How Hong Kong’s first Festival of Fashions got off to an explosive start
The city’s first fashion week, in 1967, was a success that attracted editors and buyers from all over the world. But the day it was launched was also the day ammunition experts uncovered and detonated 75 bombs planted by the Communists
“It promises to be the most exciting fashion happening ever – American Vogue will devote a complete issue to Hongkong, buyers will be flown in from all over the globe, the eyes of the world will be focused on us,” reported the South China Morning Post on March 10, 1967, under the headline “Hongkong – Paris Of The Orient?”
The story heralded the birth of Hong Kong’s first Festival of Fashions, which would run from October 30 to November 3, 1967. The story continued: “For five days [...] international fashion buyers will [...] view luncheon fashion shows, walk around display centres on both sides of the harbour, and visit garment factories to see for themselves that ‘sweated labour’ is a thing of the past.”
“Many like Mr W. T. McDonald, of the Drapers Record, in London, spent their first days here looking at the sights and eating ‘real Chinese food’.”
But trouble was brewing. On October 31 – next to a photo story featuring “Hongkong’s Twiggy, Mary Blaxell-Slater” that reported, “The Festival is concurrent with Hongkong week, which was launched by the Governor yesterday” – ran the headline: “Bid to Mar H.K. Week: Sudden Increase in Bomb Planning”. The report stated, “Yesterday – the opening of Hongkong Week – saw an increase in the number of bomb planting by local Communists ...
Ultimately, the festival was judged a qualified success. On November 2, Bernard Kutzner, editor of the West German glossy monthly Petra, told the Post: “Wherever there is trouble fermenting – in South America, Africa and the Far East – there you will find explosive fashion in the future.”
