Hong Kong Fashion Week, Asia’s biggest fashion event, to showcase an array of new season garments, fashion accessories, clothing accessories, fabrics and related professional services, creating an ideal trade platform with a rich vein of business opportunities.

The fair is crafted to reflect current market trends, unveils the latest shimming fashion trends today. Hong Kong Fashion Week provide a ultimate one-stop sourcing platform for the industry. As a premier sourcing platform for global buyers, the Hong Kong Fashion Week is also a gateway to vivacious markets of Mainland China and Asia, making it one of the must-attend global events in the fashion industry.

Hong Kong Fashion Week is the ideal platform through which the industry can promote the latest products and exchange the latest information on fashion and market trends. Apart from stylish garments and vibrant brands, the fair presents a next-gen showcase of fashion-savvy technology.

To optimise buyers’ sourcing experiences, the fair is categorised into thematic zones to provide maximum showcase for different sectors of the industry, from garments, designer labels and upstream products, such as fabrics and clothing accessories, to trade services and new production technologies in fashion.

Hong Kong Fashion Week offering strong connections for great business opportunities and deals. It is organized by product sector to give buyers easy access to the products that suit their business, highlights include: Intimate Wear Zone, World of Fashion Accessories, Emporium de Mode, Infant & Children’s Wear, Bridal & Evening Wear, Garment Mart, Fashion Gallery, Fabrics & Yarn as well as Sewing Supplies.

Alongside the many fashion parades at Fashion Week, buyer forums, trend-forecasting seminars and sharing sessions on the latest production technologies provide effective platforms for the industry to gather market information and exchange ideas.

Hong Kong Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2016
The 47th Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall/ Winter, commence from 18 to 21 January 2016 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The fair welecome some 1,500 worldwide exhibitors from 18 countries and regions, with Myanmar and Romania participating for the first time.

The HKTDC has invited 90 buyer missions comprising more than 5,000 buyers from 43 countries and regions to source at the fair. These include representatives of renowned fashion brands such as H&M from Sweden, Dssr Co, the leading wholesaler of apparel and fashion accessories in Japan and Showpo, the largest online fashion retailer in Australia.

With this year’s theme being “Fashion of Music”, the HKTDC has created a fashion avenue for the fair, which blends different musical genres in ways that complement various styles of fashion and accessories. During the fair, around 30 fashion events, including fashion shows, fashion parades, seminars, forums, and a networking reception are organised to present the latest fashion collections and market intelligence.

A fashion avenue is created for the Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall/Winter to resonate a variety of fashion and accessories with different thematic decoration: Thermal Clothing & Down Jacket products displayed in pop style area; Infant & Children’s Display is featured in a splendid classical music hall while Men’s Wear & Denim Display are embellished as a rock n roll platform.

More than 10 thematic zones are established to fulfill buyers’ demand. Fashion Gallery, the biggest showroom in size, puts recognizable brands of decent quality on stage.

Emporium de Mode is a unique premium section dedicated to promote brand name in an elegant setting. Thailand multi brand jeans expert MC Jeans (Booth no: 1E-C18) demonstrate abundant stonewashed denim jeans at Emporium de Mode.

The two debut Knitwear and Women’s Wear Zones demonstrate delicate cardigans, sweaters and stylist garment respectively to form an integral part of the retail fashion scene. Chinese Taiwan Sweater Youth Association offer one stop service at the Thermal Clothing Zone.

Another new zone named International Fashion Designers’ Showcase portrays masterpieces from over 150 global designers. The Hong Kong Designer brand #nude MADE BY SUOI participated in the Designers’ Collection Show. Their women’s wear was known for its simplicity, and was currently selling in around 10 select shops in the mainland. Opening Ceremony, a United States-based multi-brand shop specialising in designer brands and collaborative projects, particularly enjoyed the International Fashion Designers’ Showcase.

The forth new zone named Fashion Tech is set up to gather products related to Fashion Technology. Winswin Limited (Hong Kong) (Booth no: 1CON-013) has innovated a breakthrough mannequin technology to create I.DUMMY, which has collected massive anthropometric data from worldwide populations and actual body scales from 3D Body Scanner. Its form changes according to the figures. The information was useful for industry practitioners in designing suitable garment for customers. Techpacker Limited (Booth no: 1CON-012) is a Hong Kong based fashion apps company providing product lifecycle management tool. The apps helps enterprises to save costs and improves quality.

L&J (Booth no: 1D-C12) from Korea display cork made square backpack and snapback products at Fashion Gallery. It takes 30 years to grow the cork oak and another 20 years for a fine grade bark to be collected. The cork is water resistant which can be used on animal leather. Another Korean women’s wear brand Duseonwu (Booth no: 1E-C18) focuses on one on one tailoring with gorgeous fabrics to create noble beauty.

Other zones consist of Activewear & Swim Wear, Bridal & Evening Wear and Handbags Select.

Highlight events
More than 10 fashion shows and parades was held during the four-day fair, offering fashion design elites from Hong Kong and around the world the opportunities to demonstrate their creativity to global buyers.

Kate Liegey, who designs outfit and jewellery for Grammy award winning singer Taylor Swift, showcase Taylor Swift Collection at Fashion Parade on day 1 for the first time.

Kanta SATO and Reina MISA, the Japanese main actor and actress of Itazurana Kiss THE MOVIE, was onstage as guest models to support FORTUNA Tokyo (Booth no: 1A-C19).

FASHIONALLY COLLECTION
Creative excellence of local design talents was under the spotlight at the two FASHIONALLY COLLECTION shows on day 1, which feature the new fashion pieces of past winners and finalists of the Hong Kong Young Fashion Designers’ Contest (YDC). DEMO, a Hong Kong brand positioned as “contemporary classic” style with innovative fabrics, disclose its latest collection at the show.

FASHIONALLY COLLECTION #5 MENSWEAR display menswear for the 2016 fall/winter season, with participating designers including DEMO (designer: Derek Chan), kenaxleung, KURT HO and MODEMENT (designer: Aries Sin).

FASHIONALLY COLLECTION #6 release a collection of women’s wear for the 2016 fall/winter season, with participating designers including 112mountainyam (designer: Mountain Yam), Blind by JW (designer: Walter Kong, Jessica Lau), Effie Hung, FromClothingOf (designer: Shirley Wong), HANG (designer: Mim Mak), KEVIN HO, Lapeewee (designer: Yannes Wong), and SHERMAN KWAN.

Aries Sin from MODEMENT bring her signature unisex collection to prove its charisma to celebrity artists; Blind by JW, a local fashion brand founded in 2012 by two young designers, Walter Kong and Jessica Lau, present their collection with intricate hand drawn technique. Jessica was named “Best Emerging Fashion Designer 2009” in London by the creative group Artstalker. Kurt Ho, wishes to guide the audience to see apparel in an artistic approach via his exquisite collection during fair.

Twelve regional and local elites attend the Designers’ Collection Shows. Five of them are first time participants from Myanmar, including bridal wear designers Myo Minn Soe and Nyo Mar. Deeply inspired by the romance of renaissance and Victoria era, Kiwi designer Engeleena Padychi express her design philosophy via her “Dark Romance” collection during the fair.

Seminars
To better equip the fashion industry for future business opportunity, professionals in the field are also invited to numerous seminars and forums to exchange market intelligence.

Experts from prominent international fashion consulting agencies WGSN and Fashion Snoops speak on upcoming trends of Spring/Summer 2017. Heavyweight speakers from H&M, Yeechoo and Bonham Strands share their views on adopting a circular business models at the panel discussion hosted by Redress.

Other not to be missed events include the sharing session with Net-a-Porter, where participants gain valuable insights on e-tailing. A networking reception also be held on day 1 for industry players to develop potential partnership.

Hong Kong Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016
The 23rd Hong Kong Fashion Week for Spring/Summer (FWSS), was staged from 4-7 July 2016 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This year the fair welcomes some 1,200 exhibitors from 16 countries and regions, with Bangladesh, Italy, the Philippines and Netherlands as new comers.

With the theme of Neon Garden, a series of fashion house shows and runway parades go alongside the Fashion Week to reinforce Hong Kong’s position as Asian fashion trendsetter. HKTDC offers business matching services, networking receptions, seminars and buyer forums during fair to provide a perfect platform for industry players to exchange market intelligence and explore new business opportunities.

To create business opportunities for exhibitors, a total of 91 overseas buying missions are organised to bring over 5,100 buyers from 45 countries and regions to the fair. These include representatives from renowned fashion labels, mega chain stores and major distributors, including Forward from Russia, HARDTOFIND from Australia, Jaspal from Thailand, MODAS GAEBEL from Spain, TRICYCLE from South Korea, V-Mart Retail from India and World Co from Japan.

To optimise the sourcing experience of global buyers, four new zones are launched including ‘Fashion Tech’, ‘Footwear, Leggings & Socks’, ‘Knitwear’ and ‘Women’s Wear’.

Emporium de Mode in FWSS is a dedicated premium section dedicated to promote elegant fashion brands. Private or house labels have become increasingly effective marketing tools among fashion industry players to differentiate and upgrade the image of products.

Fashion Gallery is an ideal platform to display brand labels and high fashion while the International Fashion Designers’ Showcase showcases unique designer brands for potential clients. Under the four major categories of Apparel, Upstream Supplies, Fashion Accessories and Technology and Business Matching, zoning was fine-tuned to Footwear, Leggings & Socks, Eyewear, Hair Accessories & Headwear, Belts and Ties and Embroidery & Sewing Supplies to offer one stop platform to best catering buyers’ demand.

In the ‘Footwear, Leggisngs & Socks’ zone, Wan Li Neng International Ltd, display LED sneakers with seven switchable light colours and five colour changing modes which can match different outfit colour schemes. By easy charging with USB cable, the shoes can glow for over eight hours, serving as an ideal partner for different occasions.

Also on show is Matara, a young jewellery brand based in Bangkok. In the ‘International Fashion Designers’ Showcase’ zone, the brand showcase its signature collection comprising of jewellery items like rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces, which are all handmade by Thai artisans. In the collection, pearls are put inside silver cages to give the meaning that true beauty is inside every woman.

MIDOTI, a fashion accessory brand founded by SHARON5 in 2014, offers aesthetic style which goes beyond traditional form and structure. Well-received by the industry after the launch of the first collection, the designer, Sharon Cheung is invited to showcase her collection in flagship stores and select shops. The ‘Knot Lots Collection’, which features the designer knots made by the special application of German technology of soft metal materials weaving, was showcased in the fair.

A new “Fashion Tech” zone was launched this year to showcase the industry’s latest digital printing technology and award-winning eco-friendly textile technology. In recent years, there has been high awareness of sustainable development within the industry. From design and sourcing to prototyping and production, the industry has been dedicated to reducing energy consumption and carbon emission. Responding to this development, this year’s fair focused on exploring relevant technologies and assessment tools to help raise the industry’s efficiency.

At the inaugural Fashion Tech zone, Kansai Yamamoto, whose designs are well-known for the magnificent blend of traditional Japanese aesthetics and ultra-modern style, has teamed up with Epson for several international shows since 2013. Many of his stunning creations were printed onto a variety of textiles, including polyester, silk and cotton using dye sublimation printers and digital industrial textile inkjet printer of Epson. Epson Hong Kong Limited showcase a series of cutting-edge printers in the new zone, Fashion Tech.

Another exhibitor from Fashion Tech, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA), showcase their textile innovations which are the award winners at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. These include the project on turning food waste into polylatic acid fibre which is biodegradable, and the project on the application of recyclable solvents during dyeing process to reduce water consumption by about 90 per cent compared to conventional method.

Other popular zones return with splendour, including Activewear & Sportswear, Intimate & Swim Wear, Children’s Wear, Men in Style, Denim Arcade and Fabrics & Yarn. Qualified exhibitors are awarded a “Green Solution Suppliers” insignia on their booth fascia to address the growing demand on eco-friendly apparel.

Labels and tags are important components of clothing and accessories. Amid the green trend, Dizayn Etiket San Tic A. S. from Turkey presents a series of eco-friendly label papers including Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified paper and kraft, as well as woven labels made of different materials, like organic cotton, bamboo and recycled polyester.

Highlight events
Apart from the diversified exhibits from around the world, the Fashion Week presents fabulous events to add spice to the fair and to offer invaluable opportunities for young designers to introduce their collections in front of global buyers and industry players.

A series of parades and house shows was staged during the first three days of the fair, in which impressive collections created by debut designers and students was highlighted. The institutions include the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Technological, Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong and Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre.

Seminars
Alongside the parades and fashion shows, there was several seminars on the market trend of fashion industry. Industry experts from leading trend forecasters such as WGSN and Fashion Snoops will share their insights at the seminars on trends of AW17/18 for Women’s and Men’s Wear. Other key seminars cover various hot topics in fashion industry, such as fashion sustainability and strategies of E-tailing.

HKTDC
Established in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body dedicated to creating opportunities for Hong Kong’s businesses. With more than 40 offices globally, including 13 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China, Asia and the world. With 50 years of experience, the HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to provide companies, particularly SMEs, with business opportunities on the mainland and in international markets, while providing information via trade publications, research reports and digital channels including the media room.