The designer world of the Chu brothers

It is said a designer's workspace is the window to their soul. This couldn't ring truer for Hong Kong-based fashion label Ground Zero. Located in a hip industrial space in Wong Chuk Hang, the lofty warehouse is full of kitschy collectibles, ranging from Bear Bricks of The Beatles and a ceramic lamp decorated with figurines of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to satirised posters of such fashion heroes as Yves Saint Laurent. In one corner, there is a comfortable couch, flat-screen television and massive bookcase crammed with hundreds of magazines and books on art, pop culture and, of course, fashion. In the background, Aerosmith is blaring as the designers, Philip and Eri Chu, pose for the cameras.

Welcome to the world of Ground Zero, where pop culture meets high fashion. The label, founded by the brothers in 2003, rose to fame thanks to its printed unisex T-shirts, which became a favourite with pop stars such as Sammi Cheng Sau-man and Gillian Chung Yan-tung. Although the tees are still a huge part of the business, the brothers are celebrating the next big milestone in their career as the only Hong Kong designers to ever show during Paris Fashion Week.

So how did these two local men go from Causeway Bay to the capital of high fashion? Born and raised in Hong Kong, Eri, 34, and Philip, 31, have always loved fashion, stocking up on labels such as Armani and Ralph Lauren since they were teenagers. Eri, who is more pensive, had a talent for drawing, so he began working as a freelance graphic designer. Philip dabbled in everything from rock music to boring desk jobs, until he got the idea for Ground Zero (they chose the name because they were starting from scratch).

"It was right before I went to study in London [in 2003], and we wanted to create something that combined art and music. The first thing that came to our minds was T-shirts. Obviously, it turned out to be far more complicated than we thought. We had to buy minimums, so we ended up with more than 1,000 T-shirts sitting in our home. Because of that, I decided to take some with me to England and try my luck," says Philip.

Although Philip was busy studying fashion at Middlesex University, he spent his spare time hitting up all the cool boutiques in town, hoping that one of them would buy the distressed tees. It was a challenging time for the brothers, who knew little about how the industry worked.