Ryan Lo

The best presentation was Hong Kong-born Ryan Lo’s dreamy and romantic collection. Sweetness and femininity are in Lo’s DNA: his collection was a progression on the narrative from last season when the knight in shining armour walked down the aisle with his princess.

In the 2019 rendition, the couple were pushing a baby in a pram as the era moved on a few centuries with Victoriana ribbon-bodice dresses worn with scallop hemmed coats, gloves and exaggerated feathery earmuffs and bearskin hats. And the prince was in a hussar uniform.

Rather more contemporary however were Lo’s lurex sweatpants and hoodies – lurex, shimmer and sparkle being a major for autumn – in a saccharine palette of sugar almond colours.

Doris Kath Chan

This year the shortlist of 10 designers presenting in the London College of Fashion’s MA show were all Chinese, and Doris Kath Chan, who was part of a group of four designers being showcased by Fashion Hong Kong (part of the HKTDC), was back at her alma mater – the former Central Saint Martin’s college building where she had studied – for this presentation. “I’ve been wanting to return for 10 years,” says Chan. “It is the first time I’ve showed my ready-to-wear in London, so it is meaningful to me as I loved this place and wanted to show what I learned here.”

Her style is typically vintage and structured, but for autumn she toned it down by adding feminine ruffles to the shoulders of a prim wool coat and pie crust frills and floppy jabots to shirts.

Huishan Zhang

London regular Huishan Zhang and Zhejiang-born talent Xuzhi Chen are two of the designers supported by JD.com.

Zhang has a fondness for couture style craft and retro silhouettes, and added ruffles and pearl embroidery this season. He is on point with some of his tiered voluminous silhouettes in duchess satin, a key trend on the catwalks as are his marabou feather dresses. A new flourish in the collection was the asymmetric peplum-cum-obi that cinched coats and glamorous pantsuits which was a nice touch.

Xuzhi Chen

Alongside his womenswear brand Xu Zhi, Chen launched menswear this season, a collection that emphasised his amazing fabric techniques and the romantic distortions that he creates, embellished by his signature braiding techniques. Chen was inspired by the characters he watched walking by in the street as he sat in a cafe window, and that feeling of an outsider resonates with him now that he lives between London and China.

He admits, “I now find it difficult to identify myself with one city as I am always moving between the two and that disconnection with connection may be affecting my designer’s role.”

Yuhan Wang

Newcomer Yuhan Wang was showing with Fashion East, for the second time, and they presented her artfully ruched and draped tea dresses in silk satins, lace and filmy floral prints with romantic picture hats.

“Softness is power – we don’t need to dress like men,” is Yuhan’s view on gender equality and her ultra-feminine aesthetic. The native of Weihai in China studied at Central Saint Martins and was runner up in the L’Oreal Young Talent Award before graduating with her MA last year.

Jamie Wei Huang

Jamie Wei Huang treads a different path from her peers, featuring casual college girl looks in her collection. Notably handcrafted knits, with the occasional flash of lurex, and roomy blousons are worn with asymmetric skirts and a preponderance of plaid and denim.

Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter