Two students become latest Hong Kong fashion success story
Natalie Chan (left) and Haylie Lee, wearing their favorite pieces from their second collection.If you think you are style-obsessed, wait until you meet Haylie Lee and Natalie Chan, the girls behind Hong Kong fashion brand Hanalie.
"When we shop in Hong Kong, it’s hard to find something that is perfect. Either there is something missing in the design, or it’ll be too expensive,” says Chan. “So we started designing our own stuff a few years ago.”
Not to be taken lightly, since tens of millions of tourists pour into Hong Kong every year, mostly to shop.
The two untrained dressmakers sketch out designs that they want, scour textile marketplaces like Sham Shui Po and Cheung Sha Wan for fabrics and buttons, and let Hong Kong tailors do the rest.
What comes out -- sequined blazers, metallic tweed jackets with velvet trim, floor-length evening gowns -- have won rave reviews. The two 24-year-olds decided to set up an online shop selling their designs at wallet-friendly prices to their coterie of friends.
Hanalie.com went live three months ago and the girls have since received over a hundred orders from around the world. Their 13-piece first collection is almost sold out, and they are now busy ironing out the kinks of their second collection, which will debut this month.
It’s a business that requires dedication and late nights, especially since Haylie and Natalie are doing postgraduate degrees in finance and law respectively.
To make sure their dress sizes fit most frames, the neophyte design team takes measurements from whomever they can find -- siblings, friends and models. It takes them half a year to design one collection.
