english edge - California Apparel News

HONG KONG FASHION WEEK
Hong Kong Continued from page 1
buying power of 1.3 billion residents.
Mango, the Spanish retailer that has aggressively
moved into several major international
markets with nearly 1,180 stores, is
on track to open 100 stores
in China this year, adding
to its stable of 71 outlets
already there. “The middle
class in China is expected to
rise to 100 million people”
in the next five or six years,
said Sujuan Liu, Mango’s
business development manager
for China. “We believe
the market can absorb 10
times more stores than we
have now. ... Expansion
will be aggressive over the
next five years.”
The financial push to
Asia is being prompted by
the long-term outlook in
the industrialized countries
where a recession beginning
in late 2007 has led
many retailers and apparel companies to
either close their doors or re-evaluate their
future.
Most industry observers expect Europe
and the United States to see a slow and
modest recovery as unemployment figures
remain in double-digit territory this year
and maybe into next.
While the United States has dug itself out
of negative economic growth, China’s economic
seams are bursting. The government
there recently announced its fourth-quarter
gross-domestic-product growth ballooned
10.7 percent from last year, one of the highest
economic growth rates in the world.
BAD BUNNIES: An edgy British line called
Hell Bunny joined several alternative lines that
displayed at World Boutique.
“Mainland China is our target for business
in the future,” said Vincent Fang,
chief executive of The Toppy Group, a
multi-billion-dollar apparel manufacturer
and retailer in Hong Kong with more than
500 outlets under the nameplate Jessica,
Episode, Colour Eighteen and Weekend
Workshop. The brands have been popular
in many Western countries such as Great
Britain. “Our Chinese market should be up
10 to 15 percent this year, but our export
market to the States will probably be up
only 5 percent.”
Fang is not only expanding the Toppy
retail empire into the Middle Kingdom but
forming joint ventures with Western companies
to help set up stores in major Chinese
cities. The apparel executive is working with
Italian companies Oviesse and Miss Sixty
and British brand Pepe Jeans to launch
their retail chains. Oviesse opened its first
store right before Christmas in Shanghai
with another 10 on the horizon. And Miss
Sixty is shooting for 60 outlets in the next
few years.
Vivienne Westwood, England’s iconoclastic
designer who brought modern punk
and new wave into the fashion mainstream,
has an eye on China, too. The company already
has 12 stores in Hong Kong, one in
Macau and another in Shanghai. Andreas
Kronthaler, the label’s creative director
BRIGHT COLORS: The India
Pavilion this year contained 47
booths, down a bit from the 54
booths that were at Hong Kong
Fashion Week in 2009.
and Westwood’s husband, said China is
definitely on the company radar. “It still can
grow a lot for us because we just started,”
he noted.
Kronthaler was at Hong
Kong Fashion Week to
coordinate the label’s
first runway show there
and help judge the Young
Fashion Designer’s Contest.
The winner received a
three-month stint working
with Westwood and her entourage
in London.
Exhibitors up
While the Chinese market
was the talk of the town
during the four-day trade
show and fashion event,
exhibitors representing
mostly Chinese apparel
factories and Hong Kong
apparel and accessories
ventures were scrambling for Western business.
Nearly 2,000 exhibitors signed up for
the Fall/Winter 2010 show, up 17 percent
over last January, when the event was noticeably
quieter.
However, U.S. buyers seemed to be rarer
than normal. Shawn Far, president of U.S.
Apparel Group in Los Angeles, attends
Hong Kong Fashion Week every January
and felt there weren’t as many buyers as in
previous years. His theory was that many
apparel executives probably opted to go to
Bread & Butter in Berlin, a contemporary
show held Jan. 20–22. “Prices are down
here, but there is no newness,” said the L.A.
executive, who has a license to produce Ed
Hardy knits and jackets and makes his own
label, Vertigo Paris.
He said he believes more buyers are going
directly to China these days to find cheaper
factories instead of stopping in Hong Kong.
“I may not come back here next year and go
to China directly, too,” he said.
Exhibitors were noticing a dearth of attendees.
“There are very few American
customers,” said Albert Guo of the Ningbo
Hengdu Knitting Co. “I think it is due to
the recovery.”
But David Weng, owner of Ningbo Top
Import & Export Co., had gotten a few interested
nibbles from retailers in Texas and
Florida who were taken with his contemporary
sweatshirts and T-shirts with unique
prints and washes.
While basic garment factories and accessories
houses filled several gargantuan
halls at the event, one hall was reserved for
World Boutique, a designer-label show
that takes place every January during Hong
Kong Fashion Week.
One corner of World Boutique was taken
up by the brightly colored displays of
rockabilly, punk rock, alternative and emo
fashions. The exhibitors, organized by the
alternative trade show Londonedge, had
purple and pink hair, enough piercings to
set off every metal detector within a 100foot
radius, and miles of tattoos. This was
the first time an alternative-fashion group
had exhibited in Hong Kong. Wendi Mc-
Dowell of the Los Angeles label Lip Service
and Kill City said things had been
very slow. “People are interested but hesitant,”
she noted.
Orders were slow in coming for Balraj
Kudhaul, owner of Hell Bunny, a cute rockabilly
line from London, who took a doublewide
booth decorated with bright colors of
fabric imprinted with bunnies gone bad. By
the third day, he had only one order, which
came from Australia. “We came out to support
Londonedge,” he said. “But this is a lot
like going out fishing. You can catch fish or
you can come back with nothing.” ●
What happens in Vegas
The next 2 issues
will be in Vegas
and about Vegas
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call Terry Martinez:
(213) 627-3737 Ext.213
February 5
Vegas Must Buys
E-tail Spot Check
Retail Focus
Denim Special Section
Eco Special Section
Las Vegas Resource Guide
Lingerie Special Section
Bonus Distribution:
Kingpins LA 2/9–10
WWIN 2/15–18
CurveNV 2/15–17
ENK Vegas 2/16–18
Guild 2/16–18
MAGIC, WWDMAGIC 2/16–18
MRket 2/16–18
POOL 2/16–18
Sourcing@MAGIC 2/16–18
AccessoriesTheShow/Las Vegas 2/16–18
Project LV 2/16–18
February 12
ASR Wrap
NY Fashion Week Coverage
WSA Show Trends
Sourcing & Fabric Special Section
Finance Special Section
Bonus Distribution:
WWIN 1/15–18
CurveNV 2/15–17
ENK Vegas 2/16–18
MAGIC, WWDMAGIC 2/16–18
MRket 2/16–18
POOL 2/16–18
Sourcing@MAGIC 2/16–18
AccessoriesTheShow/Las Vegas 2/16–18
Project LV 2/16–18
Designers & Agents NY 2/20–22
The Train 2/20–22
Curve NY 2/21–23
Coterie NY 2/21–23
Guild 2/16–18
JANUARY 29–FEBRUARY 4, 2010 CALIFORNIA APPAREL NEWS 7