London Preview: Hong Kong’s FabriX Brings Digital Fashion Experience to London
LONDON — The Hong Kong government is looking to raise the city’s creative and fashion profile with a series of events planned during London and Paris fashion weeks this season for the digital fashion initiative FabriX.
From Friday to Tuesday, FabriX will take over a large area of the BFC NewGen space at the Old Selfridges Hotel for a public-facing, immersive digital fashion experience in partnership with the British Fashion Council.
More from WWD
Japanese Artist Verdy Named Artistic Director of ComplexCon Hong Kong
London Fashion Week Celebrates 40th Anniversary With Fall 2024 Lineup
Engaging All Senses at Forty-Five, Hong Kong's Sky-high Lifestyle Destination
Digital creations by some 17 designers — 12 from Hong Kong, and five from London — will take center stage.
The designers include Chet Lo, Cadylee, Celine Kwan, Christian Stone, Nilmance Studio, and Shek Leung.
According to Declan Chan, curator of FabriX, the showcase is designed to mimic a real-life shopping experience. Visitors will be able to virtually try on each of the digital looks via AR filters in the custom FabriX kiosk. They have the option to customize and purchase their chosen garments via technical partner DressX.
Shin Wong, project director of FabriX, said the AR try-ons are crucial in tackling fashion’s high return problem. AR has been proven to diminish the likelihood of returns, which ultimately results in heightened sales, and greater customer satisfaction.
Following the London showcase, the FabriX experience will travel to Paris Fashion Week with additional digital creations from Florentina Leitner, Yu Prize winner Ponder.er, and LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi, winner of this year’s ANDAM Fashion Award with Sphere showroom.
“I hope our humble debut in London and Paris can kick off a positive and enduring dialogue with the audience in the West,” said Wong.
FabriX was founded in 2022 with the mission to “weave a new reality for fashion” and to introduce the next generation of local creative talents to global fashion audiences. It offers support to designers through all stages of the digital design journey from sketch, design and 3D digital production to listing on global digital fashion marketplaces.
The initiative is being presented by the Hong Kong-based creative hub PMQ, a not-for-profit social enterprise. PMQ has 100 million Hong Kong dollars, or almost $13 million, in funding from the Musketeers Education and Culture Charitable Foundation, while Create Hong Kong, of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, serves as the lead sponsor.
Chan believes that FabriX can offer an extra boost to “enable the local talents to be part of the global conversation of fashion.”
Their work will be featured in a showcase in top locations during the week, which fashion week guests will pass through at least two to three times a day.
“I would say this is quite a big step for the Hong Kong fashion market to weave into the global fabric of fashion,” Chan said.
“It enables us to promote fashion without being bound by the limitation of logistics. And since it doesn’t require physical samples of the designers, it allows us to work with global talents and content creators to create various innovative digital assets to promote the designers’ work,” Chan added.
Wong noted that for cities such as Hong Kong, which has positioned itself as a global financial hub, raising awareness for talents from diverse backgrounds with projects like FabriX can lead to a more inclusive and interconnected global community.
“Hong Kong’s strategic location as a global business and trade hub provides talents with access to international markets and a diverse customer base,” said Wong.
“Its strong entrepreneurial culture and manufacturing capabilities also give advantages to emerging designers to produce their creations with precision, quality and speed. Moreover, the growth of emerging markets in Asia, particularly China, presents significant opportunities for Hong Kong designers to tap into a vast, and increasingly affluent, consumer base,” added Wong.
Wong pointed out that high operating costs, intellectual property protection, and the limited domestic market continue to pose a huge challenge for emerging Hong Kong designers.
“Government funding and support programs like FabriX can address these challenges, fostering the growth of the local fashion industry and helping Hong Kong-based designers compete on a global scale. Such initiatives can contribute to the city’s reputation as a fashion and business hub and enhance its economic vitality,” he added.
Best of WWD
