40 years of fashion finished: demolition of Hong Kong's famed Yen Chow Street Hawker Bazaar dismays designers
Warren of stalls at Sham Shui Po market has been a cradle of fashion talent, and designers hope government will give traders a permanent, modern home when it is bulldozed to make way for public housing
In his 38 years selling textiles at the Yen Chow Street Hawker Bazaar in Sham Shui Po, West Kowloon, Chan Yu-tung has always been ready to lend customers a hand. He has helped fashion students select easy-to-handle fabrics for their first clothes-making projects. He accommodates hobbyists’ requests to cut just half a yard of material – unless they pick a bolt of fabric stuck at the bottom of a pile that’s stacked all the way to the sheet-metal ceiling.
He was even game when designer Dorothy Lam Wing-yu, then a final-year fashion student at Polytechnic University,invited him to model a collection of contemporary tangzhuang for her graduation project in 2003.
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“I had been a regular at Chan’s stall for years, but our conversation never went beyond business,” says Lam. “But when I was looking for the face for my collection, he was the first person who came to mind. I thought he’d take me for a fool when I explained the purpose of my visit, so his swift consent took me unawares. That’s when we started to become firm friends.”
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“Her collection is stunning. I’ve never thought us pensioners could be so fashion-forward.”
