter into something much more threatening, pairing a black bird with handwritten red notes. The idea continues down to the footwear, where a shoe literally steps onto a threatening love letter.
Fan also introduced sculptural twin looks created entirely through hand felting, playing with the contrast between light and darkness. Throughout the collection, something can feel beautiful and unsettling at the same time—delicate and heavy, romantic and slightly dangerous.
New techniques including laser cutting, custom textile development, feather embellishment, handcrafted flowers and expanded resin 3D modeling add even more dimension to the collection.
At the same time, “In Between…” signals a new direction for Tang Chi Couture. While the label’s couture craftsmanship remains at the center, Fan has introduced more wearable and accessible pieces, allowing the collection to reach beyond traditional couture. Signature felting techniques appear across couture, ready-to-wear and made-to-order pieces, while the season also introduces the brand’s first ready-to-wear footwear line.
The 25 looks move between all three categories, giving Fan room to explore the full range of the house while keeping the emotional narrative intact.
For its New York debut, Tang Chi Couture also created an immersive runway experience designed to feel like stepping into another world. Theatrical pacing, lighting, music and movement added to the collection’s mysterious, surreal atmosphere, making the presentation feel like an extension of the clothes rather than simply a runway show.
With “In Between…,” Tang Chi Couture enters its next chapter in New York with a collection that doesn’t shy away from the darker side of beauty. Love, loss, nature and mortality all exist side by side—and somehow, that tension is what makes the collection feel alive.
