hong kong tatler. august 2019 51
him to let me take the beads, and
they became an important material in
myfirstcollection.tytwice
ionof
onstant
he
at.I
mportant
China”
“Made
nts’tigma
inawas
simply
ore.as
ckedupby
tchesFashion.
whas that
rtnership
elped you?
s a new designer,
t’svery important
o work hand
y asthey know
theircustomersverywell. I was very
fortunatethatNatalieKingham,
the buying director of Matches
Fashion, picked up my first collection
exclusively. Their team really
understood the brand and never made
me compromise on my creativity or
my direction, and they have been
incredibly supportive.stainable fashion
I spent six months working at
Shanghai Tang creatinga collection
with their leftoverfabrics.My
experience in thecityandatShanghai
Tang was memorab
least. It was anunfa
but I had the bestt
gained so muchval
experience in produ
and marketing. Itru
believe that when
it comes to fashion
there’s no one coun
or city that’s atthe
centre of it all;it’sa
global business,and
you have to know
what’s happening
in all parts of the
world—not just
Europe or the
United States—so
spending time inA
was a very eye-ope
experience for me.
Did this experienc
encourage youto
establish yourown
label?
It was actuallyinH
Kong that I gottos
first-hand the amou
of waste that went
clothing production
a studio, you would
maybe a few metre
fabric get throwna
I saw warehousesfi
tonnes of fabricwaste
Sham Shui Po wasalso
an area that I frequent
regularly and on onev
saw a shopkeeper digg
a hole in the groundto
throw away glass bead
Glass beads are very
difficult to disposeof; y
be organised by colour,thenmelted
down to be reused.It’sa verytime-
consuming and expensive process,
and he was taking the lazy way out
and just throwing them away. The
glass beads reminded me of materials
Galliano would have used in his Dior
collections, and it was such a sad
scene for me. I eventually convinced
Do you use the fact that your label
is sustainable as a marketing tool?
It’s important to make clothes that
stand out and, for me, the fact the
designs are sustainable is secondary. I
want to show people that sustainable
fashion isn’t just about organic linen,
but it can also be a beautifully beaded
dress. I don’t use the sustainable tag
as a marketing message because, at
the end of the day, consumers are
coming across my brand on digital
platforms, they’re swiping so fast that
they might not even see the caption
(and the mention of upcycled fabrics).
The product needs to be strong to
capture a consumer’s attention. Agarment can be made from the most
luxurious fabric, but if it’s not designed
well, it’s not going to look good. I’m
a designer—at the end of the day, it
doesn’t matter where my materials
come from; what matters is what I
make with it.Tell us about your fall-winter
collection.
I created my FW19 collection after
being named as a finalist for the
LVMH Prize, and there was a part of
me that really wanted to show that I
could use waste materials in a creative
way—and that my label wasn’t just
about the beads, which is what I used
in my first collection. We sourced
discarded fabrics like jacquard from
Paris, silks, glitters and more beads
from Switzerland and Hong Kong too.
I’ve become more comfortable as a
designer, and I want the Germanier
woman to feel unapologetically
glamorous.Whereareyourcollections
produced?
I workcloselywitha factory
inShanghaithatproducesmy
collections.I traveltothecit
ayeartooverseethe creat
my designsandaminco
communicationwithth
factorythrough WeCha
thought it wasreally im
toshowthat“MadeinC
in 2019is notthesame
in China” frommy paregeneration.Therewasa s
thatanythingmadeinCh
andthat’s
se anymordebut
ectionway g
ble,tosaythe
amiliarplace,
imeofmy life. I
uable
uction
uly,
ntrya
dsia
ningcenHong
see
unt
into
n.I
dse
sof
awa
fille
pic
Mat
How
pa
he
A
it
to
in hand withbuyers,e.
o
ted
visitI
ging
o
ds.they have tothatanythingm
poorquality,a
notthecasYour
colleto
In
ee
f
ay, but
d with