Hong Kong Fashion

On Hong Kong Island, fashion is as expected. Black suits and smartly dressed business woman are overly common as well as the occasional westerner donning their standard plain tee-shirt and shorts. Onward goes the never ending march of young folk dressed in unattractive uniforms. (I imagine that all Hong Kong schools band together to deter raging hormones.)

Then there are the jewels of Hong Kong. At least once a day I spot an Asian beauty floating downtown as if her sandals were made of clouds. These untouchable splendors breeze effortlessly through the thickest of crowds. In stylish dresses with long sleek hair, they are ready to be given wings at any moment to float to heaven.

I notice these fashions on Hong Kong Island, which is only a small fraction of the whole of Hong Kong. However, most of my days are spent in the New Territories where other fashion trends prevail. To my constant disbelief, gold/silver/hot green shoes are “in” along with all other obnoxious colors you can dream up. Any thing that glitters is a must-have. There is never a drive to color coordinate. And above all else, stripes most definitely go with polka dots.

Aside from this zany sense of color and style, tee-shirts with English words printed in bold are all the craze. A poor and mangled form of my dear native tongue struts its stuff in all manners.

One would expect a lot of brand rip-offs and I’ve encountered some interesting brand variations. I’ve seen a few shirts with the Burger King logo. Instead it reads “Finger King.” Likewise, I’ve seen the Mister Donut logo with the words “Mista Kunat.” And have you ever heard of a “Doritos Wrench?” I’ve seen that logo next to a peace symbol. Your guess is as good as mine.

And what’s more is that PLAYBOY has a huge presence in Hong Kong. Its trashy connotations have apparently been washed away by the Pacific. School girls suit up with black mary janes, white calf-high socks, straight-cut white dresses, and playboy school bags. I think it means “cool.”

All the fashions I have mentioned so far elicit a chuckle but they aren’t anything over-the-top. No, I’ve saved the best (and most common) Chinese shirts for last. One black shirt with gold and silver glitter states “Hysteric Glamour.” That is the realm we are about to enter.

In the New Territories there are pages and pages worth of bad tee-shirt material. I will spare you and list a few that I noticed in just a few weeks of looking. I’m confident these are not the wackiest in Hong Kong but they begin to illustrate the culture gap. (these are not typos)

• affection and frabjous
• nature to nearby soon
• wolken fluff clouds +
  • good lack
  • good health
  • GOD BIESS
• anti-bacterial material (a baby’s tee-shirt – written endlessly in lines covering the whole shirt)
• welcome to the lovely rubbit wolrd. You’ll happy and sweet with me.
• gold white fluxia