"There really is no barrier any more," says Min. "It's beautiful that some Western customers say, 'It's Chinese but it's so modern and relevant to me.' "

For the first time in recent history, there is a social and economic advantage to being a Chinese designer – a shift perhaps comparable to the emergence of Japanese designers in the 1980s as Japan consolidated its position as an essential engine of global technology and manufacturing.

The science of fashion

"Traditionally with tailored apparel, the Italians made it with love as an art form, but the Chinese approach things a little differently," says Stuart McCullough, chief executive of Australian Wool Innovation, which owns The Woolmark Company. "They see it as a science, they do it beautifully and they've certainly been very good at catching up quickly."

The Woolmark Company recently commissioned six of the country's most exciting designers to create collections made from Australian merino wool for an event late last month celebrating Australia's wool trade with China, which began in the early 20th century and today accounts for 80 per cent of global sales. The fabrics they used were made by Woolmark's manufacturing partners in China.

Fashion designer Min Liu's label Ms Min is sold by the world's top retailers. Supplied

Min Liu, Yang Li, Uma Wang, Victor Zhu, Ban Xiaoxue and Xu Zhi presented their ranges at a gala dinner at the Fosun Foundation (centrepiece of the Bund Finance Centre), for which fashion film director Tim Richardson created a four-minute film starring supermodel Xiao Wen Ju.

The collections will be on sale at the Lane Crawford flagship in Shanghai and globally through Lane Crawford online.


"These phenomenal designers are just the start of the start," says McCullough. "It's only a short matter of time before we have some real international superstars home-grown in China."

The up-and-coming designers are as cosmopolitan as they are creative. Take Min, who graduated from the London College of Fashion in 2007 before working in Amsterdam at Viktor & Rolf then moving to Xiamen and launching Ms Min, which was shortlisted for the coveted LVMH Prize for young fashion designers in 2016. Or Yang Li, born in Beijing, raised in Perth, trained in Antwerp, based in London – and described by The Business of Fashion as "one of the most relevant young brands in the world".

Film still shows Uma Wang worn by Xiao Wen Ju. Supplied

Uma Wang, a protégé of the late Vogue Italia editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani, trained at the Chinese Textile University in Shanghai and Central Saint Martins in London before launching her eponymous brand in 2009 and showing it during fashion weeks in London, Shanghai, Milan and Paris, where she presents twice a year.

On a crisp autumn afternoon in her studio on Hong Mei Road in Shanghai, Wang's cat Umi weaves its way around my legs – one of four in Shanghai, two in Milan and two in Paris providing feline evidence of the peripatetic lifestyle she leads in order to build her brand into a global powerhouse.

"At the moment everything in China is going fast in a positive way and all the international media are looking at us, so it is a good time to show what we are capable of doing," she says.

The popularity of designers like Wang is fuelled in part by the growing influence of Chinese consumers. They account for $US7.4 billion ($10.4 billion) in annual spending on luxury goods, representing almost a third of the global luxury market, according to a 2017 McKinsey report. Key Chinese opinion leaders, including first lady Peng Liyuan, who is vocal about exclusively wearing Chinese fashion, are playing a crucial role in putting domestic designer brands front of mind.

Ban Xiaoxue with his Australian merino wool collection at the Woolmark show in Shanghai. Henry Nee


"There is a new generation of Chinese designers who are becoming very mature, modern and internationally minded, so it makes it very natural that people would be interested in their work," says Vogue China editor-in-chief Angelica Cheung.

On the other hand, to young, worldly and social media-savvy Chinese consumers, international brands like Gucci and Chanel have become just another option.

"Fashion customers are more sophisticated, they have a strong purchasing power but they don't look just at big brands and big names; they accept also the young Chinese designers and appreciate this new fashion," says Wang.

For Yang Li, who shows in Paris and has his clothes made in Italy, this means creating a new company in China working with local manufacturing and finance partners – with a view to conquering the Chinese market in a homecoming of sorts.

Xu Zhi's eponymous label, modelled by Xiao Wen Ju. Supplied

"Some Chinese designers focus only on the domestic market because it's big enough to be focused on just by itself, but my dream is to make a Chinese-faced and internationally recognised designer brand," he says. "You have to aim high, I guess."

The writer travelled to Shanghai as a guest of Woolmark.

Victor Zhu and creations from his label VMajor at Woolmark's event. Henry Nee