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From Loewe and Gucci to Valentino and Prada, the Year of the Horse activations have evolved into cultural engagement, theatrical retail, and long-term brand equity across Asia.
Sectors & Markets
12 February, 2026
Table of contents
2026’s Lunar New Year (Year of the Horse) has confirmed a shift in a structural way visible in previous periods. For luxury brands, the space is not just about seasonal narrative, but also about activated presence. The most effective executions this year were moved decisively offline, transforming the year into a testing ground for cultural localization, community engagement, and retail formats, rather than just campaign visibility.
Brands have increasingly opted not to overdo it on zodiac symbolism in favour of culturally informed experiences that can emotionally and physically engage consumers. This showcases an expanded recalibration in China and Southeast Asia. Its slowing discretionary demand has pushed the brands to prioritise quality interaction, brand immersion, and time spent over short-term sales.
Lunar New Year has become a period where maisons must demonstrate how well they understand domestic audiences, not just whether they can produce special-edition products in a timely manner.
Balenciaga showcased the Lunar New Year 2026 by embedding its activation within contemporary urban life with Shanghai as the main narrative setting. The campaign, shot by artist John Yuyi, featured actors and creators like Ma Sichun, Yang Chaoyue, and Chen Feiyu navigating everyday festive moments, from street food rituals to encounters with lantern-lit environments. It captured lived, spontaneous experiences which made the brand more positioned within the retro modern city culture.
The activation emphasised a sense of comfort and joy from community and cultural connection. It showed an evolved interpretation of togetherness at the festival through a cosmopolitan lens. This storytelling was seen in retail and product environments through subtle symbolic integration, such as lucky horseshoe charms, red accents, and seasonal reinterpretations of signature items like the Le City bag and Track sneakers.
Bottega Veneta went with the Lunar New Year 2026 through a cinematic activation focused on emotional intimacy and nostalgia. The brand’s campaign film, named ‘Sweet Honey,’ featured actors Sylvia Chang along with younger talents including Qu Yuyu, Zhang Kang Le, and Pan Zhanle, capturing quiet domestic moments and rituals around the family associated with the New Year. The narrative centred on memory, generational continuity, and connections, instead of overt zodiac symbolism.
The activation showcased the film as its primary storytelling medium, framing the maison within everyday cultural experiences rather than constructed luxury environments. This facilitated Bottega Veneta to embed within the lived cultural rhythms.
Burberry displayed Lunar New Year 2026 celebration by commemorating movement, togetherness, and reunion among family and friends with a campaign featuring ambassadors Chen Kun, Tang Wei, Wu Lei, and Zhang Jingyi. Shot across Shanghai, the film showcased the characters navigating the city’s rush hour in anticipation of reunion.
The activation was in the product and retail environments through reinterpretation of Burberry’s signature Equestrian Knight motif. Revised as watercolour and ink drawings and made into reality through metallic embroidery, applique techniques, and cross-stitch, the symbol combined the artistic expression of traditional China with the historic iconography of the brand.
The label also had craft-driven retail installations in partnership with hand-painted wallpaper house de Gournay and Chinese artist Liao Wenjun. Store windows across China and Asia-Pacific incorporated traditional Xuan paper and painted compositions.
Dior’s Lunar New Year 2026 was a symbolic and artistic expression rooted in couture craftsmanship and equestrian mythology. The reinterpretation of the horse was the dreamlike emblem central to the activation that is seen across the limited-edition creations of the brand. The Dior Grand Soir watch showcased a sculpted pink-gold horse within an intricate, jewel-encrusted landscape as a miniature narrative artwork.
The activation extended across the whole ecosystem through its “Lucky New Year” programme, which reimagined gifting rituals through couture-inspired packaging, limited-edition beauty and fragrance releases, and engraving services. The maison anchored on the theme of “Ride Your Dreams with Dior,” integrating equestrian symbolism and red-coloured visual codes into product presentation and retail experiences.
Lancôme celebrates the Lunar New Year 2026 via a cross-cultural artistic collaboration with the Xu Beihong Art Foundation, taking inspiration from iconic horse works of the renowned Chinese painter. The activation reinterpreted Run Off The Ground from Xu Beihong and galloping horse imagery on the campaign visuals and limited-edition packaging.
The campaign also extended from packaging to immersive physical environments through Lunar New Year pop-ups and experiential retail installations across Asia. The locations integrated art-inspired scenes, festive motifs, and interactive discovery zones featuring Lancôme’s main products. Visitors encounter the installations influenced by horse symbolism and artistic themes.
It reinforced the activation with ambassador-led storytelling, including appearances by global ambassador Ni Ni, and integrated campaign imagery. Iconic products like the Génifique Ultimate Serum and Absolue Soft Cream were presented in limited-edition art-driven packaging that combined Parisian and Chinese visual elements.
Loewe did its Lunar New Year 2026 activation with a storytelling ecosystem that combined animation, immersive physical environment, and heritage crafts in collaboration with the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, one of China’s historically significant animation institutions, and Lu Min, a recognised Qinhuai lantern craftsmanship inheritor. In Nanjing pop-up, they gave the short animated film, based on the classic 'Little Horse Crossing the River,’ as a physical form that focuses on a horse as protagonist, centering regional storytelling traditions and emotional themes of perseverance, growth, and self-discovery. Loewe positioned itself as a collaborator in the country’s festival.
The activation also includes spatial storytelling across key retail locations. The brand launched lantern installations and immersive visual merchandising at CASA Loewe Shanghai and other boutiques in major Chinese cities such as Shanghai. These installations transformed the animated narrative into physical form, enabling visitors to engage with campaigns beyond screens. The use of lanterns, a symbolic object for illumination, reunion, and celebration, made the brand’s presence within the New Year’s visual language, as well as maintaining the label’s artisanal and contemporary design codes.
Miu Miu approached the Lunar New Year with its cinematic activation, named The Encounter, that explores the themes of synchronicity, independence, and renewal. The campaign was directed by Chinese filmmaker Gu You and photographed by Li Sihao with singer Lexie Liu and actress Zhao Jinmai. The film follows protagonists encountering a white horse, symbolising freedom and embodied vitality.
The activation beyond film was the immersive physical environments across Shanghai through a new edition of Miu Miu Encounters, transporting the campaign into a city-wide experiential programme. It was well-seen on Donghu Road with a festive lighting installation, containing thousands of suspended lights arranged in braid motifs.
This spatial narrative continued across multiple cultural locations, including FUFU Shanghai, BLAZ, and Sugar Plum - each of them reinterpreting the campaign through curated installations.
Prada’s Lunar New Year 2026 activation was positioned as a cultural and intellectual construct. The brand centred its storytelling on modernity, human connection, and movement, drawn from contemporary cultural figures of China. The campaign showcased actors Yang Mi and Ma Long as cultural talkers. This brings the long-term strategy of using the Lunar New Year as a platform for dialogue by the maison. Visual storytelling subtly referenced the Horse via themes of balance and motion.
Prada went with an installation-led retail environment that blurred the line between store and exhibition. These spaces actually focused on increasing dwell time, atmosphere, and interpretation over transactional urgency across key Prada boutiques in China, supported by immersive window takeovers and spatial storytelling.
The maison used Lunar New Year 2026 to reaffirm that high-visibility cultural moments can help in reinforcing brand language without compromising creative consistency or conceptual rigour.
Valentino celebrated the Lunar New Year 2026 with an activation that illustrates how luxury brands are revising the festive period as a brand equity moment instead of a commercial campaign. The maison approached the Year of the Horse through emotion and abstraction with a touch of retro vibe, using fluidity, movement, and poetic expression rather than going with literal zodiac symbolism.
The campaign storytelling showcased the Horse into values that aligned with the brand’s core values, which are rhythm, inner strength, and grace. It allowed it to remain a culturally relevant one. The positioning also reinforced the offline strategy with spatial cues and subtle in-store activations across select boutiques in Mainland China and the Asia-Pacific region, which prioritises materiality, atmosphere, and pacing above the overdone festive decorations.
Strategically, this execution has signalled a broader shift - Lunar New Year is increasingly becoming a moment to strengthen brand coherence and client relationships instead of just a conversion-driven peak. It used cultural sensitivity and mood to leverage long-term brand equity.
Alongside major campaign-driven activations, several other luxury and modern brands marred this new year with culturally aligned retail storytelling, symbolic reinterpretations, and capsule collections. Brands such as Hermes, Acne Studios, Ami, Jil Sander, Longchamp, Ralph Lauren, and Louis Vuitton launched seasonal pieces incorporating horse motifs, equestrian symbolism, and heritage reds. They transformed the Lunar New Year into wearable storytelling with accessories, apparel, and leather goods.
Max Mara went with equestrian-inspired motifs integrated into signature silhouettes such as the Teddy Bear Coat, along with auspicious red tones and festive gifting elements that blended traditional symbolism with the brand’s refined visual identity. Emporio Armani similarly introduced an exclusive capsule spanning ready-to-wear, accessories and jewellery, reinterpreting the horse as a symbol of energy, passion and freedom.
Harry Winston launched a limited-edition rose gold timepiece featuring a sculpted horse rendered in red lacquer and mother-of-pearl marquetry, translating symbolic zodiac into a highly detailed artistic object rooted in horological savoir-faire.
Accessories brands including Furla and Pandora also participated through Lunar New Year capsules that integrated horse motifs, festive colour palettes and symbolic detailing across handbags, charms and jewellery.
Other brands embedded their activation in relevant environments. COS launched its Year of the Horse collection at Shanghai’s Tianhou Palace, situating the brand in a historic cultural site and balancing contemporary design with traditional architectural heritage.
Collectively, these capsule-led activations complemented larger narrative campaigns by showcasing Lunar New Year across cultural landmarks, retail networks, and visual merchandising spots. Through spatial storytelling, equestrian symbolism, and heritage-driven design, these labels ensured consistent cultural visibility during one of luxury’s most significant seasonal moments.
Cover Image: JING DAILY.