{"id":85886,"date":"2026-09-18T10:56:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85886"},"modified":"2026-09-18T10:56:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:56:06","slug":"hong-kong-young-fashion-designers-named-at-ydc-as-vip-judge-rok-hwang-urges-a-customer-not-a-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85886","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong young fashion designers named at YDC as VIP judge Rok Hwang urges a customer, not a bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Some 270 brands came from 24 countries and regions, and more than 12,000 trade buyers from 93. Korea came as featured partner. The contest promotion theme was \u201cYOU.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\"The<\/div>
The 11th CENTRESTAGE at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The four-day fair brought some 270 brands from 24 countries and regions and more than 12,000 trade buyers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Tsui Ao-lung was named Champion for The Tide. Kenneth Cheang King-tung took Excellence and Best Art Direction for NOSTALGIA. Jenny Lam Chun-ni won My Favourite Collection, the public vote, for The Old Si-Fut and New Chai.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rok Hwang, founder and creative director of the London house ROKH, gave an interview in the late afternoon, before the judging was made public.<\/p>\n

Hwang\u2019s brief: find your customer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hong Kong struck him as a mixed city in a balanced way, more open than Japan, which he finds a little detached. What he wanted the ten to hear was the gap between a story in the head and a garment on a body.<\/p>\n

The talent, he said, was already there. So was the danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have such a strong vision, such an artistic point of view,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they\u2019re in their own bubble, creating their own storytelling. They have to share it with the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means working out how the clothes might be sold, and how they might be explained. \u201cFinding the customer, finding who they really want to dress, is the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

A look need not be cut for a Hong Kong summer. If they believe in layers, he said, they can sell in a colder country. They do not have to wound the idea to make it real. \u201cEven one customer could make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the clothes are to leave the catwalk, the factory has to be able to read them. A one-off can still be sewn at the table. Anything meant to be produced has to be broken into steps another pair of hands can follow, be it a tech pack, photographs or a pattern. The factory will not guess the design.<\/p>\n

He would not hurry them onto an international circuit. Fashion, as he describes it, is a cycle of buyer, customer and company. Sell-through has to be understood before anyone is asked to trust the model.<\/p>\n

Spending in Asia, in his view, is livelier than in London or Paris. \u201cOnce they find the right customer, they can localise the business and scale it.\u201d A first collection does not have to plan a global invasion.<\/p>\n

What the jury and the public actually bought<\/strong><\/p>\n

The prizes, once they came, answered him only in part.<\/p>\n

Tsui\u2019s The Tide was drawn from Kuang Chao, the 1976 Cantopop theme song for TVB\u2019s drama of the same name, sung by Susanna Kwan. The four looks follow a woman\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

He put it more plainly. \u201cI once heard a Cantonese oldie,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s about a woman and her ups and downs. I took that as the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

He thought the jury had gone for the making. \u201cThe handwork is heavy,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it stays clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grind was the stitching. \u201cThat was the hardest part. Every day, 18 to 20 hours, for a whole month.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was his first collection. \u201cMy first in my life.\u201d A school friend had once said they wanted to make clothes. That was what pulled him in. He is not rushing a house.<\/p>\n
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\"Tsui<\/div>
Tsui Ao-lung\u2019s winning collection The Tide, drawn from the 1976 TVB theme Kuang Chao, on the YDC runway at CENTRESTAGE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Kenneth\u2019s NOSTALGIA takes its title from Tarkovsky. The booth had been wound in cloth, rotting lace and a ruined bride. The white wedding idea, he said, was the third or fourth he tried. It came from family albums.<\/p><\/div>\n

As a child he kept seeing the wedding photographs at home and decided that was when a woman looked most beautiful, so he made it again. Phones went up along the runway. That was what he had wanted.<\/p>\n

He thinks the two prizes went to the vision, a large and rather dramatic world, more than to the clothes alone. The manufacturer required by the rules was his own brand. Next, a holiday, then work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\"Cheang<\/div>
Cheang King-tung\u2019s NOSTALGIA, which took Excellence and Best Art Direction. The booth was wound in cloth, lace and a ruined bride drawn from family wedding photographs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Jenny\u2019s public win was The Old Si-Fut and New Chai. Old Si-fut and new chai are office names, the old hand and the junior. She had been too nervous to watch the crowd.<\/p><\/div>\n

The suit, she said, held a small revolt in the cut of the trousers. She would not say it with her mouth. The clothes say it, and she still has to go to work. Why the vote? The film behind the clothes was recognisable.<\/p>\n

She wants a brand later. For now she would rather spend a few years under other designers.<\/p>\n

The night gave them a public acknowledgment at the start of a career, and a lift to keep going. Hwang, who has run ROKH for eight years and also cuts for GU, is the kind of working designer the contest puts in front of them.<\/p>\n
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\"Jenny<\/div>
Jenny Lam Chun-ni, winner of My Favourite Collection for The Old Si-Fut and New Chai. The public vote went to an office story. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIn high fashion,\u201d he said, \u201cyou think about one person you love. For the mass market you have to learn how many people will actually put the thing on, and how they live.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

That, for him, is the border each designer has to draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to make their own set of rules for the life, whether this makes it real or not,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they have the purpose, and the end goal of what they want to be, then that is their business. They need to set where they want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

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