Say Y.E.S.

For the last leg of my Asia tour (which yes, I realise makes me sound like I’m a has-been pop star milking it out in Far East), after a two year absence, I finally made it back to Hong Kong.  Actually, “back to” makes it sound like I’m very familiar with the place.  I’m not really.  My Cantonese felt croaky and incorrect.  My snail’s pace walk felt out of step in the bustle of Hong Kong’s winding streets of Soho.  I’d wander around into trendy cafes and juice bars (raw pressed juice has arrived like a kale and spinach tidal wave in this part of town…), feeling a bit displaced.

It’s just as well because I was there for three fleeting days to attend the awards ceremony of Yoox.com’s inaugural Y.E.S. Awards in collaboration with Esthetica.  It was a perfect time to feel a bit discombobulated, because in essence, the idea of a sustainable fashion competition being held in Hong Kong in itself feels like an incongruous dichotomy.  Years of associating this city with insatiable consumerism has perhaps blinded my horizons.  Once upon a time, I was hard pressed to name five Hong Kong-based designers.  Now there’s an array of them and they’re finding unconventional ways of working, which also happen to be sustainable.

It’s significant that Yoox.com and Esthetica decided to centre the competition around Asia, with the six nominated designers each being from Hong Kong, Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and China.  As the founder of Esthetica and the person who I would defer to on all things sustainable Orsola de Castro puts it, “the ground here is fertile, the industry is ever present, aware of its damaging effects and its huge potentials to innovate sustainably.”  With seeds of fast fashion relatively close by, designers here sometimes witness this mode of production firsthand and perhaps are more likely to react. 

And if sustainable fashion is to be a new fashion frontier of sorts, where better to find a new generation of designers, willing to charge ahead in this relatively unchartered territory.  The interesting thing about the selected designers for this Y.E.S. award is that by and large, most of them don’t label themselves as “sustainable” as such.  Instead their practise is slow by virtue and their approach towards production and sourcing materials is bound by necessity and an appreciation for traditional techniques and excellent craftsmanship.  That instantly puts them on the track, without them even trying.

More often than not, they’re looking to their immediate surroundings for inspiration. Ken Samudio from the Philippines was a biologist before turning to accessories and so his designs intuitively sensitive to his environment with beautiful anemone-like bags made out of recycled bottle tops.  His rucksack design for Yoox.com is constructed out of recycled newspaper and constructed by female prisoners in his area, adding a social enterprise aspect.  Suzuki Takayuki, being from Japan, of course has the luxury of pre-eminent fabric manufacturers as well as a tradition of wabi-sabi aesthetic to draw from.  His look from his S/S 16 collection ‘Brilliant Shadows’ utilises poetic silhouettes and considered materials that are naturally harmonious. 

The roots of each designer take precedence in different ways.  Renli Su, who is based in London, looked to an ancient Chinese technique of dyeing organic silk with yam to achieve her Yoox.com look, and thus revives and sustains a worthy craft.  I’ve never been happier to wear a shade of brown that I normally shun.   Thuy Duong Nguyen of Thu Thu, who I’ve featured on the blog before, of course maintains her love of the brilliantly vibrant woven fabrics of the H’mong tribe in Sapa, Northern Vietnam.  Her Yoox.com piece pits touches of these textiles with traditional Chinese watercolour paintings. 

Re;Code from Korea is an up cycling brand of a unique nature, being part of Kolon Industries, which owns popular Korean brands like Lucky Chouette.  Re;Code takes the unwanted and surplus materials of its sister companies to create its collections.  It’s a model that feels like a solution for every multi-brand conglomerate. 

All the nominees of the Y.E.S. Award had distinctive design approaches that it was hard to compare one with another.  But there could only be on winner and finally, the cash and mentorship prize went to Hong Kong’s own label Ffixxed.  Technically designers Fiona Lau and Kain Picken are based in Shenzhen but they initially started their label in Hong Kong.  Having visited their wonderful in-house production studio slash haven in Wutong Village at the foot of the idyllic Wutong Mountain, I can attest to Ffixxed’s naturally sustainable working practises.  Again, they don’t describe themselves as such but the way they merely function as designers, suggest otherwise.  Their winning designer is about the utopian act of “pottering around” – slowing down and looking at greenery in order to be productive.  That is something I can certainly relate to.

When I announced Ffixxed as the winner at the awards ceremony, I said that at this particular time, when the industry is pondering about its relentless (and punishing) pace, it felt right to be celebrating six designers who are trying to do things differently and slow it right down.  Here’s to feeling displaced, pottering about and thinking hard before making.   

The pieces of all participating designers of the Yoox.com x Esthetica Y.E.S. Awards are still available to view and buy at unit H307 at Hong Kong’s primary creative hub PMQ until tomorrow as well as being sold on Yoox.com (in Asia-Pacific countries only). 

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Ffixxed look for Yoox.com

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Renli Su look for Yoox.com

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Ken Samudio bag for Yoox.com

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Thu Thu look for Yoox.com

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Suzuki Takayuki look for Yoox.com

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Re;code look for Yoox.com