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As the Lunar New Year ushers in the Fire Horse, 2026 is already shaping up to be a year where cultural symbolism and commercial strategy converge with brands tapping into zodiac-inspired symbolism and cultural narratives in their own design-led releases aimed at stimulating seasonal demand. This season sees some luxury houses with equestrian heritage leaning into their roots while others are opting to showcase vivid Fire Horse palettes, unveiling experiential retail pop-ups and investing in localised storytelling to reconnect with consumers and reignite momentum after what was a challenging 2025 for some luxury brands.

While consumer confidence in China remains under pressure amid deflationary concerns, luxury brands are increasingly relying on culturally anchored seasonal opportunities such as the Lunar New Year to stimulate discretionary spending and sustain visibility amid a cautious retail environment. The season’s campaigns, capsule collections and commercial pop-ups are leveraging cultural resonance by translating equestrian heritage and zodiac symbolism into product design and exclusive releases — a strategy seen across fashion, watches, spirits and other luxury categories that strengthens brand affinity and differentiates seasonal offers on store shelves this year.

Equestrian Heritage as a Performance Driver

Brands with authentic ties to equestrian culture are well-positioned to capitalise on the Year of the Horse and leverage equestrian symbolism. Hermès — whose roots trace back to saddle‑making — anchored its Spring/Summer 2026 Hermès Spring-Summer 2026 Objects’ — with the theme of “Venture Beyond” — offering horse‑inspired design details and reinterpretations of functional equestrian elements.

Hermès Women’s Spring/Summer 2026 runway collection also highlighted the Maison’s equestrian heritage while venturing into new aesthetic territory. Every quilted jacket, strap detail and saddle-inspired curve echoed the house’s roots in leatherwork and riding gear, translating functional craftsmanship into contemporary silhouettes alongside movement associated with the rider at the heart of Hermès’ identity.

Burberry took its Knight motif — itself born from the winning entry of a public competition to design a logo for the house in 1901 — and reimagined it in a painterly, red‑toned Year of the Horse capsule that wove together Burberry’s own heritage with modern storytelling for the Chinese market.

The collection — titled Burberry Year of the Horse or “新禧贺岁”— brought the Knight to life in fluid, ink-and-watercolour-inspired sketches, rendered across garments with metallic embroidery, cross-stitch and appliqué details. The horse motif reinforced themes of protection and Burberry’s forward-looking spirit while the colour red dominated the palette, symbolising luck and prosperity — from scarves to daywear in a new red Burberry Check. Outerwear pieces such as the Berryhill car coat and Floriston quilted jacket in iridescent nylon are complemented by accessories, bags and small leather goods featuring the seasonal Knight, creating a cohesive, gift-ready capsule collection.

Read More: 10 Exclusive Lunar New Year 2026 Capsule Collections

Leveraging Narratives to Push Strategic Brand Initiatives

Besides Hermès and Burberry, brands that have adopted equestrian motifs and emblems such as Gucci and Longchamp are reinterpreting heritage codes by unveiling new iterations of their saddle-inspired bags and “horse bit” hardware. Gucci, for example, has revisited its archival equestrian vocabulary in recent collections with two standout leather goods. The Gucci Softbit handbag revisits the half Horsebit detail first introduced in the 1970s — now applied to a relaxed silhouette available in two sizes — with the detail also appearing in bright faux-fur versions on the Autumn/Winter 2025 runway. The Gucci 73 draws on an archival bucket bag from 1973, featuring a single-ring Horsebit instead of the traditional double-ring design, combining the House’s equestrian heritage with subtle modifications.

The Year of the Horse provides a natural opportunity for Gucci to deliver new reinterpretations of signature bags, leaning on familiar archival pieces of the Horsebit to deliver designs that longstanding consumers already know and love, rather than completely reinventing the wheel.

At the same time, it sets the stage for the rest of 2026, offering the House a platform to extend and evolve the Horsebit across future adaptations and seasonal releases. This also taps into the rising popularity of medium-sized bags as luxury brands shift away from both micro and oversized bags, favoring the “medium bag” as a practical, day-to-night choice.

Other houses have taken bespoke approaches to the Year of the Horse narrative. Prada, for example, built an entire campaign around a geometric red Fire Horse character — the Prada Triangle Fire Horse. The campaign places the Fire Horse at the centre of immersive experiences — from ephemeral monolithic installations in Shanghai IFC Mall to Prada Rong Zhai — where the historic 1918 villa was transformed into an interactive Fire Horse Fair.

Prada also activated the narrative through a series of mapped projections and playful installations across Shanghai and Chengdu, merging physical engagement with cultural storytelling. High-profile ambassadors Yang Mi and Olympic champion Ma Long embody the qualities of courage and dynamism associated with the Fire Horse, wearing key pieces from the Prada Spring/Summer 2026 collection and bridging fashion with cultural ritual.

Similarly, Alexander McQueen launched a Shanghai-focused campaign that channels movement and refinement, reinforcing narrative continuity across fashion and local cultural landscapes — while highlighting the importance of place-specific storytelling during Lunar New Year.

Experience‑Driven Retail as a Commercial Opportunity

Luxury houses are increasingly recognising that experiences — not just products — are what draw customers after years of digital overload. Capsule launches, cultural installations and activation events are giving consumers tangible ways to connect with brands. Loewe has staged lantern installations across Shanghai, Chengdu and Nanjing, turning public spaces into immersive brand experiences that mirror festive celebrations.

At a time when economic pressures are reshaping consumer behaviour, offline spectacle and sensory engagement help luxury distinguish itself from fast fashion and digital‑only interactions. Enter the return of physical spaces and experiential retail. Moving away from digital fatigue, brands like Celine, Fendi Prada are hosting immersive offline spectacles including the aforementioned “The Fire Horse Fair” at Shanghai’s Rong Zhai, to connect with consumers.

Using The “Fire Horse” Colour Palette To Drive Localised Demand

The Chinese luxury market is maturing, requiring brands to compete for market share through cultural credibility rather than simple volume growth. Brands are paying attention to the buying power of the Chinese market. This extends beyond China to other regions that share similar cultures including Chinese consumers in Southeast Asia. Against this backdrop, brands are integrating the Fire Horse’s symbolic palette into product releases and seasonal campaigns, using colour and design to signal cultural awareness and connect with discerning Chinese consumers. The Fire Horse’s auspicious colours such as rich reds, deep oxblood and vibrant pinks appear across luxury collections, aligning with Chinese cultural symbolism for prosperity and good fortune. The trends sees luxury spirits as Hennessy and Martell releasing their limited-edition bottles in metallic copper and red to celebrate the theme. 

Read More: 8 Lunar New Year Alcohol Releases to Celebrate the Year of the Horse

Brands are increasingly partnering with local talent to deepen cultural resonance in their seasonal releases. For Lunar New Year 2026, Rémy Martin commissioned Chinese contemporary artist Xue Song to reinterpret the house’s Centaur emblem, using his collage-based style to position both the Centaur and the zodiac horse as symbols of momentum and direction, while giving the motif a contemporary Chinese perspective.

Royal Salute worked with Shenzhen-born, New York-based illustrator Feifei Ruan to bring the “Ignite the New Year” theme to life, incorporating lanterns, firecrackers and plum blossoms to link traditional Lunar New Year imagery with the brand’s Scotch heritage. Louis XIII continued its collaboration with papercut artist Liu Lihong, integrating traditional Chinese stamp techniques and zodiac motifs into its Lunar New Year coffret, reinforcing the ceremonial and cultural significance of gifting.

Read More: Year of the Horse Watches to Usher in the 2026 Lunar New Year

Luxury watches are also adopting the Fire Horse’s colour palette with limited‑edition releases by Longines and Arnold & Sons showcasing their own iterations of the Fire Horse motif.  Limited to 2,026 pieces, the limited edition Lunar New Year Longines watch centres its zodiac reference — not on the dial but on the movement — where the gilt rotor is engraved with a galloping horse motif adapted from “Galloping Horse”, a celebrated work by modern Chinese painter Peon Xu, realised in collaboration with the Peon Art Museum.  Arnold & Son’s Perpetual Moon 41.5 Red Gold “Year of the Horse” watch features a nocturnal dial scene built on a base of black aventurine glass. At the centre is a horse rendered in hand-engraved red gold rearing on a hilltop — its form defined by detailed engraving across the body, mane and limbs. This limited edition of eight pieces continues the Manufacture’s Chinese zodiac series while placing equal emphasis on métiers d’art and astronomical precision.

In fashion, LOEWE joined forces with the Shanghai Animation Film Studio to create an animated short inspired by Peng Wenxi’s classic fable “Little Horse Crossing the River”. The film follows a young horse on a journey to fetch lanterns for the village, encountering a deer, a platypus and brand ambassador Wang Yibo along the way. Through this narrative, LOEWE highlights traditional Chinese animation techniques and literary heritage, translating the spirit of the Year of the Horse into a contemporary fashion campaign. The collaboration is complemented by a Lunar New Year-inspired collection featuring horse-inspired details across signature bags such as the Puzzle and Amazona 31 alongside leather overshirts, charms and tassels as well as large-scale lantern installations in Shanghai, Chengdu and Nanjing that merge the brand’s aesthetic codes with regional festive traditions.

Read More: The Longines Equestrian Pocket Watch Horses Trio 1911

Competing with Homegrown Talent

International brands recognise that failing to respond to shifting market trends opens the door for local players to capture market share. Homegrown brands such as Laopu Gold and Songmont are gaining momentum, challenging established notions of luxury and pushing global brands to strengthen their local storytelling. Laopu Gold — referred to as the “Hermès of gold” — is a leading Chinese jewellery house renowned for its use of ancient handcrafted techniques to create high-end, heritage-inspired pieces. Founded in 2013, Songmont has emerged as a pioneering brand in experiential bag design. Drawing inspiration from the “rich cultural heritage of the Orient”, the brand integrates timeless aesthetics and traditional wisdom into each product. By meticulously refining every detail and co-creating designs with users, Songmont produces bags that resonate with modern customer needs. This growing regional competition underscores the need for international luxury brands to adapt their strategies to deliver locally resonant storytelling and culturally informed product offerings. By doing so, they can appeal to discerning local consumers and simultaneously compete effectively in a market where cultural credibility increasingly drives purchasing decisions.

Read More: A. Lange & Söhne Gallops Into the Lunar New Year With Festive Campaign

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This far north in Finland, the morning air is laden with cold, even in May. The weather is unpredictable, especially in the Gulf of Bothnia where the town of Jakobstad (Pietarsaari in Finnish) sits on a latitude of 63° 40’N. On this particular morning, a team of shipyard workers sit anxiously studying the movement of the thin clouds that hover above the bay, wondering if the conditions will be right for their slated mission.

“For sure, the weather is an important factor on a day like this,” says Kim Sundkvist, Project Manager at Nautor Swan, one of the world’s premier sailing boat builders and certainly the most famous one in the upper latitudes. From Jakobstad, you could reach the Arctic Circle (66° 34’N) by lunchtime if you started driving early in the morning.

“We can’t have too much wind, which was actually the case two days ago,” he notes, as the shipyard prepares its second attempt to launch the first Swan 128, named BeCool.

The massive crane, one of Havator’s biggest, can lift 600 tonnes and needs to be booked months in advance as it’s one of the only models in the Nordic region that can handle such a job.

The different parts of the lattice boom crawler crane had arrived on multiple lorries and been assembled onsite in preparation for the job of taking the 128ft-long hull from its cradle, hoisting it into the morning sky, over concrete and into the sea.

“One thing that gets the adrenaline going is when the boat is lifted off the build cradle,” he says. “We make a lot of calculations, so the slings are well positioned on the crane and it’s well balanced. However, it’s still exciting to see whether we got our calculations right!”

The slings are placed in their appointed position. The crane operator — having raised the massive lattice boom — awaits the crew on the deck to fasten the lifting brace. The final check is done: heads nod, walkie talkies give the signal. It’s time and the lifting of the 39 metre hull begins.

DESIGN, PLUG AND MOULD (2022-23)

Launch day was among the latter landmarks in the build story of the first Swan 128. The model features naval architecture by veteran Germàn Frers — who has designed for Swan since 1981 — while Lucio Micheletti handled deck and coachroof styling, with Misa Poggi designing the interiors.

To tell a fuller story of what goes into building a Swan 128, we look back at the design and build process, which in this case stemmed from a Swan 98 owner looking for a bigger yacht. “This owner was very much involved in the design process, mainly on the general arrangements and the exterior,” Sundkvist says. “He had input on how he would like to see the boat.”

The design process went through what Sundkvist describes as a ‘couple of loops’, as a hull was designed and provisional interior layouts drawn, before additions such as the requirement of a laundry room added 4 feet to the original 124-foot hull.

As it was the first model of an all-carbon yacht, a mould was required. In fact, Nautor Swan is one of the few shipyards in the world able to build a full-carbon mould of this size. (In contrast, no mould was needed for the aluminium hull built in the Netherlands for Swan’s upcoming Alloy 44, which is being finished in Italy and scheduled to debut in 2028.)

In June 2022, half a year since initial discussions and designs began, Nautor Swan began producing the largely wooden plug for the Swan 128 mould at its plug-and-mould facility in the small village of Kållby, about a 15-minute drive southeast of the shipyard’s main Boatbuilding Technology Center (BTC) in Jakobstad.

As the base shape for the mould, the plug is built upside-down or ‘bottom up’ and is eventually sanded and laminated to become vacuum tight. The full-carbon mould was then created by laying up and infusing a monolithic full carbon laminate over the plug.

The plug-and-mould process continued through January 2023, when the still-upside-down plug and mould, as well as external supports, were transported by road to the BTC at the end of the month.

In their new home in Jakobstad, the plug-and-mould structure was rotated 180 degrees until it was the ‘right way up’, before the mould was then separated from the plug in two halves on February 8, 2023. (Prepared for hull one, the mould was also used later for the second Swan 128, which is scheduled to launch in May 2026.)

HULL AND DECK (2023)

Like all Maxi Swans, the Swan 128 is built in full carbon and requires multiple steps, starting with lamination of the hull shell. Both hull and deck manufacturing is based on Sprint© with carbon prepreg fabrics and epoxy resin in a sandwich featuring Corecell core. All materials are engineered and produced by Gurit.

The hull and deck manufacturing process includes a two-stage post-curing process in a digitally controlled oven for about 20 hours, with a characteristic temperature curve up to 90°C, then a final structural assembly post-cure.

With the cured hull still in the mould, Swan installed carbon bulkheads, girders, keel floors, topside stringers and other parts of the internal skeleton. Once the hull structure was effectively self-supporting, it was ‘de-moulded’ in August 2023, with the mould halves removed, like they were earlier from the wooden plug.

In November 2023, the fully faired, pinkish hull was transported by lorry to the paint shed, where it received what Sundkvist describes as the blue ‘show coat’, which allowed imperfections to be viewed and corrected before the final paint job about 10 months later.

OUTFITTING (2024)

In early 2024, Nautor Swan began outfitting the hull, focusing initially on tanks, batteries, piping and cabling. In February, the carbon deck was carefully lowered onto the hull for ‘dry fitting’, before being lifted off and moved back beside the hull, where teams continued to work on it.

By March, the team had started installing furniture and joinery in the hull, with Nautor Swan having started preparing all woodwork onsite from mid-2023.

Starting from the ends of the hull — to give more time for teams to work on the engine room below the saloon — the installation of all wooden components took about six months. This period of the build is about efficiency and coordination, as many teams are working inside and outside the boat at the same time.

In parallel, Nautor Swan was working on completing much of the deck and coachroof structure, which was being assembled beside the hull. Work included laying it with teak, installing winches and sail handling systems, and painting.

There was also a lot happening outside Finland, with North Sails responsible for the yacht’s sails including a 444-square-metre main sail, 369-square-metre fore triangle, a 402-square-metre jib and a 1,180-square-metre asymmetric spinnaker.

Southern Spars was busy producing the 57-metre mast tube in New Zealand and the 18 metre furling boom in Spain, both in preparation for shipping to Finland, while the Future Fibres rigging, including AEROsix laterals and ECsix fore and aft stays, was being produced in Sri Lanka.

The enormous mast was eventually transported from New Zealand to Belgium as deck cargo on a ‘fruit ship’, Sundkvist explains, before it was reloaded onto another ship to the Jakobstad port, close to the Nautor Swan facility.

Back in Jakobstad, the Swan 128’s sanded-down hull was moved in September 2024 to the paint shed, where it was sprayed with its final base coat and a clear coat on top before returning to its shed.

On October 11, the almost-complete deck was fitted and glued to the hull, a milestone for the project, with the subsequent period referred to as ‘after deck’.

AFTER DECK (2025)

In the final months ahead of the launch, work continued inside and outside the boat, with power systems tested in the first quarter of 2025.

To prepare for installation of the keel, the hull was then moved outside in April 2025 to be lifted by two cranes onto a much-higher support structure and returned to its shed on the same day.

After all, the enormous telescopic keel on the Swan 128 gives the boat a draft ranging from 4.4 metres up to 6.7 metres when down — that’s 22 feet below the water. 

“The draft is quite impressive,” smiles Sundkvist, who explains that the keel is the biggest built by its supplier to date. The weight of the ballast – telescopic keel, lead bulb and fins — totals almost 35 tonnes.

As well as the keel, the garage door was also installed, showcasing the BeCool movie typeface emblazoned in gold and silver. Antifouling work followed, while the shipyard fine-tuned all systems and components ahead of the scheduled launch date in May.

With one attempted launch already scuppered by bad weather, everyone involved was hoping for the best. “I think everybody put it in their evening prayers,” Sundkvist notes with a chuckle.

On May 16, 2025, all went smoothly, as the crane lifted the Swan 128 on two sets of orange slings before turning 180 degrees and lowering the hull into Nautor Swan’s specially designed water ‘pit’.

Days later, the high modulus mast tube was stepped, which was another major, weather-permitting operation, albeit one requiring a slightly lighter but almost-as-tall Havator crane.

An impressive sight, the mast towers an impressive 57 metres above the design waterline. Add in the nearly 3-metre lightning spike (and burgee pole) and the Swan 128’s air draft is close to 60 metres, making the yacht more than 50 percent taller than it is long. And that’s just above the water.

With the boom and rigging also fitted, engine trials then took place in the Gulf of Bothnia, before the team awaited a calm day for the sails to be fitted offshore, which allows the boat plenty of room to manoeuvre during what can be a lengthy process the first time. Once everything was set, BeCool’s extensive sea trials period commenced, and the first photos of the boat sailing were taken and shared around the world.

After relocating to Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, BeCool was well used by her active owner over the summer before the first Swan 128 headed north for its world premiere at the 34th Monaco Yacht Show in late September. Sundkvist, for one, was delighted to see BeCool in such a spectacular setting. “It’s not every day you get to visit Monaco,” he smiles, as he recalls the yacht’s global debut. “It was my third time to the show, and it was nice to see the boat in her element.”

After Monaco, BeCool headed west along France’s south coast to participate in Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. This year, her schedule includes an Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean, where she’s signed up for the St Barths Bucket Regatta (March 12 to 15), before returning to Europe for the summer.

In September, Porto Cervo — the beating heart of Costa Smeralda — hosts both the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and Rolex Swan Cup, with the latter gearing up to be a momentous edition with Nautor Swan celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

Before then, the shipyard’s activities include preparing for the launch and delivery of the second Swan 128, which features the same hull, deck, mast and boom designs used for BeCool, but with hybrid propulsion and a slightly amended sail plan. Let’s all pray for good weather.

Words: Sam Coleman & John Higginson; Photos: Nautor Swan

nautorswan.com

This article was first seen on YACHT STYLE

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