IT WAS KNOWN AS Beverley Culture. It had nothing to do with the glitzy enclave close to Hollywood, but a spirit that emerged from an innocuous shopping arcade, tucked in an inconvenient part of Tsim Sha Tsui East in the mid-1990s.
It's myriad of trendy stores spawned Hong Kong's first street fashion scene by integrating imports and local designer's products. It was recommended in Lonely Planet and local pop diva Faye Wong and heart-throb Andy Lau were often spotted there rubbing shoulders with street-cred kids. Shopping at Beverley was considered a fashionable move - it was a paradise for young designers realising their retail dreams, and for consumers who wanted some edge without declaring bankruptcy.
But Beverley is now out of fashion, passe, over. Young and hip former devotees are turning their backs. 'There is nothing there! Let's go for Rise,' they have cried for the past six months. 'Beverley culture is dead,' says Rocky Fok, owner of boutique D-mop. 'The shops and crowd are so different from those in the past, who were genuine fashion lovers. There won't be a revival.'
Fok and his business partners were the first to start their fashion business in Beverley Commercial Centre, Chatham Road, 13 years ago. 'It was only a quiet commercial centre, where you could only find printer companies, stationery shops and property agencies,' he says. 'We were looking for a nice arcade to set up our shop. Beverley was just the right place. Rent was cheap and it looked like Kensington Market in west London [England].'
The opening of D-mop injected new life into Beverley. At first it was the sole agent selling Dr Martens boots in Hong Kong. Later, the shop imported more British brand names such as Red or Dead and Levi's jeans' UK and Europe editions. According to Fok, as people went there looking for his shop, the Beverley name reached cult status and more shops opened. Ronald Chiu has been running boutique Upstairs in Beverley for 10 years. He specialised in second-hand clothing, which was very rare at that time. 'There was no fashion at all,' he says. 'All the young people wore Levi's 501 and Dr Martens boots. We tried to bring something different to the local fashion scene.'
From a business point of view, keeping overheads down was vital. Cheap rent was obviously the key to Beverley's success. A month's rent for a 100 square-foot shop was about $2,000.