It's no great secret that China has buoyed the international luxury market for years now. Indeed, a McKinsey report from 2019 showed that between 2012 and 2018, China contributed more than half of the global growth in luxury spending, and that by 2025, that proportion is set to grow to at least 65 per cent of the market. Annually, Chinese spenders at home and abroad splashed out $US115 billion, or about $160 billion, on luxury goods in 2018.

Richard Poulson, a veteran of the Australian fashion scene as the co-founder of Morrison, a Fremantle-based womenswear brand known for modern basics, saw some years ago that the key to small Australian brands succeeding against the might of larger multinationals could be banding together to crack the lucrative Chinese market. And so he and partner Kelly Atkinson set about creating Showroom-X, a luxury e-tailer that brings together some of Australia's premium fashion labels, expressly to showcase them to China's consumers. Poulson is CEO, Atkinson is the creative director.