Article by Jessica Laiter
Photo by Xue Liang
At the close of New York Fashion Week comes the start of Fashion Hong Kong’s exhibition. Three independent, emerging labels hailing from Hong Kong introduced their seasonal collections for next fall: Cynthia and Xiao, Harrison Wong, and Loom Loop. All three were equally impressive, putting some real skin in the game. In addition, multiple accessories designers were showcased at the Fashion Hong Kong event hosted the following evening at the High Line Hotel in Manhattan.
Cynthia and Xiao
Asia’s emerging fashion industry is reinventing creativity from a fresh perspective. Working on the delicate balance between maintaining an east/west aesthetic while starving the impulse to be a victim of cultural appropriation is a tough job; but with expertise and an open mind, these designers were successful in their pursuits.
In pursuit of the HKTDC (Hong Kong Trade Development Council) initiative to expand Hong Kong’s economy by connecting with business and industries on a global level, these designers had an opportunity to showcase their talents in New York, some for the very first time. Many of these designers struggle with monetary constraints and required support from a larger investor to reach a larger audience, an obstacle with which every good entrepreneur is familiar.
Fashion Hong Kong is a series of international events hosted by https://www.viagrasansordonnancefr.com/ou-acheter-du-viagra/ the HKTDC as a platform to promote Hong Kong labels and designers as global Fashion Weeks in New York, Tokyo, and Copenhagen.
Cynthia and Xiao
Cynthia and Xiao
AsianInNY: What was your inspiration for this season?
Cynthia and Xiao: It is based on the 12 animals of the zodiac. The tiger is my (Xiao) year and the rabbit is her (Cynthia) year. We brought just a little bit of Chinese element into it without making it too Chinese.
AsianInNY: Anything from year of rooster?
Cynthia and Xiao: Actually no!
AsianInNY: Do you always work with knitwear?
Cynthia and Xiao: Yes! Actually my specialty is knitwear because I studied it during my Bachelors. I’m very good at the woven part. Knitwear is one of our specialties.
Cynthia and Xiao
AsianInNY: What is your favorite part of the design process?
Cynthia and Xiao: Actually the development part is the most exciting, after gathering all of the research, creating something can really represent you and be expressed through the collection.
AsianInNY: Where can we purchase your designs?
Cynthia and Xiao: We don’t have a shop in New York yet but that’s why we are here, it’s what we are hoping for. Most of our designs are sold in China. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook, where we will be updating out stock list. We are trying to build our online platform right now. If people want it before that is complete, people can email us and we will ship it to them directly.
Loom Loop
Loom Loop
AsianInNY: What is your inspiration for this season?
Loom Loop: This time the collection was inspired by a Chinese tale called “A Coward and The River Girl.” The Chinese cowboy and the river girl can only see each other once a year, so the bird built a bridge for them to see each other. It’s kind of a romantic story and it is a legend from long ago in China so every one should know it.
Loom Loop
Once we found the inspiration, we started thinking back to things from our childhood and we thought of the chocolate milk we loved. We figured we have the Chinese cowboy, why not have the chocolate milk incorporated into the print? So we found an old Hong Kong brand to collaborate with so that I can use the print of the chocolate milk box. You can see it on the handbag, with some other patterns. We tried to use different materials, and design our own prints. We used recycled fabric, different embroideries, and blue and purple tones this time around.
Harrison Wong
Harrison Wong
AsianInNY: What was your inspiration for this season?
Harrison Wong: Monomonastic. So you can see all of the outfits with a long silhouette. I think the long silhouette is the main style of this collection but at the same time I have a lot of different jackets and different styles. I play on a lot of the men’s silhouette, and you can see I use a lot of black. Also because black is my signature color and I play with a lot of different textures in black.
AsianInNY: It seems your collection has a lot of religious influences. Do you use that frequently in your collections?
Harrison Wong: Yes, and you can see I like to play around I’M NOT YOUR FATHER” which refers to priests.
Harrison Wong
AsianInNY: Do you ever use you Hong Kong background for assistance in your design process?
Harrison Wong: I think so, because Hong Kong is a very international city, just like New York. East and West are combined, which you now see a lot more. I think that style is very global now.
AsianInNY: Where can we purchase your collection?
Harrison Wong: We are mainly selling in Hong Kong right now where I have three shops. At the same time, I am hoping more buyers will come from being here in New York!
Harrison Wong
Leave a Reply