A riot of fun as young knitwear designers let their imaginations run wild
It may have started late and had a few problems along the running order, but the second annual Knitwear Symphony runway show certainly gave the international fashion crowd something to write home - or tweet - about.
The collection of work by young Hong Kong designers is in its second year as part of the Fashion Week at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. The show started with looks from 10 designers - ranging from sleek, monotone urban designs to loud constructions inspired by a seven-car pile-up.
Then it was time for three of the city's top designers to showcase their knitwear work. After Judyanna Ng and Johanna Ho, Manix Wong's decidedly gothic collection on the theme of 'rare rainforest animals' made the audience sit up and take notice. The final piece saw the model 'wear' two larger-than-life sculptures of black swans, with a gleaming red eye on each flank.
The entertainment continued with a performance by the sweet-faced male vocal quartet C All Star - who did an a cappella mash-up of over a dozen songs, ranging from All You Need Is Love by the Beatles to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga.
The unexpected show-stopper came at the end, when sponsoring manufacturers were invited to do a short runway show of their products. Eschewing the usual display of haute-couture pomp, Japanese manufacturing house Shima Seiki went for the heartstrings with children aged three and four, paired boy-girl, dressed head to toe in colourful knitwear and clutching soft toys. You could hear the coos and squeals from normally poker-faced fashionistas across the 600-strong audience.
