I saw designer HUISHAN ZHANG’S beautiful spring/summer collection a few days after I had been flicking through family photo albums of my parents in Hong Kong in the early 1980s. I was struck by a pretty snap of my mother alongside a Chinese friend both wearing cheongsams and how elegant they looked. Zhang’s signature notes of ‘Chinese Tradition meet Western Modernity’ have been reborn into a new vividness- a new kind of empire that is far from colonial.

I can’t wait to see what he delivers for A/W’13, his plans for 2013? ‘To move forward’ a simple, powerful statement. It is amazing the abrupt ambition Asia breeds- I can’t wait to go back to Hong Kong in March to see my parents and to visit Korea for the first time.