Afa Lee, Singchin Lo, Vann Kwok and I were the alumni of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design (the last year Fashion Design was combined). Afa is an artist, model, art director, and fashion influencer. Vann is an accessory designer and Singchin is a fashion designer. They are the schoolmates which I admired the most even back in the day.

I graduated more than a decade ago, but not many of our classmates can still be true to themselves, stand for their values, and follow their dreams. Most of them compromised to the hardship of reality. So, I invited three good classmates to talk about fashion design in Hong Kong with their own experience and how they pursue their careers upon graduation. But most importantly, to catch up some old times with them.

I have always admired Vann Kwok, who is so passionate about fashion. She loves fabrics, clothing, and accessories. Soon after she graduated from Poly U, she entered the fashion industry and worked for more than half a year before joining the advertising industry to become an image director. But for most clients, judge an excellent styling on how close it reminiscence the reference image. As well, it was also the days while fast fashion was trendy. Vann was repeating the same work or borrowing and returning items, day in and day out.

Vann became a costume designer for feature films by chance, "Costume designing has nothing to do with the fashion industry, and the aesthetics of a film is what I would refer to as very close to real life." In the world of movies, there is no need to follow the fashion trend. As a costume designer, all you need to do is study the background of the characters and the context of the story to construct the character's backstory through costumes.

Vann worked with William Chang in the film The Flowers of War directed by Zhang Yi-Mou: "It is the most fulfilling work for me. I handled everything even from the fabrics." But it was the golden era of cop movies in Hong Kong, and creativity in the fashion category was highly restricted, "I once borrowed ad returned the same police uniform jacket dozens of times." Vann said with a smile.

After ten years as a costume designer in the various fields, Vann understood the limitations of using fabrics for her work: "Lady Gaga was popular at the time. While designing costumes for concerts, I realized that so many things that fabrics can't do." Vann soon discovered her interest in designing and making hats. She quitted her job shortly and went to London to study art, as well utilizing this period to settle down and figure out her future direction. Before the start of the semester, Vann served as an apprentice at the studio of Missa, a Japanese hat designer based in the UK, and found that she is more into to doing sculptural-like designs.

The teaching complex of the university which Vann attended has two floors. The upper floor is the workshop with all the sewing machines, and the lower floor is a factory-like operating area for metalworking. Vann was reluctant to get in front of the sewing machine again, so she decided to skipped all the sessions and went straight to the lower floor and practice metalworking. At that time, the school encouraged all students to participate in various design competitions. Her works were classified as Contemporary Jewellery, and become so delved into it. In 2017, Vann back to Hong Kong upon graduation and started her brand two years later.

Vann has been practicing her own ideas along her creativity path from integrating fabric and 3D visualization and then set up her own brand. To me, she is someone who is constantly seeking for challenges and breakthroughs, and unwilling to settle for anything less. Her works walk between artsy and trendy, and the materials used are a fusion of technology and traditional craftsmanship.

Continue: From Commercial to Artistic — Afa Lee | Perseverance and Experiment — Singchin Lo | Fashion and Future