Hong Kong

SHANGHAI — K11 Night, dubbed “Asia’s Met Gala,” returned for its second edition at Hong Kong‘s “culture-retail” landmark K11 Musea last Saturday.
Hundreds of guests attended the gala, celebrating the opening of “The Love of Couture: Artisanship in Fashion Beyond Time,” the Hong Kong entrepreneur Adrian Cheng‘s sophomore couture exhibition.

Abiding by this year’s dress code “Couture With Love,” fashion A-listers, celebrities, socialites, art collectors, architects and designers put forth their best spin on this year’s theme.

As this year’s first fashion-related event on a major scale, the gala marks the glamourous return of the glitzy financial hub after the local government canceled stringent quarantine policies three weeks ago

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Hong Kong celebrities including Carina Lau, Sammi Cheng and Gigi Lai; martial arts master Donnie Yen; actor and director Stephen Fung; influencers Yoyo Cao, Irene Kim, and virtual influencer Imma all made grand entrances on the gold carpet..

Carina Lau in Giambattista Valli.

Yoyo Cao in Gucci.

Guests were not shy to flaunt their love for dramatic capes, feathery details, voluminous gowns, heart-shaped handbags and glittery eye makeup, which became the overarching trend at the scene.

“I like the futuristic feel of the shoes. I guess it’s only for aliens, not for humans,” Cheng said as she emerged onto the gold carpet in full-on “Alien” style in Windowsen’s nine-inch high platforms, which she paired with a Valentino jumpsuit.

Sammi Cheng in Valentino.

Stylist and creative consultant Declan Chan showed up as a “flower boy” in a bespoke floral Celine Kwan suit and carried a bedazzled Prada handbag. “We’ve been working on this look for three weeks. I think I understood the assignment,” Chan said.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a black tie situation, so I’m happy this still fits,” said Hong Kong actor Alex Lam, in a black and white Ralph Lauren suit. “In the past few years, everyone’s been dressing a bit more casual, but now you get to see everyone shine.”

Inside the K11 Art & Cultural Center on the sixth floor of K11 Musea, guests could see a preview of this year’s exhibition, which is set to open to the public on Thursday and run until Jan. 29.

“Fashion, throughout history, is reflective of how traditions, craftsmanship, creativity and societies continue to evolve,” said Adrian Cheng. The chair of K11 night was dressed in a cream Dior men’s suit.

Adrian Cheng

“I am thrilled to present this exhibition in collaboration with the V&A and work with our brilliant designers, who have all in their own individual way reinvented and modernized history with their unique perspective and talent. This collaboration truly reflects my mission to create a deeper cultural exchange between east and west by providing a platform for next generation’s talent,” Cheng added.

The exhibition featured 12 couture pieces from Victoria & Albert Museum‘s collection, ranging from the Victorian and Edwardian eras to the ‘60s.

Six emerging fashion designers, including Japan’s Tomo Koizumi and Ryunosuke Okazaki; South Korea’s Sohee Park; mainland China’s Yueqi Qi and Windowsen, and Hong Kong’s Celine Kwan were tasked with dreaming up a total of 20 original designs that “stir nostalgia while exuding a distinctively East Asian sensibility.”

William Chang Suk Ping, known for his work as costume designer for Wong Kar-wai’s movies “In the Mood for Love” and “The Grandmaster,” served as the exhibition’s artistic director. Chang produced a cinematic space with props and furnishing created from scratch.

William Chang Suk Ping

“This exhibition is driven by imagination, creativity and passion. Seeing how these designers have reimagined centuries-old craft and techniques has been truly inspiring and provided me with a wonderful canvas from which to create and design,” Chang said.

PARIS — Shrugging off the impact of political turmoil and the coronavirus pandemic on Hong Kong tourism, Dior has opened a new boutique on Canton Road in the city’s bustling Tsim Sha Tsui district.The 9,500-square-foot flagship, featuring a facade illuminated with a deconstructed version of the French fashion house’s signature “cannage” motif, is spread over two floors carrying women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, accessories, fine jewelry, watches, home wares and perfumes.
The interior takes its cue from the brand’s headquarters at 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris, with an interior in shades of powdery white, gray and gold featuring accents such as Versailles parquet floors and its trademark Toile de Jouy fabric.

At the main entrance, visitors are welcomed by a giant crystal chandelier, and the store features original works by artists including China’s Lu Song, Wang Yuyang and Hong Hao. A spiral staircase at the rear of the store leads to dedicated areas for fine jewelry and home wares.

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The fine jewelry department in Dior’s flagship on Canton Road in Hong Kong.

Marcel Lam/Courtesy of Dior

To mark the opening, Dior is offering exclusive products including box sets containing four embroidered miniature Lady Dior bags; Rose des Vents jewelry creations adorned with colorful gemstones, and selected items from the fall women’s collection designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri, featuring embroidered motifs.
The store, which opened Monday, is also offering early access to the fall men’s collection by Kim Jones, as part of its pre-launch in the Asia-Pacific region.
The absence of tourism continues to weigh on Hong Kong’s retail market, according to a recent report by global real estate consultancy Knight Frank. Burberry confirmed last month it had closed its flagship on Canton Road, one of the world’s most expensive shopping streets.
“In the near term, the outlook for Hong Kong’s retail market remains highly difficult, so retail rents are expected to face further pressure. Uncertainty in the economy, interest rate hikes and delays in the border reopening could weigh on consumption sentiment,” Knight Frank said in a report last week.
On the upside, the local government is set to hand out a second round of consumption vouchers, worth 5,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $637 at current exchange, in August, which should underpin retail sales and restaurant receipts in the short term.

The VIP men’s department in Dior’s new flagship on Canton Road in Hong Kong.

Marcel Lam/Courtesy of Dior

LONDON — From social bubbles to fashion bubbles, Norwegian fashion designer and artist Fredrik Tjærandsen, who is known for his balloon-like bubble dresses for his Central Saint Martins BA graduate collection in 2019, made his Asian debut Tuesday with the “ArtisTree Selects: Light In/Out Film and Exhibition” in Hong Kong’s Taikoo Place, as a part of  the Swire Properties Arts Month 2021 program.
Featuring a new 4-meter high bubble-like installation made with sustainably and responsibly sourced natural rubber latex from Sri Lanka — the same material Tjærandsen used for his signature bubble dresses — and a dance film, the exhibition also showcased a collection of images documenting the bubble dresses in different forms and colors by British photographer Carlos Jimenez, which was created for the Fashion in Motion live fashion event series at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2020.

“The sculpture is static, but I wanted to play with lines to kind of create some sort of illusion of entering into something that is moving, and that is constructed in steel, which is very new for me,” Tjærandsen told WWD over a Zoom call.
The structure is draped in latex, a material he has been fascinated with for its ability to “capture life and reflect life,” and make the wearer “look like liquid.” The idea behind using latex here as a core material was to make the viewer feel as if they are confronting life through their own individual filter.

“I just love working with latex, it is such an amazing material that can be manipulated in so many ways. What I really like about the material is how it drapes beautifully on the skin. It really changes how you’re being touched,” he added.

Light In Out film and exhibition by Fredrik Tjærandsen at ArtisTree Hong Kong. 
C.K. Man/Courtesy

Calling the bubble “a beautiful metaphor, in which every part of us, our homes, our selves, were encased,” Pauline Foessel, curator of the exhibition, said she wanted to bring the public something striking and something they could feel and experience, especially after waves of lockdowns in the city.
Foessel added a creative from Hong Kong was sent to London and was trained under Tjærandsen to learn how to inflate and maneuver the fragile garments. Upon his return and following quarantine, the creative supported the dance artists and production teams in Hong Kong in recreating the bubble dresses.
“We thought it would be powerful to bring his work and present it in a city like Hong Kong — renowned for its architecture, people and cultural space. Fredrik’s performative work retains strong poetic and fluid dynamics and we wanted to showcase this to the general public and to ultimately take away a feeling of liberation and openness,” she said.
Priscilla Li, general manager of Taikoo Place, said Tjærandsen’s exhibition alongside other upcoming events “demonstrate  people’s resilience during challenging times” and “add a new dimension to people’s working lives” in Hong Kong.
Having worked at places like JW Anderson, Craig Green, Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton, Tjærandsen said he is more interested in being a conceptual designer, and explore the relationship between mind and dress and “reflecting how the body is conditioned by the dress physically and psychologically,” as he simply wants to “keep on working on really creative projects where I have freedom.”

A look from Fredrik Tjærandsen’s CSM BA graduate collection. 
CATWALKING

“I really wanted fashion to start a contact without making things, without having the physical product,” he said.
In the past few years he has received many requests from celebrities to collaborate, but he chose to stay away from all that. Tjærandsen explained that he wants his work to be taken seriously in the art world, and dressing pop stars “doesn’t really feel right” for him.
He also wasn’t flattered when his works became memes during the pandemic when people were talking about social bubbles, because his voluminous design naturally keeps people away from each other.
“I’m really happy with how people resonated with it [his graduate collection] and everyone experiencing or understanding the outfits even though people wouldn’t be wearing it.…But when things become a meme, I don’t really resonate with it. Maybe I am just pretty boring. But I’m quite serious about what I want to say in my works. So, when it gets taken out of context like that, I mean, that’s OK. That’s the internet, but I also don’t know.”
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