ICICLE Unveils Its 2026 Chinese New Year Capsule Collection “Ma Shang Feng Hou”
ICICLE has unveiled its 2026 Chinese New Year capsule collection, “Ma Shang Feng Hou”, continuing the brand’s long-standing exploration of how traditional Chinese cultural expressions can be translated into contemporary lifestyles. Since 2022, ICICLE’s annual New Year capsules — from “Blooming Prosperity” and “Abundance and Joy” to “Harvest and Fortune” and 2025’s “Blessings of Longevity” — have consistently woven traditional auspicious symbolism into modern wardrobes, offering a gentler, more lived-in approach to festive dressing.
Drawing from Local Folk Art: Jinshan Farmer Painting as Cultural Source
The 2026 capsule takes inspiration from Jinshan Farmer Painting, a folk art tradition originating in Shanghai’s Jinshan district. Characterised by vivid colours, freehand lines and scenes rooted in agricultural life, Jinshan Farmer Painting reflects a deeply grounded visual language shaped by everyday labour, nature and community life. More than decorative art, it serves as a visual archive of rural wisdom and cultural memory.
By using fashion as a medium, ICICLE seeks to bring this land-rooted art form into a broader contemporary and global context, allowing folk culture to be experienced beyond its original medium and geography.
Heritage Collaboration: Translating Auspicious Symbols into Modern Design
For this collection, ICICLE collaborated with Cao Xiuwen, a representative inheritor of Jinshan Farmer Painting and a recognised bearer of Shanghai’s intangible cultural heritage. Cao created the exclusive New Year artwork “Ma Shang Feng Hou” (“Immediate Promotion and Success”), employing the genre’s signature multi-perspective composition and rhythmic visual density.
In the artwork, bees, monkeys, horses and blooming flora coexist in a lively and harmonious scene. The imagery draws on traditional wordplay — “bee” (feng) echoing “to confer”, and “monkey” (hou) echoing “marquis” — forming a classic auspicious metaphor for career progress and good fortune in the year ahead.
From Canvas to Garment: Craft, Materials and Symbolic Design
Rather than directly reproducing the painting, ICICLE translates its spirit through design language. Motifs of bees, monkeys and florals are distilled into delicate embroidery and cutwork emblems, subtly integrated into knitwear, cashmere pieces and everyday silhouettes.
The collection is anchored in a festive red palette, balanced with ivory, deep blue and charcoal tones to suit modern urban wear. Materials such as striped cashmere, corduroy knit fabric, cotton terry and washed denim add texture and comfort, reinforcing the brand’s emphasis on wearability and longevity. The striped patterns, inspired by the rhythm of bee markings, introduce lightness and movement into the designs.
Rethinking Festive Success: A Softer Narrative for the New Year
In its visual storytelling, ICICLE reinterprets “Ma Shang Feng Hou” not as a grand promise of achievement, but as a series of light-hearted, human-scale moments of luck and fulfilment. Set around familiar scenes — mahjong tables, ring toss booths and claw machines — the campaign presents bees, monkeys and horses as playful “messengers of fortune.”
This approach reflects a broader cultural shift: success is no longer framed solely as monumental achievement, but as moments of ease, joy and unexpected wins in everyday life. The campaign’s warm red, blue and neutral tones echo the collection’s colour palette, reinforcing a sense of optimism without excess.
A Sustainability Perspective: Cultural Continuity as Long-Term Value
From GREENEXT’s perspective, ICICLE’s Chinese New Year capsule represents more than a seasonal fashion release. It exemplifies a long-term approach to cultural sustainability, where intangible heritage, local craftsmanship and contemporary design engage in ongoing dialogue.
In an industry often driven by speed and novelty, such practices raise important questions about how brands can responsibly collaborate with cultural heritage, ensuring respect, authenticity and continuity. By embedding traditional symbolism into garments designed for everyday use, ICICLE enables culture to be worn, lived with and carried forward — not preserved as static reference, but activated through daily life.
As the 2026 New Year approaches, “Ma Shang Feng Hou” offers a reminder that meaningful progress — both cultural and personal — often begins with small, thoughtful gestures woven into what we choose to wear.
