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Lee Wing-Sze

WHEN DJ SAMMY'S Michael Jackson outfit caused a stir in the musical production This Summer, This Moment,  three local designers knew all their hard work had paid off.

Rock Wong Sai-hang, Audrey Siu Yuk-ha, both 21, and Leong Wai-nang, 22, were the costume designers for Commercial Radio's Sammy and Siu-yee Performing Workshop this summer.

The designers are not big names in the local fashion and garment industry yet - but they might be one day. They are all third year students at the Institute of Textiles and Clothing at the Polytechnic University.

DJ Sammy's funky outfit and the innocent schoolboy image of Canto-pop singer Edmond Leung Hon-man were the result of many long hours of work.

It all started when Ms Leong asked Ms Wong and Ms Siu to join her as costume designers for the musical.

They stayed in the project room for the summer, seven days a week and more than 12 hours a day, designing and searching for costumes for the musical.

'We didn't read newspapers, we didn't watch TV, we didn't know what was happening outside,' Ms Leong recalls.

As the story of the musical is set in housing estates in the 1980s, the designers had a hard time thinking up ideas.

'We were still primary students in the '80s. We were playing with toys, and watching TV and cartoons. We knew nothing about fashion,' says Ms Leong, who has been obsessed with fashion since she was 16.

Apart from reading numerous books and magazines, they also watched '80s films, such as Salute,  starring Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, and went through that era's album covers, such as Priscilla Chan Wai-han's Dancing Street,  for inspiration and ideas.

'It was really hard to design the costumes because we didn't experience the trends during that era,' Ms Siu explains. To them, fashion is not just about being trendy.

'Fashion is a medium to express what I want to say,' Ms Siu says.

Ms Leong, who started studying the history and background of international fashion brand names at the age of 16, thinks a person's character can be expressed through clothes.

'Even if Rock doesn't say a word, she gives you a feeling that she is quite cool and funky from what she is wearing,' she says.

And Ms Wong, who became interested in fashion five years ago after taking a fashion course at the School of Continuing Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, adds: 'Fashion should be something wearable.'

As they only had little more than a month to prepare costumes for 30 actors and actresses, they chose to buy some ready-to-wear clothes instead of making all the outfits themselves.

They visited all the boutiques they knew sold '80s fashion and casual wear. They went to Central, old districts like To Kwa Wan, Ladies' Street and the shops on old housing estates.

After the project, they say they have become more adaptable and tolerant.

'Our EQ and IQ have both been boosted,' Ms Wong says. 'We learned that our ideas might be different from other people's and we need to make compromises.'

In addition, the trio's tailoring skills have improved.

'It's really satisfying to see all the things [costumes] the three of us made,'

Ms Siu says.



Three young designers beaver away all summer making costumes for a musical extravaganza