Hong Kong And A Love Of Embroidery

I have had a love affair with Hong Kong since forever and part of this love affair includes embroidery. Embroidered anything to be precise.

My first trip to Hong Kong at the age of ten was an eye-opener. Hong Kong was a very different place in those days and the quest for embroidery far easier than it is today. Hong Kong is a fabulous fast-paced city with an eye for the modern rather than the traditional.

I understand desire for change and progress, but my love for the old-style continues.

Touching down in Hong Kong, even for 24 hours and even in the typhoon season, still thrills me. Asia because of its close proximity to Australia, always feels like home. It is a familiar city to me and like the creature of habit I am, I head to the same places.

With limited time I stay on Hong Kong Island and head straight up towards the Hollywood Road and Cat Street area. Hollywood Road is not the same as it once was: the area is becoming a cool and fashionable place with less art and antique galleries to peruse but more boutiques, bars and restaurants. I don’t mind.

The walk up the narrow alleyways past small market stalls selling everything from fancy dress costumes to hanging lanterns is a great one. Rich in colour, crowded with people and heady with the spicy scent of Hong Kong, it is a feast for the senses.

Hollywood Road winds past many galleries selling the real and maybe the not so real. My attitude is, if you like it and the price doesn’t offend then buy. Don’t be overly anxious about whether your ‘fabulous find’ is genuine or not, enjoy the moment and hone your bargaining skills.

My destination was not for pottery, Ming or otherwise. I was looking for embroidery and headed to Cochrane Street and Linva Taylor Fashion.

This is serious cheongsam and embroidery heaven.

The ideal is to have time to create the piece of your dreams. All the fabrics are superb and the workmanship wonderful.  Gucci you are fabulous but this shop is the real, real deal.

I didn’t have time to create a cheongsam but I did find the most wonderful embroidered kimono style gown. This season embroidery style jackets are top of the charts.

This kimono may make it out of the house and on to dinner or it might be the glamorous dressing gown I have been searching for. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I love it for the workmanship and the pleasure of where I bought it. xv