“Being fueled by a passion for designing and creating is comparable to falling deeply in love, much like an addiction,” says Oscar-nominated and internationally renowned Hong Kong Production Designer, William Chang Suk Ping. This addiction, this high from humanity’s most indulgent, dramatic, and pivotal emotion is the theme of the just-opened fashion exhibition titled, The Love of Couture: Artisanship in Fashion Beyond Time at Hong Kong’s K11 MUSEA.

The Love of Couture is an exploration of old and latest, East and West, classic and modern told through the lens of couture. Its raison d’être is to advertise dialogue and cultural exchange between the East and West, incubate talent, and support and elevate local artists and artisanship. Although, for Chang, the backbone of his exhibition design was a meditation on love itself.

The thematic concept of affection was pulled from a Derek Walcott poem titled Love After Love and for Chang’s designs, he found his inspiration from the place inside the body where love literally lights up–the brain. Chang’s key visual for bringing the exhibition’s theme to life was a brain scan whose synapses were lit up brightly from the emotion which were then highlighted in color. It was this almost-amorphous imagery which inspired the dramatic and labyrinthine environment for the exhibition; an environment which dares to visually represent the matrix of our minds, after which visualize that matrix in love. Then, inside this representation, the viewer is invited to the exploration of couture.

“The exhibition presents centuries of exhibits together in a single place, all linked by creativity and love,” Chang says.

When Chang speaks of centuries of exhibits he speaks of the premise of the show, which was created in tandem with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (who can also be the exhibition’s co-chair). The concept was to create a bridge between six of probably the most immensely talented up-and-coming Asian fashion designers and the historical fashion of the West. The designers were asked to conceive mini-collections consisting of 4 pieces of up to date couture based on eras of Western fashion from the Victorian era (1837-1901) through to the Golden Era of Couture (1950-1960).

“For the show at K11 MUSEA, we’ve 12 precious pieces from the V&A representing 200 years of ladies’s fashion from Western Europe. We even have six Asian designers creating latest looks based on the V&A exhibit that inspired them, alongside their previous work,” explains Chang. “Structure, design, fabric, concept, the past, present and cultural backgrounds all come together, driven by a passion for designing and creating.”

That is hardly the primary exhibition of this caliber which Chang has designed. He was the Artistic Director of considered one of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s most vital Costume Institute exhibitions, China: Through the Looking Glass. The intensity and detail-orientation of his work with China: Through the Looking Glass was captured within the 2016 documentary The First Monday in May in regards to the famed Met Ball which supports and coincides with the Costume Institute’s exhibition.

Greater than a museum, though, K11 MUSEA is an ambitious idea by billionaire Adrian Cheng who’s the visionary behind K11’s cultural-meets-commerce concept. Cheng has dubbed it “the Silicon Valley of Culture” as a approach to encapsulate the culture-defining approach with which he conceives his real estate developments. Cheng is committed to creating properties which meld the humanities, culture, and retail as to influence the exchange between East and West. It’s a vision which has employed installations, exhibitions, pop-up events and film screenings designed to feed the patron desire for immersive experiences.

For Cheng, who has been considered one of Art News top 200 collectors for a while, there’s way more than consumer tastes at play along with his K11 concepts. He’s singlehandedly defining and promoting art in, and art from, Asia through his initiatives. In 2010, he established the K11 Art Foundation, a non-for-profit which promotes Chinese contemporary artists across the globe. Then, by establishing his art-driven lifestyle hubs equivalent to K11 MUSEA, Cheng is defining the vernacular of Asian art at large inside local Chinese populations. He was quoted in 2019 as describing art in China as “too market driven immediately,” and without its own viewpoint, which he believes is a results of a scarcity of art education.

So in a region which had zero museums and galleries prior to his K11 concepts, people in China now enjoy high art in probably the most highly-trafficked places of all of them–a shopping center. This education and exposition of China’s masses to art while concurrently exporting Chinese artists to the world via the K11 Art Foundation has helped achieve the cross-cultural, East meets West dialogue which has been Cheng’s goal. He’s essentially succeeded at molding the viewpoint on art which Cheng believes the region has lacked until know.

While The Love of Couture brings together the world’s heaviest hitters on the subject of culture, it does exist to spotlight probably the most talented of emerging Asian fashion creatives. The six fashion designers asked to take part in the show possess incredible provenances and show the form of promise and talent which deserves the sunshine being shone upon them.

The exhibition opened on eighth December and can run until twenty third January, 2023. To explore the designers featured within the show, see below.

TOMO KOIZUMI, TOMO KOIZUMI (JAPAN)

The garments from his eponymous label, which he launched within the early 2010s as a student at National Chiba University, has been worn by the likes of Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus. Known for his signature ruffle designs, his contributions to the exhibition include a voluminous skirt of cascading ruffles and a bodycon vest jacket.

RYUNOSUKE OKAZAKI, RYUNOSUKEOKAZAKI (JAPAN)

Whilst an emerging designer, Okazaki already has already accrued a slew of accolades under his belt. He was a finalist for the esteemed LVMH Prize in 2022, considered one of fashion’s most prestigious honors for an young designer in fashion. He was also named to Forbes’s 30 Under 30 list for Japan. His work is taken into account to be avant-garde and has covered the magazines Dazed and VOGUE Japan. Okazaki inorporates the theme of prayer into his work which is best described as intricate and sculptural. He holds a Master’s Degree of Effective Arts from the Tokyo University of the Arts.

SENSEN LII, WINDOWSEN (CHINA)

Sensen Lii is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Effective Arts in Antwerp and his brand WINDOWSEN, which was founded in 2019, has already amassed an A-list clientele which include Rihanna, Katy Perry, Madonna, and Timothée Chalamet. Within the K11 MUSEA exhibition, Lii presents three latest pieces which joins the historical inspirations from the V&A with the drama and theatrics of up to date fashion design.

CELINE KWAN, CELINE KWAN (HONG KONG)

With Lizzo and singer-songwriter Melanie Martinez already her clients, this recent graduate of the distinguished Central Saint Martins College in London is the founder and Creative Director of her eponymous label. For her pieces within the Love of Couture show, Kwan took inspiration from the hourglass silhouette of a ball gown fom the Sixties and gave it a heavy technological update through using 3D printing and the creation of a skirt which is inflatable.

YUEQI QI, YUEQI QI (CHINA)

Also a graduate of Central Saint Martins in knitwear, this Guangzhou-based designer launched her eponymous label in 2019. Her designs are described as architectural and revolve around the thought of “deconstructing and reconstructing men’s suits.” Qi is a proponent of design which values a chic color palette and clean lines while exploring a combination of materials, and he or she counts singers FKA Twigs and Lorde as fans. Through her four-piece mini collection for the exhibition, she challenges the thought of femininity through her work to present pieces which explore the conjunction of “refinement and riot.”

SOHEEPARK, MISS SOHEE (SOUTH KOREA)

One other Central Saint Martins alumni, SoheePark is a couturier who hails from South Korea and whose work has been work by the likes of Ariana Grande, Cardi B, and Naomi Campbell. Her style evokes an ultra-feminine aesthetic which pays homage to the era of more classical ideas of beauty. She found inspiration in the small print of an Yves Saint Laurent Polynésie evening dress from the V&A archive.