#hung huang

[editedchina]

“Hung Huang: Fashion in China” Women Of China, 21 January 2014

Fashion is also about the market, sales and money. In the past 20 years, every corner of China's fashion has been open, but our best factories worked on foreign orders, our most bustling shopping malls sold foreign brands, and our fashion icons read foreign fashion magazines.

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“The Evolution of Fashion” Global Times, 20 December 2013.

A one-week exhibit titled “The Great Fashion Leap” was staged in Beijing’s Sanlitun, jointly organized by Chinese online social club P1 and the retailer/publisher Hung Huang. To track the changes in modern Chinese fashion, the curators juxtapositioned street style photography captured since 2007 against Communist era imagery. Did anyone catch this in person?

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“On China: Making it big in fashion” CNN, 20 November 2013.

Among the topics covered – the rise of personal style exploration in maturing urban consumers, the opportunity for multi-branded fashion (in place of luxury) retail platforms, and the curiosity for domestic emerging design.  There is also an interesting notion that “Created in China” is replacing “Made In China”. It is only a matter of time: the country’s producers face intense pressure to drive innovation across their processes and the fashion industry is no exception. In the meantime, however, Huang reminds us that domestic education and training still leans heavily on the technical side and young talent is lost to Central St. Martins, Parsons,  etc.

Lately, my mind has been unusually preoccupied by the emerging designer space, by what it will take for domestic labels to bring back the soft skills and global sensibilities they have gathered in Europe or America, and actually translate this into commercially viable brands that are respected in a global sense. In the same way that Huang warns domestic designers to look past the guanxi game and develop international standards of professionalism, I  worry not enough promising talents are taking the pains of developing – introspectively – their own design mark, nor are they aggressively seeking the right global customer. Thoughts??

[editedchina]

“Our middle class is so much more interesting than our nouveau riche. The middle class is the one who works, who speaks English, who has been opening itself to the outside world.”

Solid quote from publisher/blogger/retailer/industry commentator Hung Huang:

“China’s Top Trendsetter is Communist Party Royalty With Fashion Lessons for the French.” Worldcrunch, 27 February 2013.

Article title is a bit exaggerated, but as a whole, the piece is a decent background on Hung.

[kirkcassandra]

AnyWearStyle highlights of 2011

It's been a year of big changes for the AnyWearStyle team. Here are our highlights of 2011.

In January 

..we talked street style with Facehunter, aka Yvan Rodic.

In February 

..we lusted after Robert Clergerie's shoes in Lane Crawford and listened to Hung Huang and Lu Liu give us their perspectives on the emerging fashion scene in China.

In March 

..we watched as Galliano's towering fall from grace continued to dominate the press and felt disappointed by China Fashion week in Beijing.

The immense collection of artefacts that made up the Culture Chanel exhibition left us overwhelmed and awestruck, as it arrived at Shanghai's Museum of Contemporary Art.

In April 

..we attended A Conversation with Peter Lindbergh to hear the photographer talk about his distaste for photoshop and the excitement and spontaneity of fashion photography before everything went digital. Angelica Cheung talked of the importance of having to keep up with the changes in China and the importance of knowing one's audience; Franca Sozzani declared that she felt it was important to talk to readers through her Vogue.it blog.

We also joined Christopher Bailey and CEO Angela Ahrendts for Burberry's digital extravaganza in Beijing celebrating ‘Burberry, Britishness, music and innovation.’ 

And, of course, we all screamed "McQueen!" as Kate Middleton emerged to wave to the world in her hand-stitched lace dress designed by Sarah Burton.

In May

..we took a trip to Singapore to attend the Asia Fashion Exchange, where we saw Star Creation finalists show their collections and chatted with Giles Deacon, Antonio Berardi and Erdem.

We also endured the stifling heat inside 798's water tank to see Chi Zhang's elegance reborn show.

In June

..we spent hours walking round the Louis Vuitton Voyages exhibition and wished we had our own bespoke, initialed luggage.

In July

..we launched our Beijing Past and Present Design Competition alongside Time Out Beijing. We chatted to London College of Fashion BA Student Collection of the Year award winner Wun Wun Nova Chiu and Topman arrived in Beijing's Fei Space for the first time in China.

In August

..we announced the winner of the AnyWearStyle x Time Out Beijing T-shirt design competition. Xin Guo, S Tien Hsiang Chow and Mare-Charlotte Le Saulnier de Saint-Jouan all had their designs printed on limited edition T-shirts and tote bags.

In September

..we joined the throng of guests who attended the launch of the Bulgari 125 Years of Italian Excellence exhibition. 

Later in the month, our online boutique AnyShopStyle.cn launched to coincide with the opening of Beijing Design Week. Thanks to We Architech Anonymous our pop-art inspired pop-up shop was a huge hit with visitors.

In October

..Fashion Week arrived in China. We were impressed by Helen Lee and Decoster in Shanghai and Beauty Berry and S.Deer in Beijing.

In November

..we tried not to get crushed by crazed shoppers as Versace for H&M arrive in the shops. 

In Hong Kong, we popped into the Fringe Club to see Dries Van Noten and James Reeve's new exhibition of beautiful photographs and beautiful clothes.

In December

..we looked in on Wuhao's new winter collections and installations while the moon glowed red during the lunar eclipse.

All the team at AnyWearStyle.com wish you the very best for 2012 and look forward to sharing another exciting year. 

[kirkcassandra]

Hung Huang enlists Xiang Yaodong for BNC

Media personality and fairy godmother of Chinese fashion designers Hung Huang has signed young talent Xiang Yaodong as her boutique's first in-house designer. The young ESMOD Beijing graduate will be the first to design collections exclusively for BNC, named "MOH for BNC", as well as for his own brand MOH.

As well as BNC providing a platform for designers (who might otherwise lack the funds or business acumen to get their brands off the ground) to sell their pieces in store, Hung has also announced the creation of the iLook/BNC scholarship which will go towards helping fashion students at ESMOD Beijing.

A few more years of investment in the industry at this level will surely prove that what Chinese designers lack is not talent but support.

[kirkcassandra]

Hung Huang and Lu Liu on China's Fashion Climate

Hung talked about the drive and inspirations of young Chinese fashion designers today, their goals and the problems they face in the Chinese market. She spoke of the lack of confidence the Chinese market has in its own designers, looking for confirmation of their credentials in the west before they dare to buy. Fabric is something Chinese consumers are extremely particular about, especially when looking at locally-designed pieces. Hung herself is one of the few public figures who shows such support for the young generation of Chinese designers coming through her websites, articles and B.N.C., her boutique in Beijing's Sanlitun Village North, which houses collections from the likes of Uma Wang, Pari Chen and Parsons trained Lu Liu. 

Lu also spoke about the fashion climate and the differences in fashion design education between China and the west. Japanese avant garde design, with deconstructed styles and lose-fitting garments are more popular with young Chinese designers, who focus on the concept of their collections as opposed to function and use (as is usually the case in the west). She went on to say that there needs to be a show of confidence to build momentum and that now is the time to build a fashion scene.