Memo From Hong Kong: What’s Trending

As the excitement of Art Basel Hong Kong 2014 slowly wears off—it saw over 170 leading international modern and contemporary art galleries descend in Wan Chai from May 15-18—home-grown galleries, showrooms and studios continue to feed the city’s urban pulse. Hanart TZ Gallery, the Latitude 22N studio-store and Parallel Lab’s new studio are at the creative forefront, while the arrival of Droog Hong Kong is testament to the growing design scene.

Hong Kong Design Institute and Hong Kong Design Centre promote the use of design in business: this year Knowledge of Design Week 2014 pushes participants to consider the futures of retail and hospitality, followed by the annual Business of Design Week at the end of the year.

Overall, Hong Kong designers are now looking towards the city’s history and culture for inspiration. From architecture to interior design, fashion to products, local production and history are meshed with contemporary design approaches. The most positive aspect of Hong Kong’s evolving creative scene, however, is the growing community of grassroots creatives, from gallery owners to designers and restaurateurs, that are moving from Central to explore areas such as Chai Wan, where studios like MilkDesign, Tommy Li Design, AllRightsReserved and c plus c workshop can be found, and Wong Chuck Hang, which hosts Pill & Pillow, Kennedy Town, Kwun Tong and Fo Tan.

A proliferation of well-curated design boutiques have also started to emerge, including Amelie and Tulips, Casa Capriz and General Store. Established favorites include Basheer Design Books and Lane Crawford, who featured a fabulous Shoe Library created by interior design sensation AFSO in 2012.