Fashion: Hong Kong Fashion's New Blood- CCChu

Tired of HK brands producing clothes that are either too cheap and juvenile looking or others that have good design but bad technique and material? These description have slowly came to attach itself with most Hong Kong local production I've came across. But here's finally something about HK fashion that I can get excited about, after taking a special liking to my personal favorite 5CM, take a look now at CCChu. I came across this local brand on the internet and I was immediately impressed by the two designers, CC and Chu. Their new collection, "Crush", has a good mix of creativity and wearability. The designers aim at being eco-friendly by mainly using recycled polyester, hemp, and organic cotton and the collection features fluid silhouettes with soft desirable fabrics. Most styles incorporated heavy draping and thus overall creating architectural shapes.

Seed Coat

Organic Cotton

The whole collection is broken down into series: Beijing Opera, Firecracker, Organic Cotton, Seed Coat, and Blow Up; each one is distinct yet cohesive. The Firecracker and Blow Up series are soft and feminine; The Organic Cotton and Seed Coat series on the contrary are strong and imaginative; while The Beijing Opera has a fine balance between the two aspects. However, all the series don't stray far from a balance of abstraction and practicality. The collection has a strong influence from Japanese fashion, you can see it in the Seed Coat's swordsman-esque top and the way colors are blocked in most of the Beijing Opera series. Overall, I see shades of Japanese street fashion, something not surprising since HK generally look to Japan for style inspirations. There's also a hint of European deconstruction a la Ann Demeulemeester or Raf Simon. I believe this is what modern daring HK women desire in their wardrobe, something special but won't put them in any sentences that start with, "what was she thinking?!"

The palette is soft and contains mainly white, black, cream, with hints of bright red and pink (though I'm not showing any of those). The collection explores beauty unconventionally with a hint of eccentricity; but again, not straying too far from the boundaries of human imagination. The only tiny complaint is the fact that themes seems to run wildly within the collection. Overall it tries to achieve femininity through strong and dramatic shapes, but while each piece is strong, some of them are overly romanticized and seems out of place with the rest of the collection.

Fire Cracker Series

Accessories

I'm just so glad to see such a high level of sophistication in design and quality coming out of HK. Oftentimes new designers get so boggled down with creativity that they lose sophistication in execution and marketing, but this line I think has a better balance between market-compatibility and creativity. I'm excited to see the next collection and to see the evolution of the designers' style and signatures.

Interesting fact: The brand also personalize orders in terms of color and they personalize your order by sewing your name onto the tag of your clothes.

Visit CCChu's website here.