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Jing Zhang

Can Hong Kong realise its ambition as a premier fashion hub in Asia? The answer may have lain in this year’s Hong Kong Fashion Fest.
The annual festival’s third edition – organised by the Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency under Hong Kong’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau – runs from September 1 to 14, featuring independent designers, international labels, retailers, manufacturers and sustainability advocates.
Centrestage, one of Asia’s premier annual fashion showcases and trade platforms, was a highlight of the festival, bringing together some 270 brands from 24 countries and regions at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, in Wan Chai, from September 2 to 5.
It featured Hong Kong fashion label Zidi and designers Mountain Yam, Angus Tsui and Kit Wan.
“Hong Kong is a mix of East and West,” says Yam, who has independently operated his label for 12 years and showed on the Hong Kong Dopamine catwalk at Centrestage. “We have international exposure, but we also understand the Chinese market. I feel hopeful, especially with brands helping each other to get more awareness to the mass audience.”


Elsewhere, Virtuose: The Artistry of Couture, held at the Hong Kong Palace Museum on September 1, showcased Hong Kong couture labels Vivian Luk Atelier and Tigerstrolling alongside Spain’s Guillermo Decimo and Vietnam’s Phan Huy in an evening of glamour attended by influencers and fashionistas from around the world.
Home-grown futuristic looks
Perhaps the most persuasive display of confidence and outlandish creativity came from Kit Wan on the Centrestage Elites catwalk. The Hong Kong-born designer and visual artist presented more than 30 new looks in front of a glass wall that looked out over Victoria Harbour.
“Emotions are high, especially as a designer walking out after this huge output of love, resources, joint creativity,” Wan says after the show. “It’s a human reaction of pride and gratitude to all those who shared in this moment with the studio.”
Wan made his name creating weird and wonderful stage costumes for Hong Kong pop stars including Miriam Yeung Chin-wah, Hins Cheung, MC Cheung Tin-fu and Panther Chan, with his made-to-order outfits even being worn at the Grammy Awards and Eurovision.

His sci-fi-style silhouettes offered a futuristic vision of Hong Kong fashion this time – a fantastical zone between fashion, armour and collectable art. Not many of the outfits would survive a commute on Hong Kong’s MTR, but practicality was hardly the point.
“It seems like the Hong Kong cultural branches are hard at work to promote all the fabulous creatives in this great city,” Wan says. “I can say as a visual artist, it’s important to fund and support the arts; it makes for a more cultured society.”
At Virtuose, Guillermo Decimo, Phan Huy, Tigerstrolling and Vivian Luk Atelier sent 40 ensembles through four culturally inspired entrances. The setting was unapologetically grand, although the true spectacle lay in more intimate details: embroidery, boning, hand-draping, wiring and exacting fabric manipulation.
“This is not fashion to chase, but to appreciate,” says Bonita Cheung, Virtuose’s conceptual and project director. “[It is] a celebration of the human hands behind the creation, where couture’s true power lies in the artistry of its application.”
While Hong Kong is not a world couture capital in the same way as Paris, it has the opportunity to become an Asian couture nexus point where designers can reach wealthy buyers, retailers and VIPs.


Sustainability beyond slogans
The Redress Design Award for sustainable fashion design injected the fest with a sense of urgency. The eight finalists transformed discarded leather, army canvas, deadstock jersey, industrial waste and unwanted furniture, while other competitors explored fruit leather, non-animal wool and recyclable knitwear.
“Around the world, the legislative hammer is coming down on the polluting fashion industry,” says Dr Christina Dean, founder of Redress, the non-profit organisation behind what is among the world’s leading sustainable fashion awards. “Despite the complexity, the fashion industry is screaming for circular design solutions.”
The competition is important because garments made from waste – such as those seen in Jon Liesenfeld’s winning collection – can provoke urgent debate in an industry responsible for massive amounts of waste and carbon emissions.
“While the fashion industry faces serious challenges … it is catastrophically still on its wasteful, runaway train wreck,” Dean says. “Circularity is flatlining despite circular textile business models being estimated to generate US$700 billion in economic value by 2030 … while clothing waste skyrockets, exacerbated by global dominance of ultra-fast fashion brands.”
Liesenfeld adds: “My generation of designers won’t be judged just on aesthetics.”
Circularity begins at the design stage, where choices about materials, longevity and disposal are made. Redress is leading that charge, joined this year by sustainable-fashion delegations from Austria and Australia. Circularity emerged as a major theme at forums across Hong Kong.

On September 3, Fashion Summit (HK) brought together companies, environmental groups and technology specialists under the theme “Code the Fashion Forward”, while Fashion Asia Hong Kong’s separate Fashion Challenges Forum examined regional cooperation, retail and brand building.
South Korea was Centrestage’s partner country, and creatives from the East Asian nation took part in insight sessions. The Australian Fashion Council pavilion, meanwhile, underlined Hong Kong’s potential as a commercial gateway to Asia. Marianne Perkovic, the council’s executive chair, says that the United States’ biting tariffs have “most certainly changed our strategy and vision to expand Australian fashion into new markets”, adding “Hong Kong is a strategic priority”.
Perkovic says she was encouraged by the potential partnerships forged during the packed 180-meeting schedule in Hong Kong.
The elephant in the changing room
Fashion Fest showed Hong Kong lacks neither creativity nor regional draw, and its consumers remain hungry for fashion – even if many are still drawn to global fast-fashion names and Western luxury houses.
The question is not whether Hong Kong can produce innovative brands, but whether the market can sustain them. Established brands such as Shanghai Tang and Vivienne Tam have combined their cultural identity with the commercial instincts needed for international success.


Then there is the elephant in the room: Hong Kong’s high rents and production costs. These make it difficult for independent companies to open permanent stores, pushing them towards temporary spaces and online retail. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Yam’s 112 mountainyam had three boutiques in the city; it now operates from a studio-store at PMQ in Central and also sells goods on its online store, on RedNote and at pop-ups.
“The challenge is the costs,” Yam says. “Rent and production are quite expensive in Hong Kong. But I believe that Hong Kong people are flexible and we always find a way.”
This highlights a harder truth: fashion-week visibility means little if customers cannot find the clothes – or designers cannot afford to remain visible throughout the year. The government already supports the events under the Fashion Fest banner.
The two-week festival showcased the city’s creativity, manufacturing expertise, international reach and institutional backing. Yet the overlapping names, organisers, agendas and formats can still be confusing. Uniting the catwalks, trade shows and forums under one recognisable Fashion Fest banner should help define a coherent fashion identity.
A stronger connective structure emerged this year, boosting prospects for home-grown talent such as Mountain Yam, Kit Wan, Zidi, Vivian Luk Atelier and Tigerstrolling – and giving international buyers more reason to pay attention.
The spotlights are the easy part. The real test begins when the lights go off.


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Models wear outfits by Hong Kong fashion designer and artist Kit Wan at Centrestage, a highlight of the 2026 Hong Kong Fashion Fest. Photo: Karma Lo

Looks by Hong Kong designer Mountain Yam’s 112 mountainyam label on show at Centrestage, a highlight of Hong Kong Fashion Fest 2026. Photo: Hong Kong Fashion Fest

Outfits designed by Kit Wan (left) and Zidi at Centrestage. Photo: Hong Kong Fashion Fest 

Looks by Kit Wan at Centrestage. Photo: Hong Kong Fashion Fest

Looks by Spanish fashion designer Guillermo Decimo at Virtuose: The Artistry of Couture at the Hong Kong Palace Museum on September 1, 2026. Photo: Hong Kong Fashion Fest

Looks by Hong Kong fashion labels Vivian Luk Atelier (left) and Tigerstrolling at Virtuose: The Artistry of Couture. Photo: Hong Kong Fashion Fest

Models wear German fashion designer Jon Liesenfeld’s winning collection at the Redress Design Award 2026. Photo: Hong Kong Fashion Fest

A model wears one of Kit Wan’s futuristic silhouettes at Centrestage. Photo: Karma Lo

(From left) Amanda Strang, Stephanie Au, Elly Lam, Victoria Tang, Angie Ng and Sabrina Cheung at Virtuose: The Artistry of Couture. Photo: Hong Kong Fashion Fest

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Fashion & Beauty

Hong Kong Fashion Fest 2026 highlights local talent as well as the challenges they face as the city seeks to cement its place in fashion


Hong Kong Fashion Fest 2026 highlights local talent as well as the challenges they face as the city seeks to cement its place in fashion.


Hong Kong wants to be Asia’s next fashion hub. This event could help make it happen

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong Fashion Fest 2026 highlights local talent as well as the challenges they face as the city seeks to cement its place in fashion

Hong Kong Fashion Fest 2026 highlights local talent as well as the challenges they face as the city seeks to cement its place in fashion