London Fashion Week likes to parade its ‘Made in Britain’ credentials as if stitched into the very hem of the show schedule. And rightfully so. The capital is buzzing with designers who are proof that out of creativity comes scalable business too. But what happens when a young Brit suddenly hoists a different banner—‘Made In China’—across the catwalks of the capital?
Daniel Fletcher, the designer best known for his own-name brand of louche tailoring, has for the past 10 months held the creative directorship at Mithridate, the Chinese label with ambitions beyond its home market. In doing so, Fletcher exemplifies what London does best: folding international perspectives into its own restless mix and feeding them back to a global audience.
When I catch up with Fletcher on Zoom, he is in the Mithridate atelier in Guangzhou, in the thick of preparations for his second catwalk outing at London Fashion Week. Since last November, his calendar has become a pattern of long-haul flights—at least two per season. First, a launch trip: briefing the Chinese atelier team on fabrics, colour stories, and the skeletal toiles that will set the season’s direction. Then, a return voyage closer to the show date, to hammer the collection into its final, runway-ready shape. There’s a design team of seven keeping the wheels turning in London, but the real engine of the operation hums in China.
The appointment of Fletcher was a surprise. Mithridate launched in 2018 under Chinese creative director Demon Zhang, its DNA rooted in flashy eveningwear. The brand had begun as a side-project, an upscale playground to run alongside the company’s mainstay, Mith World, a high-street juggernaut with more than 200 stores across China. Mithridate itself operates with just seven boutiques scattered across the country. Now, as China’s luxury market wrestles with slowing momentum, the pivot has become clear: grow Mithridate into a credible global luxury house, one that speaks to the Western customer as well as its domestic base.
Fletcher, with his sharp London sensibility and a knack for balancing modern polish with a certain emotional edge, has become the standard-bearer for that ambition. ‘I know that they came to me because they appreciated my visual language and that is very much British heritage,’ he says. ‘It’s where I came from, my upbringing and cultural background, my experience of London and studying there. So I knew that they weren’t coming to me because they wanted me to make it look like every other Chinese brand.’
His debut in February was more than a glittering turnout—with Vanessa Williams, Nicola Roberts and Maisie Peters in the front row—it was a first glimpse of what a Daniel Fletcher-led Mithridate might look like: elegant, directional, and pointedly… British. ‘The first season was all about building the foundation and setting the tone for what Mithridate was going to be,’ he says. The result featured striped Oxford shirts, pastel knits, polished outerwear, and just enough sequins and feathers to jolt the mix. It was a collection pitched squarely at two overlapping audiences—a sartorially confident new local customer in London, and Mithridate’s Chinese clientele, already accustomed to Western design sensibilities. Both groups, notably, enjoy shopping in the same band of mid-luxury (tailored trousers hover at around £400, the leather jackets crest £1,300), placing Fletcher’s vision in a space that feels aspirational and accessible.
What he’s brought to Mithridate is his design shorthand, now tipped with something edgier, even more grown-up. That’s been possible, he stresses, because of the freedom afforded by the vast infrastructure of the team and by the founder, Tina Jiang. ‘The biggest challenge was that we’ve changed everything, starting with the logo. I didn’t keep a single pattern or fabric that existed in the company. We were essentially starting from scratch. Obviously, the stores and the name existed already, but in terms of aesthetic and visuals—from a creative perspective—it was a brand new start,’ he says. ‘Tina really believes in this vision and wants to support me with it and vice versa. I want the business to grow and to do well.’
A mammoth task, yes, but not unfamiliar terrain. Fletcher has juggled multiple creative briefs before—his eponymous label, a stint at Fiorucci, and he is also the current creative director for Royal Ascot, curating the fashion aspect of the racing event. Does the geography make this one harder? ‘I thought it was going to be difficult, but it’s been pretty easy. We have something like Slack called WeCom and we communicate that way. I think the thing I had to get used to is that I just work all the time. But when you have your own brand, it’s always like that. As a designer, you’re always thinking about something,’ he shrugs.
Then, of course, there’s the star power. Alexa Chung fronted his first campaign; Nicola Coughlan and Kit Connor come knocking for custom looks, and more names are in the pipeline—proof that Fletcher’s circle has followed him to his new chapter. And who is pinned to his mood board come the next campaign? ‘I’m always watching Richard Curtis films and there’s people like Hugh Grant or Keira Knightley, those kind of British rom-com icons, they would be a good fit.’
Still, despite the fanfare, one subject can’t be skirted, namely the stigma of the label stitched inside the clothes: ‘Made in China.’ It’s the question I can’t resist putting to him. How does he see Mithridate shift that narrative? ‘I really stuck to my roots as a designer but I looked at how I could incorporate the Chinese heritage of the brand—and that really came through craftsmanship. There are amazing resources available here that we don’t have access to in Europe, techniques that are way outside the capabilities of what we can do in the UK,’ he explains. ‘People think quite negatively about things that are made in China. But my experience of it has been that we’re doing something really quite luxurious. For people to feel these clothes and try them on, that will really help to break down that barrier of ‘Made in China’. We’re not going to change everyone’s mind instantly, but it’s certainly the long-term goal.’
As for his upcoming collection, craft is key to the country-meets-city theme, with a good, long wink at the Sloane Ranger set. ‘Aristocrats going crazy,’ he grins. The clothes trace an arc—starting in the countryside with wax jackets and cable knit jumpers, veering into the city’s darker, hedonistic corners, then retreating back to the country pile with an anything-goes attitude. ‘With this collection I have the chance to be more free and push things even further, to tell Mithridate’s new story more. I did some things that are unexpected, and I hope that comes through,’ he says. Expect gothic lettering, croc-embossed leather pieces and repurposed carpets turned into garments.
So what does it mean for a Brit designer to usher a Chinese brand onto the London Fashion Week schedule? If homegrown names decamp to Paris or Milan, then there’s no reason why talent based here can’t import a global house in return. London has always thrived on crosscurrents, and Fletcher, with one foot in London Bridge and the other in Guangzhou, is updating the formula.
Henrik Lischke is the senior fashion news and features editor at Grazia. Prior to that, he worked at British Vogue, and was junior fashion editor at The Sunday Times Style.
Henrik Lischke is the senior fashion news & features editor at Grazia. Prior to that, he worked at British Vogue, and was junior fashion editor at The Sunday Times Style.
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