Six Lee hopes that his avant-garde fashions will one day go from being the darling of fashion editorial pages to gracing the wardrobe of its editors, he tells Rebecca Lo.

Whotel Hong Kong's fifth anniversary bash started with a bang. Topless male dancers showed off their fine physiques in a range of contemporary dance move. The performance was followed by a highly anticipated runway debut by one of Hong Kong's brightest young fashion talents.

With Eurasian model Raven Tao as the master of ceremonies, a procession of women sporting custom W T-shirts sauntered down the catwalk. Designed by Hong Kong-based Six Lee for his eponymous label, the simple silhouette was embellished with a large W in a contrasting color along the front neckline.

The show continued with Lee's collection of menswear from his Fall/Winter 2013 line, followed by Spring/Summer 2014. It was his first professional show in Asia and the wild enthusiasm from his audience indicated a hit collection.

Impeccable tailoring, bold patterns and a whiff of Sherlock Holmes made the Fall/Winter collection memorable. Lee's fondness for layering resulted in a tension between fashion and costume that only extremely confident men could carry off successfully.

Lee admits that his clothes are not for everyone. "My style is too extreme for Italy and not extreme enough for London," he says. "I prefer to show in Paris. I feel my collection is more European in styling, but Asians seem to like it more than Europeans.

"It's really difficult to predict what will sell well. I struggle constantly with the balance between commercial and conceptual design. How do I make something desirable to editors? Not just for their magazine pages but so that editors would covet the garments and include them in their wardrobe."

The Hong Kong native has always loved drawing, but he was not strong academically. "I couldn't continue with my education and I didn't know what I wanted to do for a career," he recalls.

Following high school, he worked for two years as an assistant merchandiser in a leather factory. There, he learned the trade of producing leather garments for US customers.

"All of a sudden, I realized that I wanted to be a fashion designer," Lee states.

He enrolled in a foundation course in Cornwall after learning about the school in a British education fair in Hong Kong. "I wanted to go to a place that was completely different from my hometown. My university was 10 minutes from the sea and in a retirement community," he says.

While in the United Kingdom, Lee encountered Belgium designers and found their work conceptual and intriguing. Although he had to study Dutch for a year to master the language, he persevered so he could study at Antwerp's renowned Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Its graduates include Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, designers Lee admired.

"It was a really tough program," Lee remembers. "We had to take two days of exams. Our drawing skills had to be excellent. Some 600 candidates sit those exams but the school only accepts 60. The number of students is halved every year of the four-year program, with only 10 people graduating annually. I didn't think I would be one of those 10!

"I learned a lot about my own personality - what I liked and disliked. I discovered that I loved designing menswear since it has a lot of rules and is more challenging. I enjoy using traditional 18th- and 19th-century British tailoring techniques."

The head of menswear for Alexander McQueen was in his grad show's audience and invited Lee to work in London for the label. He was there for just under a year, working on everything from pattern making to mock-ups to liaising with garment factories. After McQueen committed suicide, the label was in a state of flux. Lee decided to return to Hong Kong instead of waiting it out in England.

"Living in London was demanding," he says. "Rent and food costs are high, but I couldn't get a second job to support myself because my work was so intensive."

He returned to Hong Kong and worked for another 18 months as a creative director for a Guangzhou brand while teaching fashion at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. "I wasn't used to working back home," he admits. "It motivated me to start my own label."

For his Fall/Winter 2013 concept, he played with the idea that everyone is chasing after silver linings and drew inspiration from light installation artists. The overall idea is layering, with a white shirt in between the bottom and top peaking through to resemble a waistcoat.

Typical silhouettes include high waists and cropped jackets inspired by Jewish garments. Trousers include an overlapping layer that resembles Thai fisherman pants and deliberately expose the ankles for an unexpected flash of flesh. Details abound, such as lapels put together with two different fabrics and trousers with buckles at the rear to adjust their sizes.

Lee used a range of blue fabrics in tartan and checkered patterns to mix and match different pieces. Sourced from a Tuscan mill, the fabrics are classics yet include contemporary patterns.

"I like to play with different lengths to change proportions," explains Lee. "I use the same fabric in different ways, such as a piece of cloth that can be tied as an accessory. For my third season, I intend to broaden my collection so that it includes pieces for normal-size men, not just tall and skinny ones."

He enjoys working at his Fo Tan studio in Hong Kong because he gets the best of Chinese tailoring and choice of factories. "Prices are reasonable compared to European factories," he says. "My garments are produced in China but use Italian fabrics. If I hadn't returned home, I probably wouldn't have started my own brand so soon."

Lee is very hands on with everything that happens in his studio, drawing at night and working on administrative tasks or visiting factories during the day. "Right now, I am sending my Fall/Winter collection abroad to buyers who have placed orders and checking the quality before they are packed," he says.

Although his brand has caught the eye of many influential fashion editors, including Suzy Menkes, and he has been named the ambassador for this year's Business of Design Week in Hong Kong, Lee remains humble.

"I would love to open a flagship shop in Antwerp," says Lee. "Eventually, I hope to have a show in Paris, as I think it is the most influential stage in the world. I am very lucky that my followers in China can accept very conceptual styles."

Hong Kong-based designer Six Lee's new collections feature an overall idea of layering. Photos Provided to China Daily

(China Daily 10/13/2013 page13)