June 15, 2010

Designer Spotlight #1 - Spy on Henry Lau

The world of fashion as we see it revolves around four urban centres: New York City, London, Paris and Milano. What most of us fail to consider is that fashion does not exist only in the Western World and that many designers bring innovation into fashion on the other side of the world, in the urban centres of Asia.



Henry Lau of SPY HENRY LAU is one of Hong Kong's most prolific and talented up and coming young designer. His style is a mixture of both western  and autochtonous, eastern, elements which compared to the entrenched  cuts, styles and materials of western fashion is a much welcomed breath of fresh air. Modifying what have become the dull standards of fashion design, Henry Lau reinvents classic garments by adding superfluous shawl necks to t-shirts, playing with asymmetry in button placement or relocating collar tabs in shirts. My only big peeve when it comes most any Asian designers and their clothing is that they seem to have the impression that all humans are of one size and that their clothes should therefore be sold in only one 'free-fitting" size. While Henry Lau's website mentions that he would like to expand his customer base to Europe and the United States, I would like to offer him the friendly advice that he should look into building garments in different sizes if he wishes to succeed on these markets.

Here are my favourite Henry Lay items which you can purchase here.

1. Loose Sarouel Pants - $102 ; 2. Shawl Collared Checked Shirt - $102 ; 3. Stylish Plain Shirt - $90; 4.  V-neck Tee with Tie Scarf - $102; 5. Stripe Shirt - $90; 6. Cropped Length Check Shirt - $77; 7. V-neck Knit - $103; 8. Shorts with patchwork details - $90