Sew far, sew good
As traditional Hong Kong tailors find ways to reach younger audiences, avant-garde fashion designers are reinterpreting beloved staples. Rebecca Lo turns the spotlight on the current state of the city's rag trade.
Deep within a Hung Hom industrial building, 50 staff members are preparing bespoke suits and shirts for some of the world's biggest names. The boardroom's photo gallery features architect I.M. Pei, former US president George W. Bush, and actors Aaron Kwok Fu-shing, Andy Lau Tak-wah and Leonardo DiCaprio.
All of them pose with a member of the Chang family, and many wear a tailored garment crafted by Hong Kong tailor Ascot Chang.
"I was not working in the store when Leo dropped by," Justin Chang says while grinning.
Justin and his father Tony officiated at the opening of Foreign Fabric Local Looks: A Hong Kong Suit Story, an exhibition held last month at The Mills. Curated by Tinny Cheng, founder of The Culturist website and owner of Tai Yip Art Bookshop, the show provides a study in the menswear heritage of modern Hong Kong.
Dioramas show mannequins clad in vintage suits, as well as one particularly Asian power suit: the jacket-over-cheongsam combination favored by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. It is no coincidence that women's blazers came into vogue with the rise of second-wave feminism in the 1960s.
