It’s impossible to meet Huishan Zhang and not feel cheered; this is a man whose warmth and wit knows no bounds, with a passion for precision, elegance and craft that’s undeniably contagious. Whether or not you intend to – or even wish it – you’ll leave any encounter with him overflowing with a sense of unbridled joy.

For his FW18 collection at London Fashion Week, Huishan translated his haute couture training into something a little edgier than we’ve seen before from him. Experimenting with moody hues and textures that inferred a shade more ‘danger’, his decadent display nodded to Hong Kong filmmaker, Wong Kar-wai’s dark romanticism – embellished, of course, with Swarovski crystals (this was a Huishan Zhang collection after all!).

Huishan has also recently celebrated the opening of his new flagship store on London’s ‘Golden Mile’ of luxury designer fashion – Mount Street – where his new premises (an opulent yet calming oasis in the Capital) counts Céline and Christopher Kane amongst its neighbours.

In the days before his London Fashion Week outing, Abigail Gurney-Read sat down with Huishan in his Mayfair flagship to talk his training at Dior and that signature East-meets-West aesthetic.

Abigail wears Huishan Zhang. Get the look and shop more here: