TORY BURCH and the rearticulation of female narratives

TORY BURCH is making another creative pivot — this time toward youth, modern ease, and a more current, intimate expression of femininity. In late March, the American designer brand — long associated with a preppy-bohemian sensibility — released a documentary series featuring its brand ambassador Song Yuqi, a Chinese singer-songwriter and music producer, alongside its Spring/Summer 2026 campaign. Released in three episodes, the short film traces the K-pop artist’s journey from her childhood in Beijing to her dance rehearsals in Seoul to the latest New York Fashion Week. Through vignettes of her daily life, it sketches a portrait of contemporary femininity. The trilogy is part of the brand’s Tory Stories — a newly launched video series featuring women from diverse backgrounds. After premiering on Bilibili, one of China’s largest video-sharing platforms and a hub for young creatives, the trilogy was rolled out across other social media platforms. At the time of writing, it had generated 143 million impressions, 35.5 million video views, and 5.72 million interactions across the brand’s own social media platforms in mainland China. The Jing Take The trilogy feels fresh in a fashion landscape saturated with campaigns and a sluggish luxury rebound — using intimate, unvarnished footage to trace a woman’s growth and self-discovery while subtly weaving in Spring/Summer pieces that slip into the cadence of everyday life. The decision to debut on the younger-facing Bilibili is itself a statement about the brand’s audience and cultural positioning in China. Women-centered, from the start Since founding her eponymous label in 2004 out of a New York boutique, Tory Burch has positioned her brand as a vehicle for women's advancement. In 2009, she launched the Tory Burch Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing women's economic power. Through its Fellowship program, the Foundation has supported thousands of female entrepreneurs in the US by providing access to capital, education, and community resources. Last year, Tory Burch set a new target: to generate more than $1 billion in economic impact through women entrepreneurs by 2030. That commitment has also extended to China, where the brand has partnered with the China Women’s Development Foundation on the Dream Forward Women Empowerment Special Program — supporting women artisans in traditional craftsmanship and advancing female entrepreneurship in local communities through training and funding. Starting with Li brocade in Hainan before expanding to Zhuang brocade in Guangxi and rattan weaving in Sichuan, the brand has helped more than 3,600 women across China forge new career paths since 2023, while also contributing to the preservation of traditional textile and handicraft heritage. The program is funded in part by proceeds from the brand's Embrace Ambition bracelet. While the brand has long expressed that commitment through founder vision, philanthropy, and institutional support, the latest campaign makes it more visible and palpable by grounding it in a young woman’s life — her dreams, her effort, her vision for the future. The result is a portrait of how a woman comes into her own, rather than a declaration of feminist values. A new platform strategy Beyond its female-focused ethos, the brand’s formal entry into Bilibili is another notable move. Founded in 2009 as an ACG platform, Bilibili has evolved into a video-sharing cultural hub popular with millennials and Gen Z for its long-form videos, user-generated content, and livestreams — with more than 80% of users born between 1990 and 2009. According to its Q4 2025 performance report, the platform counted 113 million daily active users, with the average user age rising to 26 in 2025. It is well-positioned to become a home for more original, distinctive content attuned to the emotional and cultural currents of today. Over the past few years, luxury brands and independent boutiques alike have recognized the power of storytelling and its pull on younger consumers. Bilibili stands out within China’s social media ecosystem for enabling authentic, and at times raw, content that resonates with that audience. Increasingly, brands have turned to the platform — launching official accounts or collaborating with KOLs to create brand content — to engage the next generation of luxury buyers. TORY BURCH’s arrival on Bilibili reflects a broader effort to build a full-spectrum social media presence in China, having already launched on WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote), and Douyin. The move also complements an offline footprint spanning roughly 100 stores across the country. Airing an intimate personal story on a youth-oriented platform renders the brand’s message more immediate and emotionally resonant — a departure from the polished, often distant language of traditional advertising. Younger design language In the second episode, the lens turns to Song in conversation with Tory Burch backstage at the label’s Fall/Winter 2026 runway show. She reflects on what fashion and music share: both demand total creative commitment. The latest two collections lean into tailored ease: polo-style cardigans in fine fabrics, relaxed corduroy trousers, an ethereal draped polka-dot dress, a pleated skirt, a piped blazer, a distressed leather jacket. The palette stays understated yet joyful. Together, the pieces balance vintage elegance with everyday wearability. While carrying forward Tory Burch’s long-running vision to create “chic, beautifully made pieces” for women, the new collections point to a younger, more diverse design language — one suited to the many settings a woman navigates in a day. Throughout the film, Song carries pieces including the sleek, sculpted Charlie and Romy bags and wears the Hank sneakers across dance rehearsals, travel, fashion week, and everyday moments — revealing the brand’s adaptability to a fast-moving lifestyle. At New York Fashion Week, the brand was a standout. Its take on “undone femininity and subtle beauty” — a modern reworking of its signature classics — gained strong social media traction. On TikTok, the label achieved an engagement score of 3.6 million, a rise of more than 100% from the previous season. This latest campaign suggests a subtle but meaningful shift in how Tory Burch expresses ideas about women and fashion. The brand is moving in three directions at once: toward richer, more personal storytelling that captures women’s lived experience; a stronger presence on younger-facing platforms; and a design language that encapsulates undone femininity — less polished, more relaxed, and more open to imperfection. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

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TORY BURCH and the rearticulation of female narratives