Meet the young Chinese designers who are redefining fashion

In the eyes of most Western consumers, China is the place where most of their clothes are made, but not designed. But the mainland's own nascent fashion scene is growing, as can be seen by the latest edition of Shanghai Fashion Week happening right now, where native designers are not hard to spot.

A new English book, Fashion China, written by an Irish-born fashion curator Gemma Williams (available at Page One stores as well as on Amazon) is attempting to document the country's vibrant, albeit fledgling, fashion design industry.

The book is a showcase of the hottest design talent working in China today. In creating this anthology of 41 designers who are toiling hard to establish the reputation of "Designed in China", Williams is not only raising awareness to Chinese fashion in the West, but also inside the mainland, a market that hitherto has shown a preference for international brands. Nevertheless, books like this, the Chinese fashion media and enterprising boutiques like Brand New China and Dong Liang are helping us realise that there is a lot of talent on our own shores.

Fashion China, Williams says, was inspired by her growing awareness of the influx of Chinese into London's fashion colleges while she worked there: "It was this really interesting synergy which inspired me to start to look at modern Chinese designers, particularly on a developing level."

She has always had an interest in fashion from emerging nations, but "what really appealed to me was the opportunity to delve deeply into a relatively unknown area of fashion and bring it to everyone's attention".