Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall and Winter 2013: A Mix of Mismatch

I have always enjoyed crowd-watching in Hong Kong. When it’s spring or summer, you would see vibrant colors in their wardrobe from shoes to bags and accessories. Come winter time, you get to see the locals strut the city streets with hip boots and cover-ups! With this, I didn’t let the chance to cover Hong Kong Fashion Week just pass by.

I receive invites to different countries to cover some events. Malaysia, US, Singapore, HK and in some random way, Myanmar. These invites don’t come with plane tickets though (most of the time), meaning I have to take care of my own flights from the Philippines to the destination. Maybe they think I’m a local? This happens a lot when Malaysia companies invite me.

For Hong Kong fashion week, I splurged on the tickets and booked accommodations with a budget of P10,000. With my super powers in budgeting, I was able to fill everything in.

I was in Hong Kong for 2 full days only. That means, accommodations I booked were only overnight, but I was still able to go full day at the Hong Kong Ocean Park, walk around the parks of Tin Shui Wai, RnR time at my hotel’s spa and of course Hong Kong Fashion Week by the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

I have a gift in maximizing my resources. *Wink* *wink*

Themes of different designs were not just a mixture different colors, but of patters and textures as well.

Since autumn and winter clothes mean layers and layers of fabric, it’s a perfect opportunity to match the mismatch.  Yes, I saw a lot of stripes over polka dots and plaids over crazy prints!

Hong Kong Fashion Week

In Asia, Hong Kong is a thriving hub for design and branded labels. The Hong Kong Fashion Week and the HKTDC World Boutique is a remarkable evidence of such importance of the Fashion industry in Hong Kong.

But all this, is more than fashion itself. HK Fashion Week focuses more in the business side of fashion.

Mind I tell you, there were about 1,600 exhibitors that participated in this year’s HKTDC Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall/Winter.

Everything was pretty much highly automated and their systems ran efficiently

Registration is actually free.  You can register at HKTDC’s official website.

Details about the Hong Kong Fashion Week can be found here.

Register for HK Fashion Week Spring / Summer 2013 here.

Yes. It was a BIG event! LITERALLY! I think I walked more than a kilometer inside the “realms” of HK Fashion Week today! I was going back and forth the different halls at different floors of the Exhibition Center! It was like it could never end!

One floor was quite huge enough for me, then I realized that the fair grounds cover 3 floors!

HK Fashion Week happens twice a year. The. Autumn / Fall event happens on January and the Spring / Summer edition happens in July. If you want to catch the Hong Kong Fashion Week for Spring / Summer, you might want to plot these dates in your calendar: July 8-11, 2013 and register here.

This is actually is the 44th edition of HK Fashion Week. This is my first time attending the event but I can say that it is just as vibrant as I expected it to be! Even if there’s a stereotype to Winter or Fall Fashion as dull and gray, that is not the case here in Hong Kong. It was a brilliant kaleidoscope of styles, colours, fabrics!

This was an open display and one of the sections to the many features of this year’s HK Fashion Week for Fall and Winter.

To respect the designers, photography of their designs is discouraged.  If ever I took some photos inside, it was just to see the entire venue, the crowd or just a wide view of the different items you can see inside.

I was walking around hoping to chance upon Filipino designers, but I failed to find any. I tried to cover every corner, every function of the event, but it was impossible to do so in 1 day and my time was sparse!

A total of about 1,600 exhibitors participated in Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall/Winter

There was a diversified representation of different fashion tastes from different boutiques. Notable spots come from the exclusive designs of labels such as IKA BUTONI, Eutropic, Groupe Pronuptia and 3M to trendy value-for-money fashion from MUSE, Focus, Sub Zero, Gulliver and Orient.

Camouflaged

There were also different sections that cover niched intrests like avante garde shoes and Lady Gaga-like shades! For the more highlighted sections: Denim Arcade, Handbags, Men in Style and Salon of Scarves and Shawls.

Of course, you get to see the more popular features like Intimate and Swim Wear, Bridal, Evening Wear, Accessories, Fabrics and Yarn, Sewing Supplies and many more.

They also had the Small Order Zone for groups of suppliers who can handle small volume orders. Like I said, it is more of the business side!

HK Fashion Week usually offers seminars for free on a first-come-first-serve basis.  Some are for invitation only

Same is true with the Fashion Show.  You can view almost any show you want but you need special invitation in some shows.

A day isn’t enough.  Next time, I’d spend at least 2 days.  The fair usually happens in 4 days.

And next time, I don’t want to miss the seminars and the fashion shows!

World Boutique

Specially featured for participants all over the globe, World Boutique showed high style of garments and accessories. Highlight of brands encompassing Che Che New York, MARCCAIN, Pashma, Adlib, Sumy Kujon, IKA BUTONI and Walter Ma.

Over 460 brands participated this year and there were over 15 runway shows this year.

They’re definitely good in mixing creatives and business!

This year, I did not only see a graceful crash of patterns and colors, I also saw the clash of different textures and materials. A plethora of mix and match of different elements. Who would have thought crazy ideas like this would stand out?

By this time, I was already very tired and must have walked at least 2 kilometers inside the convention.

‘Til the next Hong Kong fashion week then,

FlairCandy <3

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