The Final Fittings: A Look Inside the Preparations for Fashion Week Asia

A week before the 2026 Fashion Week Asia shows, Vogue took a peek at designers’ collections before they hit the runway.

By the time the Vogue team arrives at Rajo Laurel’s atelierAtelierThe French word for workshop, describing the studio where a designer's garments are cut, fitted, and finished by hand. In couture, the atelier is the heart of the house, homeGo to Atelier Glossary, a little over a week before his Fashion Week Asia Gala show, the designer and his team of tailors and stylists have hit a flow state. Blink, and you’d miss it: A model glides in, walks to a track of Laurel’s choice, critiques and adjustments are made, and then they’re already on to the next look.

“I think this might be better in another fabric,” the head stylist comments on one piece.

“Well, I can always make it. We still have a week,” Rajo is quick to respond, before abruptly breaking out into laughter. “Naks!”

High tension as the situation should be, in the final preparations before his eras-spanning show titled “Archivo,” the air at his studio is light and ringing with laughter.

This vibrancy carried over into the fittings over the next six days, as local and regional designers met for the first time in Marriott function rooms and Palacio de Memoria for their own final fittings, chatting about shared techniques and visual languages, and learning something new from one another.

“Do you work with mud dye?” I overhear Kilomet109’s Thao Vu ask Taiwanese veteran designer Sophie Hong, who smiles wide as she answers, “Yes!”

Below, Vogue goes inside the Fashion Week Asia fittings with photographers Kim Santos and Hallvard Cano, capturing designers at work, models in a flurry, and the final touches on each collection.