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Kavita Daswani

Another strong attraction of Fashion Week is the Asian Fashion Designers' Showcase, a first for the event.

 The assistant executive director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, C. S. Lee, described the showcase as 'the major highlight of our new look Fashion Week'.

  Mr Lee said it was 'an initiative to group together the cream of Asia's design talent, reinforcing Hong Kong's growing reputation as the sourcing centre for fashion from across the Asia-Pacific region'.

  The showcase should not be confused with the Asian Fashion Designers' Shows, which are full-scale catwalk events.

  The idea is to portray the significant talents of all Asian designers, not simply those living and working in Hong Kong.

  Mimi Yeung, the TDC's head of fashion, said the decision to integrate a strong pan- Asian sentiment was based on the fact that, in the 21st century, Asia was poised to become the world's largest consumer of clothing.

  'This part of the world contains the biggest population and also most of the garments exported to the West are made in Asia,' she said.

  'All these factors make this a good time to present the excellence of Asian design.'   She likened the status of Asian designers to those in the West as kindergarten versus graduate level.

 Traditionally, Hong Kong and the rest of Asia have been seen as copycats of European fashion. 'Of course, in many cases, we need time for some of our designers to mature. Compared to the Western design world, our industry is still young. We need to give our designers the right environment to mature,' she said.

 Offerings on view will be by designers from countries as diverse as Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Thailand and the United States.

 'Our local designers will be in the majority,' Ms Yeung said. 'But this is a good start and, hopefully, will be a way for us to attract more designers from other parts of Asia to come to Hong Kong so we can strengthen our position as the fashion centre in the entire Asia-Pacific region.'   That Hong Kong Fashion Week had become increasingly international in recent years - featuring exhibitors from all over Europe, the US and Asia - would be more of a bonus than anything else, she said.

  'Hong Kong is such an international city that it is important for us to make this an international event,' Ms Yeung said.

  'Designers from all over the world show in Paris but, at the same time, no one can take away the traditions that belong to the Parisians.

  'It is much the same for Hong Kong. We are trying to position Hong Kong as the Paris of Asia, a world centre of fashion.' 



Designing a showcase to make Hong Kong the Paris of the East