Schoolteacher, fetish shop owner, counsellor – life has been all about making human connections for Brenda Scofield
- The former owner of controversial shop Fetish Fashion in Hong Kong, Brenda Scofield, 73, reflects on her eventful life
- In her current role as chairwoman of a suicide prevention NGO, she says, she offers ‘an ear without judgment … It’s what we all want, isn’t it?’
Few people can have lived a life as unpredictable as Brenda Scofield has, nor can they say that they have held down such a diverse range of jobs as she has over the years.
From being a schoolteacher to owning a fetish shop, working in music and art, and then becoming a certified counsellor specialising in sexual and gender diversity, this 73-year-old long-time Hong Kong resident has packed more into her life than the average person.
On the surface, these jobs might seem poles apart, but to Scofield they share a common factor: fostering genuine human connections and engaging with people from all walks of life.
Scofield was briefly the talk of Hong Kong in 2001 after police raided her Fetish Fashion establishment in Central. People were curious about what the former schoolteacher was doing running such a business, and newspapers seized on the contrast between her past and present occupations.
Scofield and her manageress each faced one count of keeping a disorderly house, and six charges of managing an objectionable performance; her husband, Laurence, was charged with aiding and abetting.
Evidence was given by undercover police officers who had infiltrated some of their parties. All three were acquitted after a trial that lasted several months. Nearly two decades on, the ivory-haired Scofield lights up as she speaks. Her energy is contagious and her confidence unshakeable.