On April 25, The Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection (Aftec) hosted the 'Dialoguing: Fashion to Costume' seminar at the Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre for fashion lovers.
During the two-hour seminar, veterans of the industry discussed the relationship between fashion and costumes, and introduced the audience to various types of costumes used in arts such as ballet, contemporary dancing, Cantonese opera, cosplay and drama.
Roger Ng, assistant professor, institute of textile and clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said: 'Fashion presents the real world, while costumes are the presentation of the virtual world. Both are trying to send a message to the public or the audience.
'Fashion is a commercial product that needs to generate sales figures to be successful, [but] costumes for performances do not need to be marketable,' Dr Ng added.
Vicki Ooi, artistic director of Aftec, reminded the audience to be aware of cultural differences in colour interpretation when creating designs.
'In western culture, white ... represents purity - it is the colour worn to weddings,' Dr Ooi said.
