Fashion Access HK eyecatchers

We are now following the seminar program at the Prime Source Forum in HK, but in between lectures we sneak out to visit the trade shows that are held in the same building, such as Fashion Access, a trade show for footwear, leather goods and accessories. Even though officially it is a show for finished products, it features the odd mixture of suppliers, manufacturers and private labels that many Asian shows have.

Local brands

However, the fashion and quality level is going up, with local Chinese brands such as Wasabi. 

Studs and spikes were all over the place at European shows like Micam as well, yet Asian brands always manage to maintain a feminine, elegant and sometimes even cute look. 

Nega C. by Macau-based designer Isabella Choi is one of the other local gems. After a footwear design course in London she now has her own label - mostly known for its eccentric platforms - which she sells online and in local HK boutiques like Voulez Vous. Her winter collection features the same bold colour blocking as her previous work, yet in slightly more basic and glamourous tones, combining grey, blue and black with bright cold. Making stuff blingy but not tacky is another typical Asian design skill in our opinion.

Students Tomas Bata University

It is a small world...unexpectedly we ran into an exhibition of work by the graduates of 2011 from the shoe design department of Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic. Other than a brochure of the school there was no further information provided, but we felt some of the designs are worth showing here: