Style It Out: The Hong Kong Summer Fashion Guide

If you haven’t figured out what to wear this summer, then let these stylish Hongkongers help you out. After picking the brains of the city’s fashion editors, bloggers, stylists and boutique owners to get their take on what’s hot in Hong Kong right now (besides the unbearable humidity, of course), HK’s style spies scoured the streets see how stylin’ females are working the trends IRL.
 

Meet Our Experts

Grace Lam

“I have been a red lippy girl forever, so it’s good to see more ladies who are daring enough to bring out their sexiness. I think red lips really suit Chinese women.”

Vogue China’s Senior Fashion Style Editor Grace Lam is a force to be reckoned with. The Hong Kong-born, London-raised stylist joined Vogue’s China team when they launched in September 2005. The very first issue sold out, and they had to order a second batch of magazines to be printed. Since then Vogue China has grown to twice the page count of its American counterpart.

“I have enjoyed reading fashion magazines since I was young,” says Lam. “So it was natural for me to take on the challenge and enter the fashion world.” During her second year at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, the young graphic design student was picked by i-D magazine founder Terry Jones to join his magazine’s internship program. This led to her first job out of college as an editorial assistant for Edward Enninful, i-D’s then fashion-editor-at-large. For two years Lam helped Enninful on shoots for Italian, Japanese and L’Uomo Vogue (the now-folded Italian Men’s Vogue), worked with industry heavyweights such as photographer Mario Testino and models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. She has also styled catwalk shows for Jil Sander, Topshop and Blumarine.
 

Christing Chang

If anyone knows how to mix business with pleasure it’s certainly Christing Chang. The leggy (the blogger is famously against wearing trousers) influencer started her blog, Fashion Hedonism (www.fashionhedonism.com), in London while she studied and worked in fashion, before relocating herself and the blog to Hong Kong. With fans all over the globe asking her where she got her clothes, Chang created her own online boutique, ChristingC (www.christingc.com), and only stocks it with items she would wear herself. Nowadays the business-minded blogger is previewing collections, getting personal tours of about-to-open international boutiques and meeting world-renowned designers such as Stella McCartney and Olivier Theyskens of Theyskens’ Theory. All the while, she’s mixing high- and low-end price tags with international and local brands for the outfits she blogs and her online shop. But remember: no trousers.

Jolene Lin

“I like styling—I live vicariously through my job. When I style a model, I style her in a way that I would style myself—or at least a style within me. I may not wear it in real life, but it’s a cool outfit.”

Superstar stylist Jolene Lin has worked with some of the biggest fashion brands in the business. The Hong Kong-based stylist, art director, consultant and show producer began her fashion career in Singapore while on break from studying fashion in London.

Lin never planned on producing fashion shows—she was much more interested in styling and photography—but when she had the chance to work with a well-known London producer at Singapore Fashion Week she took it. Although she still produces the occasional fashion show, Lin is primarily a stylist and has worked with local publications such as The Post Magazine, Milk, Tatler and Prestige. “Personal styling is really weird to me because it is so personal,” says Lin. “I wouldn’t be comfortable with someone telling me what to wear. I want to inspire people—I don’t want to tell people what to do.”

Cindy Ko

Brands love Cindiddy (www.cindiddy.com), aka Hong Kong fashion blogger Cindy Ko. Any time a designer visits our city or a foreign clothing brand sets up shop on our shores, Ko is the first one in—by invite only, of course. Burberry Prorsum and Topshop are two of the most recent brands to ask her to preview their collections in hopes of a favorable blog post. “Style should be a reflection of who you are and how you want to be perceived,” says Ko.