Stitching across time: Heritage and history in contemporary Hong Kong fashion

Abstract

This article analyses the notion of brand heritage with a specific focus on the rise and demise of the Hong Kong tailored cheongsam. In doing so, it uses the case studies of Richemont-owned Shanghai Tang and family-owned Linva Tailors to demonstrate the evolution of this hertiage garment, and muses on the importance of the preservation of authentic products, the importance of slow sustainable fashion and the presentation of artisanship in the globalized marketing of spaces and places by a wider range of global luxury brands.\ud \ud \ud Abstract:\ud Popular media celebrates the iconic Hong Kong dress – the cheongsam; yet, its existence is threatened as Hong Kong’s population of master tailors is rapidly dwindling. Hong Kong’s fashion identity is closely intertwined with the changing patterns of the global fashion industry. Hong Kong once buzzed with factories supplying the world’s wardrobes, but recent developments resulted in the loss of its manufacturing base, and as fashions changed the once ubiquitous cheongsam was consigned to fashion history. With the recent focus on heritage and slow fashion, making has become a key component in fashion marketing. Companies in the United Kingdom and United States are reviving old brands and launching new ones, using abandoned industrial equipment and reinvigorating local economies. This increased focus on country of origin, artisanship and sustainability also offers opportunities for Hong Kong to reposition itself, and this article surveys the contemporary fashion landscape in order to inform a debate on cultural heritage in fashion and its marketing

Fashioning cross-cultural creativity: Investigating the situated pedagogy of creativity.

“…. .” (Radclyffe-Thomas, 2011, p. 81). An education manager supports this view saying “My definition of creativity is one in which students can be encouraged to do things that will enhance their ability to be creative.…”

“…. .” (Radclyffe-Thomas, 2011, p. 132). However, within those subject areas most closely associated with creativity (art, design, and fashion) whereas teachers and students may be able to vocalize what they consider to be the prerequisites and characteristics of creative students in general, they find it problematic to identify those specific individuals who personify these creative attributes, which could be interpreted as supporting notions of the rarity of the creative genius, or alternatively that it is hard to make distinctions between the value of creative practices situated within a designated creative environment (Radclyffe-Thomas, 2011).…”

“…Capturing evidence of the design process may not be exclusive to U.K. creative practice (Dillon & Howe (2003, p. 290); however, findings from Sovic’s (2008b) study of 141 international students from six geographic areas studying creative arts at UAL, showed that the ambiguities and uncertainties fundamental to a method of working that comprises preparation, incubation, and illumination (Dineen & Collins, 2005) are an unaccustomed educational feature, and a major cause of academic shock for many international students. Fashion students in the U.K. are encouraged to trust in their own creative instincts and engage in an experimental creative process of problem finding and solving that involves mixing disparate influences and selecting themes that develop from the resulting mélange (Radclyffe-Thomas, 2011, 2014) whereas the mimetic system commonly used across CHC education uses traditional models and direct instruction to develop technical skills to a high level and preserve academic traditions.…”

“…These differing conceptions of creativity must surely impact multicultural student cohorts and have resulted in a situation where Confucian heritage students’ technical skills are undervalued in U.K. colleges (Sovic, 2008a) and Confucian heritage students with no prior experience of a U.K. research and development process and whose design work focuses on the creative product are disadvantaged in the creative classroom, as evidenced by this observation from a U.K. education manager: “students are to some extent limited by the kind of context in which they’ve developed that work. If they’ve been working to meet criteria which we would not see as helpful then that’s kind of problematic” (Radclyffe-Thomas, 2011, p. 100). Craft (1997) has highlighted the need for further research into the pedagogy of creativity generally, and I would argue that globalization, changing working patterns and an increased focus on the ethics of fashion production, consumption and promotion, along with unprecedented technological advances—such as three-dimensional printing and omni-channel retail—make the questions of what , how , and even where we teach fashion urgent considerations.…”

“…The University of the Arts London—of which the London College of Fashion is a constituent college—is among the top recruiters of overseas students to the U.K., with classrooms populated by students drawn from all over the world. Many students cite the attractions of London’s cultural capital as key to their decision to study at a London art and design college (Radclyffe-Thomas, 2011). Western universities have dominated international league tables and designed international recruitment strategies around a position of perceived pedagogic superiority (Starr, 2012).…”