The launch ceremony for the 2026 Supai Qipao Supermodel Contest (Nantong leg) and the “Grand Beauty of Nantong” qipao panorama photo project took place on the afternoon of July 31, organized by the Supai Qipao Art Professional Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Mass Culture Society. According to the Jianghai Evening News, competition in the Nantong leg begins in mid-August, split into individual and team tracks.
The individual track is divided by age into youth, middle-aged and “sunset glow” groups, with contestants required to walk the runway in orthodox Supai qipao; the team track fields groups of 8 to 16 members. Every group awards champion, runner-up and third-place prizes, plus individual awards for best poise and best stage presence. Winners advance to the provincial finals. As one leg of Jiangsu Province’s first Supai Qipao Supermodel Contest, the Nantong leg follows the Huai’an leg, which opened on July 3 at the Huai’an Opera Museum on Zhongzhou Island; legs in Yancheng and Yangzhou are also in preparation, extending the competition province-wide in staged rounds.
The Nantong Qipao Culture Research Association, an important local platform for researching, promoting and displaying qipao culture, was founded last November with the motto “carry on the classics, promote aesthetics, empower life.” It works to renew qipao culture by sorting out its cultural lineage, hosting distinctive events and advancing the fusion of tradition and modernity. The Tongpai qipao (通派旗袍), the Nantong school, belongs to the Supai qipao cultural system: rooted in the city’s river-and-sea heritage, it inherits the gentle elegance of the Suzhou school while blending Nantong heritage crafts such as tie-dyeing and Shen embroidery (沈绣). Its cut is relaxed and dignified, its motifs drawn from river-and-sea scenery — a wardrobe calling card that pairs the refinement of the Jiangnan region with the breadth of the coastal city.
Shen embroidery’s Nantong roots run deep. In 1914 the industrialist and educator Zhang Jian invited the late-Qing embroidery master Shen Shou to the city to direct the newly founded Nantong Women’s Embroidery Workshop, making the city an early center for the craft’s modern transmission — Shen Shou’s method of shading thread like brushwork became the workshop’s signature. A century later, the Tongpai qipao still draws on that lineage, pairing Su-style poise with needlework whose finest pieces reproduce paintings thread by thread.
The same day, the association also launched the “Grand Beauty of Nantong” qipao panorama photo project, inviting qipao enthusiasts to frame the city’s river-and-sea charm in qipao portraits. Qi Qiulan, chair of the Supai Qipao Art Professional Committee and chairwoman of Xiuniang Silk Group, said at the earlier provincial launch that brand activities should be used as a lever to push forward the creative transformation and innovative development of Supai qipao art, bringing the elegant Suzhou-school qipao into the wider public eye. For the Nantong leg, that ambition is concrete: the contest gives regional qipao schools a province-wide stage, and the local Tongpai style — with its tie-dye and Shen embroidery — is a ready example of the diversity on display.