Hong Kong gets ready to party at music, food and fashion festival
Clothing entrepreneur Kevin Poon does his bit with Blohk Party festival, writes Oliver Clasper
Kevin Poon stands on the roof of The Factory in Wong Chuk Hang that houses the numerous companies he runs, and takes a sip of coffee. As he looks out over the ever-changing landscape, he laments the destruction of yet another mountain to build the new MTR station, which triggers a thought about mankind's place in the universe.
"We need to remember that this whole thing is just a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things, and we're an even smaller speck," he says. "It puts things into perspective. You have to remember to leave your ego at the door."
It was the basketball shoes that really got me into fashion ... From there it just grew
For a man deeply involved in the worlds of fashion and lifestyle (he is co-founder of the Clot clothing brand and launched the Juice retailers), Poon comes across as unnervingly polite and reflective. "I just feel good, now that I've hit my 30s. I was a little insecure and arrogant in my 20s. And I hear the 40s are even better, so I'm excited to see what that's like."
An hour earlier - before the high-energy, whistlestop tour of the four floors of distribution, design, and sales and marketing hubs that he oversees from his office at the summit - Poon had stepped out of a sleek black sedan for our interview. He's not exceptionally tall, but looks good in a red cap, plain cotton tee, green khakis, multi-coloured fishnet sneakers, and an all-weather jacket.
He exudes a bright-eyed eagerness as we do the obligatory card swap: he has four to my one. It's not hard to see why he has so many projects on the go. "I'm not sure it has that much to do with ambition so much as plain old attention deficit disorder," he says, self-mockingly. From here we move on to the Blohk Party music and cultural festival on December 7 that he has created alongside International Fixer's Alex Ng, with Grammy Award winner Pharrell Williams also a partner.
"[Eight months ago] Alex called me out of the blue and told me that the West Kowloon Cultural District was summoning me to see if I'd be interested in hosting an event there. That sparked off everything," Poon says.
"We want to provide a platform and give back to the community and the youth. A lot of time you look at hip hop or electronic music, and it stems from a rebellious standpoint. It's become more commercial, but we want to provide good positive vibes for the young people here," he says.
