Local fashion designer Diane Freis is ready for her big comeback. Known for her polyester-georgette prints and colours, Freis has just opened a store on the ground floor of a new development on Sharp Street behind Times Square in Causeway Bay. When the final touches are finished - more likely when all the required government applications finally pass through the bowels of bureaucracy - the space will be in a new hotel called Express by Holiday Inn.
'Shoppers on Hong Kong side don't like to go to Kowloon, so I am fortunate to find this good location,' the confessed workaholic Freis said at her recent opening. 'Causeway Bay is great and this street is coming alive.'
In securing the new site, Freis, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1978, is retaking charge of her career. After success in the 1980s, her company downsized in the 90s. Now she's rebuilding.
She said: 'I have more control now, it's more structured and I'm not afraid when I sleep at night.'