Reports

    Can Going Local Save Hong Kong Independent Designers

    In Hong Kong, Fashion Farm Foundation’s FFFRIDAY 2020 initiative promotes local designers and encourages consumers to buy locally.
    Fashion Farm Foundation’s FFFRIDAY 2020 initiative promotes local designers and encourages consumers to buy locally. Photo: Courtesy Ka Wa Key
      Published   in Fashion

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    In Hong Kong, Fashion Farm Foundation’s FFFRIDAY 2020 campaign made a pivot to include digital presentations. Running over a two week period, it featured twenty fashion designer labels and encouraged consumers to wear local designers on a Friday. This year, physical presentations were replaced with digital presentations created by five designers under the limitations of COVID-19, including labels YMDH and Feaston. London-based brand Ka Wa Key made their video presentation from home, under lockdown, with a greenscreen and completed both the arduous editing and special effects process themselves.

    The Jing Take

    The formation of CreateHK, established under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau in 2009, has been a major step in driving the development of the creative industries including fashion in Hong Kong. For over a decade, this government agency has supported and promoted it’s emerging fashion designers including at global fashion weeks.

    This local event, FFFRIDAY 2020, supported by CreateHK, has taken a light, tongue-in-cheek approach to encouraging domestic consumerism at this time. A branding opportunity, it offers a platform for independent designers to think differently about how they showcase and sell fashion. This year, given the restrictions of the global pandemic, brands have been pushed to new limits, both in the production of presentations and collections. FFFRIDAY 2020 attracted a strong turnout and brands’ quick adaptation of digital illustrates the breath of innovation that is possible during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. For global luxury brands, however, it’s yet another concern that more and more consumers, in Hong Kong and elsewhere, will pivot to domestic brands for many of their luxury purchases.

    The Jing Take reports on a leading piece of news while presenting our editorial team’s analysis of its key implications for the luxury industry. In this recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debates that sprout up on Chinese social media.

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