Show and tell

Hong Kong PolyU BA fashion students will stage a graduation exhibition of their work on campus from August 4

Before Chinese New Year, against the backdrop of protest and the onset of coronavirus, Hong Kong PolyU fashion organisers, as is customary, had aligned with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) for the annual Hong Kong Fashion Week. During this period, a group of final-year PolyU BA fashion students would get to show their collections of six looks each at Wan Chai's Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. However, in June, HKTDC informed PolyU that Hong Kong Fashion Week had been cancelled. Undaunted, PolyU had to rethink how to showcase the students' work – and whose collections had already been impacted, or in some cases curtailed, by disturbances to the city.

PolyU decided to play to its strengths and keep things close to home with a July 30 show on campus. "It's like a sort of homecoming after everything that's happened," said Jackie Leung Mei-lai, an instructor at PolyU's Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC). However, just last week that plan was also cancelled when the government announced a new lockdown in the face of pandemic resurgence sweeping the city. Thus, in this fast-changing and fast-acting year, PolyU have instead recast the event as the ITC Graduation Exhibition 2020 at the campus's newly refurbished Fashion Gallery, which will stage the work of the show finalists and winners of the PolyU online fashion contest, from August 4th to September 25th.

It's now 25 years since former PolyU fashion design alumni Vivienne Tam showed her Spring/Summer 95 collection in collaboration with Chinese artist Zhang Hongtu. Does it surprise Leung that Hong Kong is yet to produce another Vivienne Tam?

"I think the industry has changed," she reflects. "Before we had a lot of opportunities but those who got onto the bigger stage had to be super talented and perhaps were more couture oriented. Designers can more easily showcase work nowadays, which should be, and is, an asset but while many students have the talent, they might elect to go more street wear or accessories – they have different directions and categories today, which perhaps weren't so much the case in Vivienne Tam's day. That's why we don't have a big star as they go in different directions."

CDLP spoke with two PolyU BA fashion designers – knitwear student Charmaine Lam Ching-hei and Topsy Yu Cheuk-lam, winner of the Best Womenswear Collections of PolyU Fashion Online Contest 2020 – to discuss the year's challenges, their respective collections and why this might be an opportune moment for Hong Kong fashion design.