Haute stuff from Hong Kong's best young designers

The winners of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council's Young Designers Contest are now members of an alumni that includes Barney Cheng, Harrison Wong and Cecilia Yau.

In its 34th year, the contest - part of Hong Kong Fashion Week, which ended on January 20 - had its strongest showing yet. Sixteen designers competed in three categories: casual and jeans, contemporary day wear, and party and evening wear. The panel of judges included Martine Sitbon, creative director of fashion label Rue du Mail, Vogue China editorial director Angelica Cheung and Tassels designer Bonita Cheung.

The winner of the casual and jeans wear category was Angela Ng, who called her collection The Black Sheep. Ng created a strong, sure-handed and confident mini-collection, remarkable for a young designer who is still studying at Polytechnic University. Her pieces were all about layering and played on volume and texture. Her stand-out piece was a heavy knit cardigan with a cocooning effect.

'It took me 10 days to make that because I hand-knitted it and I had to make it look like rope that's been stitched together,' Ng says, clutching her trophy after the show.

For Ng, the opportunity to join such a contest and win was 'a great experience for someone who is still at school. It is motivating me to take up a graduate course abroad.'

Mag Choy won best contemporary day wear with a collection entitled Inanimate Infection. Mainly working on knits that were rough-hewn and deconstructed in some areas, Choy expressed her concept through the pulls and knots of the yarns she used. One dress, which starts as a loose knitted navy bodice with a sheer backing, morphs into a tightly woven beige skirt. But remove a detail or two and strip away the extreme styling and you have an edgy, commercial collection.