When the British Fashion Council polled 500 of the country’s top designers ahead of the Brexit vote, 90 per cent said they intended to vote Remain. So it is fair to say that unease stalked the studios and showrooms of London on June 23, last year, when the nation voted to leave the European Union. But as if to anticipate the blow that was coming, some of the country’s most promising designers and brand managers met with executives from Chinese online platform JD.com on the day before the referendum. And while the atmosphere in London was tense, there was a sense of hope at the meeting that a vote for Brexit needn’t be a death blow for British fashion.

Although Brexit is worrying for the many brands that are profoundly entangled with European partners, it was never going to make one of the most international industries in multicultural London slam its doors on the world. And in the nine months since the Brexit vote, British fashion’s foreign outlook has not only grown, it has also been increasingly trained in one direction.

With China’s fashion industry expanding at an impressive rate, it is no surprise that a number of countries want in on the action. But few are putting in quite as much effort as Britain, a country that has ramped up the hard sell on both its luxury brands and its independent designers.

However, this relationship goes deeper than trade, beginning when young Chinese fashion designers first started coming to Britain to study. In any artistic industry, the culture in which you spend your formative years has a profound influence on your future output, and an unusually high proportion of China’s most fêted young designers — those men and women who are changing the local fashion industry from a place where clothes are made to one where they are designed — studied at Central Saint Martins (CSM) in London.

Masha Ma, Uma Wang, Nicole Zhang and Huishan Zhang, to name but a few, graduated from the design school, known for having shaped the most brilliant minds in the industry. That means the increasingly popular Chinese fashion aesthetic has, to an extent, been influenced by Britain.

“Living and learning in England really inspired me,” says Ma, who launched her eponymous label in 2008 and garnered instant attention for her futuristic, avant-garde collections. “I think my designs do have a distinctive London aesthetic and studying at Central Saint Martins really shaped me as a designer – not only the recognition and understanding of the fashion, but also the exploration and researching of my personal universe. It was both inspiring and stressful. [Late CSM professor] Louise Wilson’s sacrifice and perseverance in fashion were most impressive; she taught me how to express cultural diversity through the language of clothing.”

It was also in London that Ma got her first big break – her graduate collection was selected to show at Vauxhall Fashion Scout during London Fashion Week, in 2010, and was later purchased by B store.

“Living between Beijing and London gave me a rebellious edge, which was both exciting and extreme,” she says. “It also showed me China more clearly, and made me appreciate the inherited culture and techniques from China while breaking through into the new era.”

Born and raised in Qingdao, Shandong province, Huishan Zhang has said that his feminine, delicately cut designs are influenced by his Chinese heritage, despite having lived outside of the country for at least half of each year since the age of 17. He may place a strong emphasis on Chinese craftsmanship, but Zhang has also been wholeheartedly embraced by London.

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