The Hong Kong Opportunity for Global Brands

Hong Kong’s fashion and luxury sector is preparing for an invigoration — with the recently established Hong Kong Fashion Fest designed to position Hong Kong as a premier fashion and design hub in Asia. At the Asia Fashion Leaders Forum in Hong Kong, BoF’s president Nick Blunden sat down with regional and global business leaders to speak about the opportunity and market reality of the region.

On April 28-29, Hong Kong Fashion Council (HKFC) hosted the Asia Fashion Leaders Forum (AFLF) with the support of The Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) — a two-day event that drew together leaders across the luxury and fashion industries during Fashion InStyle, Asia‘s largest fashion trade show.

HKFC formed in June 2024 and works hand in hand with the fashion and the wider business communities to promote the city as an international cultural and creative hub. Through the annual Hong Kong Fashion Fest, Hong Kong showcases both its fashion innovation and emerging talent — while serving to strengthen ties between East and West. Drawing 160,000 attendees from 25 countries and regions during its inaugural iteration, the event was focused on positioning Hong Kong as one of Asia‘s premier fashion and design hubs.

At AFLF, BoF’s president Nick Blunden steered a fireside chat with Hon. Sunny Tan, chairman of HKFC, as well as a panel conversation of global business leaders to better understand the strategic opportunities Hong Kong offers to the global fashion industry.

“When we look at Hong Kong, it has always been a hub doing big, international business. We are not just doing domestic business for our population of seven million … We are talking about 45 million tourists [annually] too,” said Tan.

While Hong Kong’s overall retail sales value declined by 3.2 percent year-on-year in January 2025, the clothing and footwear segment experienced a 2.2 percent increase on the same period a year before, according to Reuters.

Indeed, fashion executives are feeling increasingly positive about Asian growth prospects outside of China — in both mature and emerging Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, according to The Business of Fashion’s (BoF) & McKinsey’s The State of Fashion 2025 report.

“What we want to do is serve our fashion and textile garment community as a connector, so that we can make a difference,” says Tan. “Hong Kong Fashion Council is here to link global to local. We want to bring a lot of internationals to Hong Kong, but at the same time we want to bring local to global.”

BoF’s Blunden also spoke with three regional and global business leaders in the fashion and luxury industry on the strategic opportunities for businesses in Hong Kong, the market realities of Asia, and how they are expanding reach and operations in the wider region. Panellists present were: Anda Rowland, director of Anderson & Sheppard; Nicolas Morineaux, CEO of Galeries Lafayette China; and Eric Chan, former CEO and current board director of Lanvin Group.

Consider Hong Kong as a Conduit to the Wider Asian Market

EC: The US market, and other key markets in the West, are in flux. But in Southeast Asia, for example, we have so many opportunities for brands to take note. For example, the average age of Indonesia and Thailand is below 30. There is huge potential in this market — and I believe Hong Kong is the best point of entry.

We can connect the dots from the supply chain — from merchandising to technology and more. This is an opportunity for us to make ourselves [industrial] and to become the platform and hubthat actually connects the fashion industry.

NM: Hong Kong is really the place to scout brands. Today we could meet with Hong Kong Land, with K11, with Hang Lung, with many of you. We exchange information, we scout for brands.

“This is an opportunity for us to make ourselves [industrial] and to become the platform and hub that actually connects the fashion industry.” – Eric Chan, board director of Lanvin Group

We also look at Hong Kong as a place to help the brands from China to export themselves toward the West. So more recently, we leveraged the position of Hong Kong and the network we built here in order to gather 120 designers around the founders and owners of Galeries Lafeyettes — in order for them to really be exposed to the talents coming from China.

Nowadays, I see Hong Kong as a place where East meets West, as opposed to where West meets East. Hong Kong has the investment platform, the stability, the operational facilitation. So if this trend is here to accelerate, why not having Hong Kong as a place for the showroom? The showroom is for the designers from across China.

Localised Strategies Will Drive Market Cut-Through

EC: Localisation could not be more critical. I‘m not talking about [motifs] that speak to the market culturally or localised marketing. Rather, it’s about making product that the customers truly want. In Asian markets, I have noticed that there is an emotional [undertone] to customer purchases — and that connection comes from the product side.

One of the challenges we face is that our customer base spans across Asia, Europe and the U.S., with distinct body types and fit preferences. However, up to now, we have been using a “one fit for all” approach rather than localising our sizing. This has made the merchandising process incredibly difficult. Everything may look perfect on the runway — but translating that into something that works for our diverse customer base is a completely different story and takes real work.

AR: [Localisation]speaks to the hyper-personalised strategies that already exist in [tailoring] today. We speak to our customers — every suit is a collaboration on a one-on-one basis.

We have had the opportunity to connect with many younger customers from Hong Kong and across Asia, and we have learned a great deal about their style preferences as a result. This has influenced how we approach the second part of our business, which is our ready-to-wear offering available online, as well as through select partners like Bergdorf Goodman, Isetan, and Mr. Porter. We tailor this offering to help customers style their garments in a way that reflects their individuality — it’s key to finding that localised [success].

NM: Galeries Lafayette has been operating on the same model for the past 10 years in China. We realised it was time to shake up the way we operate and to adapt to the customer needs.

The whole region is opening up more and there’s a great welcoming energy.” – Anda Rowland, director of Anderson & Sheppard

So we went through a journey to look at who our clients were — and what they are looking for. We came up with a few things: The first being that we have been relying too heavily on fashion, so we are [slightly minimising] our retail presence in this area.

We have also been working on trying to offer a much more affordable offer — what we call the “premium international lifestyle offer”. We are trying to mix and to curate not only designers from the West, but designers and brands coming from China.

Seek Opportunity Amid Economic Instability

AR: We feel that the whole region is opening up more and there‘s a great welcoming energy. We hope certainly through events like HKFC and other channels that we can get to know more people in the region and understand the real opportunity.

I think there is still some education that needs to be made about the incredible quality and craftsmanship coming out of China more broadly. Those conversations are starting to happen — global interest is emerging.

EC: Hong Kong is very unique. Not only does it have the backing of China — with access to sophisticated supply chains that can truly support the industry — Hong Kong also acts as a front stage in its own right with access to many different countries and markets.

Here, we are able to connect the dots. Hong Kong has weathered many difficult situations and economic downturns. Each time, the market reemerged stronger. With the current realities, I [believe that] Hong Kong is a tariff-friendly city, rather than using tariff to create obstacles. It’s an exciting time to be investing in [this market].