Editor’s Note
This article highlights the return of Fashion Asia Hong Kong 2025, a key initiative by the Hong Kong Design Centre, as a platform for dialogue and innovation in Asian fashion during a transformative period for the industry.
At a pivotal moment of transformation and reshaping for the global fashion industry, Hong Kong, with its rich fashion history, once again becomes a stage for the convergence of ideas and creativity. It continues to gather diverse perspectives, opening up new dialogues and imaginative spaces for Asian fashion. Organized by the Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC) and funded by the Create Cultural Industries Development Agency (CCIDA), Fashion Asia Hong Kong is one of the key programs of “Hong Kong Fashion Week.” It made a grand return this December, featuring two major events: the “Future of Fashion Forum” and the “Asia’s Top Ten Focus Designers Fashion Exhibition.” Leveraging its traditional role as a bridge between East and West, it brought together Asia’s top design forces and international perspectives to outline a new vision for the future of the fashion industry.
Hong Kong’s fashion development has a long history, starting with its early textile and garment manufacturing industries, which were once among the city’s most important industrial pillars. “Local design, Made in Hong Kong” was once a proud symbol for Hong Kong people and established the world’s understanding of the city’s craftsmanship and efficiency. With the influx of international brands and the gradual rise of local design forces establishing their own design language, Hong Kong’s fashion culture has responded to changes in global trends and local lifestyles across different eras, accumulating a diverse and multi-dimensional character. This has made Hong Kong a city that nurtures both design consciousness and an international outlook. Fashion Asia was born from this very soil. With years of support from the Hong Kong government, since its inaugural event in 2016, it has gradually gathered leaders, creative elites, and reform pioneers from various fields within the fashion industry, developing into an important platform connecting industry thinking and creative practice. This year, Fashion Asia 2025, through the two distinct programs of the “Future of Fashion Forum” and the “Asia’s Top Ten Focus Designers Fashion Exhibition,” on one hand delves into industry and intellectual levels to explore how fashion moves to the next stage; on the other hand, it shines the spotlight on designers, allowing creation to become the direct language responding to the future.
On the day of the forum, fashion industry leaders from Hong Kong and abroad, top fashion retail executives, brand decision-makers, creative design elites, and influential industry figures gathered at the Rosewood Hong Kong’s Grand Ballroom. They shared observations and insights on emerging trends, innovative strategies, and growth opportunities from their respective professional experiences and perspectives, attracting both local and international audiences to engage in deeper discussions about the next steps for the fashion industry.
The forum’s discussions started with the changing trends in the global market, delving further into how brands can reposition themselves in an unstable environment and deconstructing narrative strategies that shape brand influence. Participants shared how to build long-term resonance through authentic and profound storytelling. From shifts in retail structures and the evolution of brand narratives to the trade-offs designers make between creativity and reality, the forum ultimately pointed to a common theme: in a rapidly changing era, how should fashion maintain its own value, rather than merely pursuing speed? Simultaneously, attendees shared unique observations on market dynamics and explored key directions for driving the industry’s sustainable growth.
Fashion Asia’s vision is not limited to fashion itself. Beyond building a platform for cross-disciplinary exchange where different roles can exchange viewpoints and inspire deeper industry dialogue, it is also a significant force actively promoting Asian design. The “Asia’s Top Ten Focus Designers Fashion Exhibition” uses curatorial formats and designer-centric presentation projects to enhance the visibility of Asian creations on the international fashion stage and foster closer connections and collaborations between creativity and industry.
In its 9th edition, the “Asia’s Top Ten Focus Designers Fashion Exhibition” chose to step into a more open urban setting, presented alongside large-scale music and art events at the Central Harbourfront, allowing fashion to naturally integrate into public culture. Spanning several days, the exhibition showcased innovative works from 10 outstanding designers across Asia, attracting audiences from diverse backgrounds to re-experience the creative energy of Asian design and once again highlighting Hong Kong’s role as an international cultural crossroads.
This year’s theme, “The Fashion Compass,” meant the exhibition no longer focused solely on clothing itself but viewed fashion as a language that guides direction, cleverly intertwining fashion, music, art, and self-expression. The exhibited works came from Asian designers carefully selected by an authoritative jury. This year’s selected designers spanned multiple regions across Asia, including ACT N°1 (Designer: Luca Lin), Oscar Ouyang (Designer: Oscar Ouyang), Penultimate (Designer: Xiang Gao), Zhong Zixin (Designer: Zixin Zhong), and swaying/knit (Designer: ShaSha Wong) from Mainland China; KIT WAN STUDIOS (Designer: Kit Wan) representing Hong Kong; and other Asian design forces from Japan’s KHOKI (Designer: Koki Abe) and Tamme (Designer: Tatsuya Tamada), Vietnam’s LỰU ĐẠN (Designer: Hung La), and South Korea’s young n sang (Designer: Youngshin Hong & Sanglim Lee). This showcased the diverse facets and contemporary energy of Asian design language. Their creations are seen as a new force in Asian fashion, guiding the audience to understand, through multiple senses, how fashion positions itself in a constantly changing world and continues to move forward.
From the “Future of Fashion Forum” to the “Asia’s Top Ten Focus Designers Fashion Exhibition” making appearances on the international stage, what Fashion Asia Hong Kong presents is not merely a display of outcomes. It is more like a bridge connecting ideas and creation, allowing industry perspectives and design practice to converge within the same context. It also allows Asian design to enter broader cultural fields, continuing the action of giving voice to Asian and local fashion, highlighting Fashion Asia’s long-term commitment to supporting Asian fashion talent.
