i.t Spring/Summer 2015 – Hong Kong Fashion Week

“Light Me Up” was the title of the i.t Spring/Summer 2015 fashion show at Hong Kong Fashion Week, but there was a palpable pessimism throughout the company’s four collections presented on the runway.  Omnipresent throughout Hong Kong, the streetwear labels 5cm, MUSIUM DIV., Mini Cream and izzue all managed to emit a sense of guarded wariness despite their distinct styles.

5cm: The unisex label featured a chic backpacker-meets-bondage theme, with accessories such as elongated suspenders and oversize bags reeling in baggy casual pieces.

Photos: 5cm Spring/Summer 2014 – Hong Kong Fashion Week
all photos by Tom Platt for Meniscus Magazine

MUSIUM DIV.: Scientific in philosophy and at times macabre in its imagery, MUSIUM DIV. moved from futuristic fonts shouting its own name to more colorful prints featuring skulls.  Some models wore wide brimmed visors and sunglasses with rectangular horizontal lenses covering both eyes, as if to shield the wearers from Planet Earth’s toxic elements.

Photos: MUSIUM DIV. Spring/Summer 2014 – Hong Kong Fashion Week
all photos by Tom Platt for Meniscus Magazine

Mini Cream: Even the most playful of the four labels had sinister undertones.  With Mini Cream’s trademark pairs of eyes channeling the Warner Brothers cartoon character Marvin the Martian – indeed, the label’s mascots peer at the world from their home turf of outer space, according to the show notes – models crashed to earth in muted rather than upbeat tones…despite the presence of light bubblegum pinks, sports equipment such as volleyballs and baseball mitts, and blinking pearl-sized lights surrounding the rims of clear plastic floppy hats, and black and white furry platform sandals.

Photos: Mini Cream Spring/Summer 2014 – Hong Kong Fashion Week
all photos by Tom Platt for Meniscus Magazine

izzue: The final i.t label to hit the runway is the company’s most internationally known.  Set to the tune of Baroque-era music, the most dramatic of the four presentations featured models in loose, white flowing threads vaguely reminiscent of lab coats constructing ambiguous table-like structures as their colleagues walked up, on and down them en route to the foot of the runway.  Branded black duct tape offset all the white, in some cases holding together outfits; one particularly clever use held up a strapless “dress” that was, on closer examination, actually a men’s dress shirt.

Mai D. Chan contributed to this report.