The journo hints at the possibility of a ticket to the show when her own event that evening is finished, but I'm unable to help out. For sure ours is likely to be a lot more fun, and for Prince Andrew himself, I might be able to oblige, but for low-ranking media members of the VIP food chain like myself there is no chance – every place is taken and then some.

The show starts with an imaginative and appropriate image – veiled behind a semi-opaque screen, a weaver works at an old-fashioned loom producing the Kesi silk that is the base material of the Hua Fu garment, a material with a four-thousand year history in China.

Then come the dresses.

For devotees of the mud-caked face, the house-brick strapped to the head with a leather thong, and the bamboo birdcage attached to the model's back on a wicker frame, there is little to excite.

Zhang Zhifeng and his designers have several thousand years of luxury and craftsmanship to inspire them, and freed of the laborious need to be 'creative' and 'original' they manage, in fact to be original and creative. It's remarkable what designers can achieve when they are able to focus their energies on producing beautiful and elegant clothes.

The Hua Fu collection pays homage to China's great traditions, not only in silk weaving, but in paper-cutting, painting, and above all in the Yun Jin school of Suzhou embroidery.