“The piano teacher, Erika Kohut, bursts like a whirlwind into the apartment,” so begins the quote lingering on designer Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang's minds. Their summer collection for Shushu/Tong, ‘The Pleasure of Rejection’, sings like a quiet storm. Against a hymn of a synth-piano mix that faintly recalls Austrian monoliths Shubert and Schumann—figures adored in the book and movie adaptation of The Piano Teacher—the Shanghai-based played with a distinct colour palette of mint, khaki, and burgundy alongside textured fabrics and layering techniques as they entered the liminal space between desire and restraint. 

‘Psychosexual’ is not a term many would attribute to Shushu/Tong. They are best known for their ruffled dresses, bows and floral embellishments that conjure the innocence of girlhood and the whimsy of childhood dress-up boxes, ripe with pastel frills and sailor-style collars. However, with Erika Kohut as this season's muse, the brand embraces a newer, maturer disposition.

The underlying focus of the collection is desire. Lei and Jiang act as stormchasers, offering a view from the eye itself. The first act of the show simmers with a soft intensity, opening with a black maxi skirt paired with a mint blouse featuring sheer panels. Loose, breezy knits and tailored trench coats offer a disciplinarian, highbrow rendering of femininity, referencing the academic setting of The Piano Teacher and several of Erika’s costumes. These are followed by sheath dresses boasting elegant, fitted silhouettes and exquisite tailoring, which together emphasise the female form. Slip dresses are layered with cardigans that strategically reveal the décolletage, providing some skin relief to the bagginess of earlier looks. 

Lei and Jiang meditate on Erika’s relationship with intimacy: “She becomes aware of her desire and capacity to attract people but turns against them with indignation and contempt as soon as they take her advances seriously.” Tempered carnality takes shape in a Bordeaux-coloured bustier and matching pencil skirt. Layering the bustier atop a cardigan marks the interplay between compulsion and subjugation, punctuated by the true-red kitten heels and knitwear. “In Erika’s mind,” Shushu tells Culted, “the lines between attraction and rejection blur, creating a chaotic unity that offers immense dramatic tension.” 

In a two-piece set constructed with a rich yellow fabric and plastered with a rose print, the basque waist is exemplified with sculptural drapery. The bralette underneath softens the bold lines created by the matching top's structured design. The yellow fabric reappears later as a buttoned midi-length dress, clinging to the model as though she were a gilded statue.

Previous looks are then echoed with a provocative flair. Dresses are accented with boatnecks; slinky tops have plunging necklines and angular cut-outs along the waist. Make-up artist Valentina Li used lipstick in shades of ochre and emerald to hint at the kiss that catalysed Erika’s madness at the climax of the film. YVMIN, the jewellery designer behind the princess necklaces and earrings worn throughout, adopts the fragile qualities of ceramic to synthesise the narrative of vulnerability.

Lei and Jiang balance the dark overtones of the show with moments of reverie. Lei explains the importance of designing for the passionate, romantic, and playful. Small utilitarian handbags, pussybows, billowing maxi skirts, and outerwear sporting a varsity-style slouch recall ties and floral embellishments in previous collections. 

Beyond their hyper-feminine visage, Shushu/Tong are willing to teeter on deviance. Their collection is a call to indulge in the unusual and perturbed. With a zeal to match their own, let us be willing to learn.

Shushu/Tong Spring/Summer 2025