Fifteen leading Chinese fashion designers join ranks with international brands to design the Mickey Mouse-inspired fashion collection "Mickey The True Original" on March 28, the opening day of Shanghai Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2018.[photo provided to China Daily]

Local brands shine

Since then, Ban Xiaoxue has expanded to a 60-store chain in China. It has expanded to five international markets including Russia, Sweden and Austria, growing its 2017 revenue 60 percent year-on-year. Ban Xiaoxue attributed the rise to its nimble operations and low inventory. "We keep our growth pace slow and steady. Most of our stores in first-tier cities are directly operated," she said.

With 20 new brick-and-mortar stores to open this year, the brand is expected to move online. It has already opened an e-store on Tmall, an Alibaba-run online marketplace for reputable brands.

"Online stores will give us closer access to consumers, which can not be usually done in physical stores."

Huang Qiaoran, who studied at the Parsons School of Design, and created Babyghost, a fashion brand, with Joshua Hupper in New York seven years ago, redefined Mickey Mouse with a dated print-media advertisement on the New York subway.

"A Mickey image has been scribbled, washed and torn to relive the old artistic format of New York subway," said Huang of her presentation during this fashion show. "Babyghost is a brand of conflict and extremity. We bring Mickey to young consumers and hopefully become more visible, thanks to this platform."