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subscribe to style file blog via RSShong kong invades china(town)
April 30, 2008 4:13 pm
Chinatown is just around the corner, but wanderers down Lafayette Street in New York City may be surprised to find that the Special Administrative Region has set up its own shop on Manhattan island. Pop-up boutique Made in HK opens tomorrow, and for the next month—or until they sell out—the store will be retailing clothing and accessories by Hong Kong designers. The brainchild of Eugenia Lai, an art-world expat and Hong Kong native, Made in HK takes a guerrilla approach to the kind of project typically sponsored by national trade commissions. Lai handpicked the boutique’s wares from a few emerging and established brands that she’s made a habit of bringing back to New York. “G.O.D. is like the Muji of Hong Kong,” she explained, showing off one of the company’s graphic aprons printed with Chinese Art Deco design. As Lai notes, the G.O.D. aesthetic, like that of many Hong Kong brands, owes something to the island’s split personality—part ex-British colony, part Chinese territory. Another label, ING, however, takes a more deconstructionist quasi-Japanese angle. Still other pieces at Made in HK speak the international language of style, like jewelry designer Muse. “An amazing necklace is pretty universal,” says Lai.
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