"I want to inject the culture and my feeling for Wuhan into my designs," Zhang says.

The show started with catwalk shows of skirts and dresses in such ice-cream colors as light green, sky blue and lilac.

A belt Zhang created featured the Western Rancap brocade, in which bronze colors are painted on starched material, depicting the mythical creatures taotie and kui that are believed to protect and bless humans.

"Ethnic Tujia women in Hubei's Enshi traditionally produced (the brocades) on looms in preparation for marriage," Zhang explains.

Models posed for group photos after their session, rather than at the end, as is customary.