Majority of girls expressed that fashion in Hong Kong is influenced by Japanese and Korean style. They also agreed that girls in Hong Kong put much effort into looking good, and that they are more daring with bright colors and trying out new trends. Men on the other hand, expressed less interest in fashion. They wear what is comfortable to them, or go for suits, as Hong Kong is a business city.

Henry tells us his struggle of selling their own designed products in which he says that, for small shops like his, it is often very hard to produce and manufacture their own designed products. That’s the reason why only some of their items like the leather shoes and shirts, are designed by themselves. Other products are well-selected by them and imported from Japan and Korea.

When being asked about the huge competition in Hong Kong especially when international brands like Jack Wills is soaring with popularity recently, he expressed his concerns on small, new brands. Rents in Hong Kong is definitely one of the most serious issue he says, but this should not stop creative souls from executing their plans, as long as they are patience with it.

What is Innovation?

The Innovation is a charity fashion show founded by Dominic Lee in 2007 and is organized by senior students from South Island school. It first began as a CAS project but soon turned into a major success. Now Innovation is an official annual event for South Island School and all ESF Schools.

What is the mission of Innovation?

1. To raise sufficient funds and awareness for specific charities.

Charities that have been supported by The Innovation:
ORBIS (2008)
KELY Support (2009)
Children’s Heart Foundation (2010)
Bright Angels Fund (2011)

2. To showcase young talented designers by presenting 12 piece collections of each designer, increasing their exposure.

How has Innovation turned out?

The project has proven to be a great experience for students. All the money raised through Innovation is donated to a different charity every year.

What should I expect to see in an Innovation show?

The show consists of 2 student designers, hand picked by a long process of professional deliberation. Lights, glamour, models, designers, clothes – all the key ingredients in creating a successful show. Yet there is one more thing that allows the innovation fashion show to be better than the rest: teamwork.

How long does it take to put on an Innovation show?

It is a 6 month process that begins with a plan, and ends with a finished product. Each year The Innovation team aims to bring the audience something new and better. With the best designs, the hottest models, and several incredible performances, Innovation is the end result of endless work and dedication

Kirsten Hennes is from Germany. She goes to a university in Finland and from there she had decided to come to Hong Kong as an exchange student. After living in this city for a year, her fashion style has adapted to the local weather and trend. “Only in Hong Kong will I wear flip-flops to school. Flip-flops are for beaches in Germany. Or for swimming pools, or at home, of if you go to your friends’ barbeque. It’s very casual and usually restricted to home area.”

“In Finland, when I was going to school in the morning I wouldn’t put on make-up, and not everyday. But here of course I’m more careful in the morning when I’m going to school. Everybody looks pretty here and I kind of want to blend in and look pretty as well, and not like I don’t care of myself.”

“Since I’ve been living in Finland for three years, this is extremely hot for me here. The humidity is pressuring me a lot. I think I got more into summer clothes. I wear shorts more often. Shorts are not necessary in Finland because summer is only two weeks, and around twenty degrees.”

“I’m not used to air-conditioning at all. Sometimes it’s quite like a fridge when you get in to a room or a bus. Usually I have a cardigan or a hoodie with me. I had so many flus over here and I’m blaming a/c for it. In Germany it’s either cold or hot, not both .”

This candid opinions from Kirsten would benefit a lot of people who are not familiar with Hong Kong who decide to visit during summer. The sudden changes in temperature outside and inside air-conditioned place, and of course, wearing flip-flops everywhere. Some ventilation to your poor sweat-sticky toes in Hong Kong, is a must. We’ll all be flip-flopping in Hong Kong this summer!

Graduated in fashion design at Central Saint Martins, the Hong Kong-born designer Maureen Hung is now the fashion designer of Handkerchief.
Maureen describes her fashion style as– playful. Her works tend to target on people who are looking for unique items.
Maureen returned to Hong Kong two years ago after having worked in both the UK and France. She finds the nature of design very different in different cities. In London, fashion designs are more of artistic-research based. As for Hong Kong, it is more commercial and target based.
When she talked about her teaching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, she mentioned how Hong Kong design students should be brave and stand up for their own crazy ideas. It is important that the students have their own thinking and be brave enough to execute their creativity now, or else, it might never come again.

Zoe Suen, a 15-year-old-blogger, amazes the LookBookers with her diversity of outfits. Check out her blog and LookBook, and of course, her interview with us.

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Hx: Tell me about yourself.

ZS: I’m a 15 year old student from Hong Kong.

Hx: Since when have you started bloggng/ posting photos on LookBook?

ZS: Around 2 years ago. 

Hx: At such a young age, what do your parents think about you, posting your looks online?

ZS: They support it since it’s one of my interests, they’re the best parents ever. 

Hx: Use three adjectives to describe yourself.

ZS: Creative, introverted, thoughtful

Hx: How would you describe your fashion style?

ZS: It’s nothing particularly loud but is based mainly on slouchy and comfortable silhouettes. 

Hx: Where does your inspiration come from?

ZS: The internet; lookbook, other blogs, tumblr etc.

Hx: Your current favorite designer or brand? 

ZS: I don’t have a favorite designer because if i like a piece, i like it whether or not I know who the designer is. But I really enjoy the work of Mary Katrantzou, Christopher Kane, the late Alexander McQueen, Dion Lee and a few more.

Hx: Favorite shopping spot?

ZS: The internet! I love staying at home and browsing online shops like asos and nastygal

Hx: In your opinion, which comes first– design or quality?

ZS: Both! A quality design i guess..haha. But sometimes i really enjoy wearing well-made basics.

Hx: Where do you see Hong Kong’s street fashion or high end fashion in the next 10 years time?

ZS: I think Hong Kong is a place where a lot of people in my age wear whatever is in the ‘trend’, but i hope people will start to develop more unique styles soon such as those in New York and London. When i go out in more eclectic outfits, I get stared at as opposed to when I travel to places like Tokyo, so I hope people can start accepting more unique styles while staying in harmony with commercial fashion.

Hx: Any advice for the aspiring Hong Kong fashion students/ fresh graduates? 

ZS: Try something different. Look at something and ask yourself if you’ve seen anything like it and be honest. Do what makes you proud and your opinion is the only one that matters. 

The apparel industry today is full of opportunities, but rife with risks as well.  Having the right business insurance is an essential but often overlooked part of running a successful business.

In an effort to cut costs, many designers who just build up their own business avoid purchasing insurance policies, a move which can prove to be very costly.  Not having the right insurance can actually end up costing more than investing in the correct policies to begin with.

Business Interruption Insurance

Most companies have property insurance that will help cover the costs of building or repairing a factory or office lost in a fire, flood or earthquake, however this kind of insurance will not cover the loss of revenues resulting from production suspension while the new factory is being built. Business interruption insurance is an additional cover that can be added onto property insurance for better protection of your company.

“What it does is pay the for loss of revenues associated with your property loss. The property all risk component of the policy will pay to rebuild the physical premises while the business interruption component of the policy will cover the loss of revenue during reconstruction,” said Andrew J. Bisconte, business development director at Aon Hong Kong Ltd. “So not only is your factory be rebuilt, but your balance sheet and your business are financially protected as well.”

According to Wilson Chan, director of the corporate division at Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ltd., sometimes apparel companies only concentrate on their own interruption without being aware of the risks their raw material suppliers may face. “If something happens to one of your suppliers and you can’t get your raw materials or finished, you will also face revenue losses,” said Mr. Chan, pointing out that especially if your company is heavily dependent on one or two suppliers, extensions can also bolster business interruption insurance policies.

“Companies should bear in mind that they need to specify and name the suppliers under the policy.”

Retailers cannot overlook business interruption insurance either especially when their business is located in an area that relies on a lot of traffic, according to Louis Ng, associate professor of insurance and risk management at the University of Hong Kong.

“If your store is at the end of the street but somehow the traffic of that area has been stopped due to riots, fire or other disasters at the other end of the street, your property might not be directly affected, but it will impact on your sales by reducing foot traffic to your store,” said Dr. Ng.

Trade Credit Insurance

In addition to risks associated with production, there are also trading risks. You might ship your goods to your customers but fail to receive payment if they go bankrupt or suffer from political unrest. “This was very relevant during the global financial crisis when you saw many American listed garment companies in highly leveraged positions that were under stress to pay their bills,” said Mr. Bisconte.

Trade credit insurance is particularly important when companies are venturing into new markets. “When the company is in a ‘customer non-payment situation’, the company can essentially insure or collateralize its accounts receivables with a Trade Credit Insurance Policy. If the customer defaults, the insurance company will step in and cover the payment due in accordance with the policy contract. Banks tend to like this,” said Mr. Bisconte.

“Before designing a policy and setting a premium rate, the insurer will look at a range of criteria at the client’s the company and determine a credit limit amount,” said Mr. Chan, “So it is also crucial for the company to have some good, credit worthy clients as part of their customer base.”

Mr. Chan cautioned companies that the maximum amount an insurance company will pay in the case of credit default will be based on their original assessment of the quality of the credit that is being insured.

Product Liability Insurance

Manufacturers also need to consider product liability insurance, according to both Mr. Chan and Mr. Bisconte. “This kind of insurances covers two things: bodily injury and property damage stemming from the use of the manufacturer’s product,” said Mr. Bisconte.

It serves as one of the marketing tools for the manufacturers to smoothen certain business deals. “They can tell the buyers that they have t product liability insurance, and if there are any problem with their products, the insurance policy can help protect them from potentially huge losses,” said Mr. Chan.

“I think liability insurance essential, especially when selling to the United States where the lawsuits can easily occur,” said Mr. Chan. “Buyers in the States will more likely to request this insurance.”

Mr. Bisconte points out that this insurance is especially important for companies manufacturing clothing for children or infants where product safety is an important part of quality control. “When you look at child or infant clothing, the bodily injury exposure is much more severe than for adult clothing due to potential choking and rash claims,” said Mr. Bisconte.

Director & Officer Insurance

Another kind of insurance that has been overlooked, especially when the business grow to be listed companies, is Director & Officer insurance, which protects companies against potential lawsuits against senior management by unsatisfied investors or shareholders at times when the company’s stock drops in price. The biggest appeal is that this insurance can help attract and retain top-tier directors and officers who feel that they actions as managers is protected.

For listed fashion companies that wishes to extend to the Mainland, purchasing D&O insurance is a particularly good form of risk management. “The regulations, laws and operations in China are not so well defined. Is it often hard to know whether you have infringed on some law or another,” said Dr. Ng.

Exclusions Alert

In insurance policies, exclusions appear to be important areas to watch for. Sometimes even the things that the policy appears to cover can actually be excluded, for example, flood damage and earthquake damage. Other main areas that are usually excluded include terrorism, strikes and civil commotion, according to Dr. Ng.

“Through better understanding of the exclusions, companies can get to know the areas that should be extended, otherwise they can purchase additional policy coverage to protect themselves against these risks,” said Mr. Chan.

“Technology and innovation is the locomotive of modern society,” Said Xiao-ming Tao, Head & Chair Professor of Textile Technology at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “It will significantly impact the way of human life and increase the employment of skilled people.” 

Physical Monitoring

By using conductive textile fabric sensing elements, a family of soft pressure sensors has been recently developed by the group of Prof. Tao at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The pressure sensor was fabricated by adhering a conductive sensing fabric with conductive yarns and a top-and-bottom conversion layer, which were prepared by molding of silicon rubbers of varied Young’s modulus beforehand. A knitted fabric coated with carbon-black-filled silicon was used as the strain-sensing element.

The soft pressure sensor can be applied in footwear evaluation, athletic training, clinical gait analysis, and pathology foot diagnosis. It can provide the wearer’s heart rate, distance covered, pace and running speed.

“This technology has been applied in common products now. For example, The Adidas-1 running shoe uses one sensor at the heel position to provide compression measurement for adjusting to running situation.” said Bo Zhu, a PhD student participating in the project.

The sensor measurement ranges are from 10 Pa to 800 kPa, suitable for a wide variety of human-apparel interfaces, such as loosely fit garment, pants for sitting, gloves, sleeping garments, and walking/running shoes.

Fabric Displays

RadianFab technology for flexible display has been developed by the Nanotechnology Center for Functional and Intelligent Textiles and Apparel.

Wrapping polymeric photonic fibers with textile yarns creates a light emitting fabric. The photonic fiber has to be specially treated to be flexible, light and wearable, as it is more fragile than ordinary yarn like silk or cotton.

The new unique type of yarn will be woven into a new fabric and is treated for light emission, amplification and modulation. The fabric lights up on its own in full color when powered by traditional or rechargeable batteries.

The system is also capable of controlling color and light intensity. These optical performances attribute to the structure and composition of the fibers, integration of nano particles and gain materials inside or on the surface of the fibers.

The Global Market

This fabric of the next generation will open up new markets in industries including fashion, home decor, car interior, advertising, and beyond.

According to Prof. Tao, the forecasted application of fields include conductive yarns and optical fibers, materials generating energy and power supply, advanced polymers, etc.

“The electronics and textile industry are working together, leading to a proliferation of intelligent textiles,” said Prof. Tao. “The new sector of textile industry sees a rapid expanding market.”

According to the research conducted by Business Communications Company, Inc., the U.S. market for smart textiles was worth an estimated $70.9 million in 2006. This figure is expected to reach $391.7 million in 2012.

In 2007, studies of the Venture Development Corporation indicate a turnover of more than 1 billion Euros worldwide for the market “intelligent textile”.

It is also estimated that by 2016 there will be around 300 million wireless sensor-based gadgets for wearing on the body in the fields of healthcare and sports management as well as other activities in the fields of media, automotive, security and the home.

What Are The Other Countries Doing?

By Sarah Spaeth and Megan Zhao

Name: Even Shou, research analyst
Wearing: one piece from Karen Miller
Favorite accessory: no accessory, doesn’t fancy anything
fashion tip: one piece never goes wrong