WILLIAM Tang's autumn/ winter '95 fashion collection is a fun, casual and after-five mix of styles from the 1950s. The designer has taken a number of ideas from that period and given them his own interpretation to create clothes for the 1990s. 'Part of the collection is related to the loose Chinese pants that men and women once wore,' said Tang. 'I call them Tang pants.' Though he executed the trousers in an Italian rose-printed fabric, he retained the traditional cut. 'I used the exact cutting based on samples from that period,' he said. The result is a comfortable, one-size unisex garment with fold-over waist that pairs with long, loose-knit jackets. Aside from this 'local' influence, Tang based some of his collection on the clothes worn by Bad Girls in the 1950s - a 'sporty but sleazy style' that includes stretch Lycra knee-length cycling pants, tight skirts and T-shirts and tops in shocking colours. Another part of this look consists of the abundant use of both fun fur and real fur - a first for this designer. 'I can see there's a comeback for fur but I was against it until I visited fur farms in Denmark and the Saga fur design centre,' he said. Convinced that a fox or mink farm was really no different to a chicken farm, he promptly crafted many pieces such as mini-skirts and jackets from the cheaper pieces of silver fox and mink. 'I used those to make it not for the glamorous, expensive crowd but for young girls,' he said. 'They are more wearable items that can be mixed with suits.' Whereas the fun fur is used in natural browns, the real fur is dyed into colours such as grass green. Both are also used as trim on Chinese brocade. Lengths are varied in this collection, from super-mini to knee-length to ankle-length. 'No one wants to be restricted to one length,' he said. 'Hemlines are not as important as before - people are much freer, they feel more confident and know exactly what they want.' Formal wear in Tang's collection matches tight-fitting jackets with huge crinoline skirts in a tailored look. The fabric used is brocade, which Tang admits is a compromise towards his business partners. He bemoans the all-too-familiar Catch 22 situation: 'In Hong Kong, if you do something completely fashionable and Western, someone from overseas looks at it and thinks, 'If they are from Hong Kong, it should be more Oriental', which is the wrong concept.' Some menswear will also be shown in the collection, but will be modelled by women. All Tang's ranges will be paraded to the strains of Cantonese opera and pop music from the 1950s, in addition to Nat King Cole. The line up represents clothes from the M by William Tang and W by William Tang labels, the former being a more commercial line produced with a business partner.
