LONDON — The fall 2025 edition of London Fashion Week might have several buzzy names missing, but that hasn’t stopped Chinese fashion players from seeing the showcase as the gateway to global influence, a way to raise their profiles and forge new partnerships.
Bora Aksu and Mark Fast, who show in London season after season, have been building impressive retail networks in China via partnerships with Maryling, a Shenzhen-based label with Italian roots.
Designer Huishan Zhang has been making the London-China dynamic work for the past decade. He has a studio in Qingdao, a coastal city in Northern China, that enables him to turn around wholesale and bespoke orders at speed.
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His store on London’s Mount Street has outlived many of its neighbors, including Nicholas Kirkwood, Christopher Kane, Roksanda Ilinčić and Matchesfashion, and continues to serve as his window on the world.
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The Central Saint Martins-trained designer has also made an annual tradition of hosting a Chinese New Year dinner with his actor, musician and creative friends in London. Every year he brings fashion, food and traditional culture together at China Tang at the Dorchester.
“Our flagship store is here, and we have a really strong client base who expects to see our collections on the runway. Our VIP clients love to attend the show, so regardless of what happens in the schedule, we want to deliver for our clients and our brand community. It is also important for us to support the London community that has been our home for so long, especially this season, as we also had a big pop-up in Selfridges,” Zhang said.
Kent & Curwen’s return to the schedule has been supported by the brand’s current Chinese owner, the Guangzhou-based Biemlofen, a publicly traded clothing retailer founded in 2003 by Xie Bingzheng. The company was formerly known as Biem.L.Fdlkk.
Since acquiring Kent & Curwen and Cerruti 1881 in 2023, Biemlofen has hired Daniel Kearns as creative director of both brands. Kearns had previously served as creative director at Kent & Curwen from 2016 to 2021 when David Beckham was involved with the brand.
Tina Hu, general manager of Kent & Curwen and Cerruti 1881 at Biemlofen, said Kent & Curwen has made steady progress in both domestic and international markets through a comprehensive brand rejuvenation process.
In 2024, Kent & Curwen opened five stores, including one at the Venetian Hotel in Macau.
Hu said plans are in place to expand the brand to more top-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu. She added that staging shows at London Fashion Week are helping the brand gain “significant global awareness.”
From a group perspective, Kent & Curwen is helping Biemlofen attract a younger and more fashion-savvy audience.
“As a British heritage brand, Kent & Curwen complements the group in terms of brand influence and popularity, further propelling the company’s diversification, internationalization and high-end strategies, and laying the foundation for our vision to become a global luxury group,” Hu said.
Biemlofen’s core business is in golf clothing, with a 70 percent-plus market share in China. It has an ongoing relationship with the Chinese national golf team and dressed it for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The company also owns the Chinese travel and vacation apparel brand Carnaval De Venise.
The company has more than 1,200 stores in China, with 609 of them under direct operation.
Fellow Guangzhou-based label Mithridate is committed to London Fashion Week, too.
Founded in 2018 and named after Mithridates VI, the ancient King of Pontus, the brand last month revealed ambitious plans to rebrand. It started by tapping British designer Daniel Fletcher as creative director.
Last September, the brand showed as part of the London Fashion Week official calendar for the first time. Before that, it hosted several off-schedule shows in London.
Mithridate founder Tina Jiang said showing in London is a natural choice as the city values craftsmanship, culture and bold creativity, things Mithridate stands for.
“London is now home to Mithridate’s creative team. Showing here allows us to engage with a global audience while staying connected to our roots in China. It’s the best place to grow our international presence while keeping our design vision fresh and relevant,” Jiang said.
She also believes that a strong presence abroad makes Mithridate feel more aspirational at home. “Being a global brand reinforces our credibility and strengthens our storytelling. Chinese consumers value brands that succeed internationally. Our runway shows and media coverage abroad keep us at the forefront of the conversation in China,” she added.
At the same time, with the arrival of Fletcher, who is also the creative director of Royal Ascot, and the appointment of Alexa Chung, who is of Chinese descent, as a brand ambassador, Jiang said the company is in “a perfect position” to grow in the West.
“Fletcher understands the Western market and brings a fresh design perspective while staying true to Mithridate’s DNA. His focus on tailoring, craftsmanship and new product categories, like denim and footwear, makes the brand more accessible globally,” she said.
Fletcher’s debut collection for Mithridate will showcase a clear aesthetic — influenced by ’90s rom-coms, British heritage, Savile Row tailoring and traditional craftsmanship, themes that have popped up here and there in Fletcher’s previous collections.
Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has been working with London Fashion Week since 2015 to boost its credibility in the world of fashion.
Last year, as part of JD.com’s pledges of money and resources worth up to 1 billion renminbi, or $140 million, to the fashion industry, it signed a new partnership with the BFC to become the official Asian online retail partner for London Fashion Week.
The renewed alliance aims to enhance the presence of British and international fashion brands in the Chinese market and create a global platform for Chinese and Asian designers, JD.com said.
Caroline Rush, chief executive officer of the BFC until April 28, said the partnership provides emerging designers and brands with a platform that “facilitates smoother collaborations across borders but also amplifies their exposure in the crucial Chinese market.”