The Mills Remembers Hong Kong’s Textile Past and Promotes ...€¦ · 2/9/2019 The Mills...

2/9/2019 The Mills Remembers Hong Kong’s Textile Past and Promotes Its Future – WWD

https://wwd.com/fashion-news/textiles/vanessa-cheung-the-mills-nan-fung-group-1203002180/ 1/5

The Mills Remembers Hong Kong’s

Textile Past and Promotes Its

FutureFormer cotton mills get a new lease on life as a start-up incubator,museum and shop floor, thanks to Nan Fung Group's Vanessa Cheung.

FASHION / TEXTILES

By Tiffany Ap on February 8, 2019

@Tiffany Ap

HONG KONG — Like a lot of children who grow up in magnate

families, Vanessa Cheung wasn’t so sure she wanted to work for

the family business.

Cheung’s grandfather, Chen Din Hwa, founded Nan Fung Group

as a textiles business in 1954. It was the days before Mainland

China had opened up as an option for global manufacturing and

Chen’s business grew quickly, earning him a place in the

billionaires’ club and the nickname the “king of cotton yarn.” At

VIEW GALLERY — 12 PHOTOS

ESSENTIALIST

Victor Luis Makes The BullCase For Tapestry

TODAY'S MUST READ

They Are Wearing: New YorkFashion Week Fall 2019

LATEST GALLERIES



FREE ALERTS & NEWSLETTERS

PRIVACY POLICY

T R END I NG

its textiles operations height, Nan Fung employed more than

3,000 people to operate in their mills, producing up to 32.5

million pounds of yarn a year.

But the industry migrated across the border into China proper

in the Eighties — lured by cheap labor and other costs at a

fraction of the price — and Nan Fung shifted gears, focusing

instead on developing a property empire across East Asia. The

textiles operations faded away and by the time Cheung, who had

embarked on a career as a landscape architect, was convinced to

join Nan Fung, three of the former six mills the company owned

had been turned into residential units, and the other three

simply were used as warehouse space.

It was those three remaining disused mills that caught her

attention. Although her main duty as a managing director of the

group is to oversee the Hong Kong property portfolio, she had

the idea to reinvigorate those buildings. The undertaking, which

became The Mills, transformed the buildings into a hub with

three pillars: Fabrica, a start-up incubator; the Shopfloor, a retail

space providing artisanal coffee and independent boutiques,

and the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textiles, which hosts

exhibitions related to the craft.

“When I joined the company, it was the 60th anniversary,”

Cheung told WWD. “I was quite inspired by the company’s

history, which a lot of the people at the company didn’t know

much about and I thought it would be a good way to use this

opportunity to celebrate the company history and the textile

industry’s history.”

“At first we thought of just building it as a museum, but thought

it could be too boring,” she said. “And also, it’s quite a big space.

We wanted to bring in things that could be more applicable to

the future, as well, and also have a viable business model. Then

we added in the incubator and coworking side and also a retail

side.”

The process of transforming the former factories, which bore a

construction cost of 700 million Hong Kong dollars, or $89

million, provided many insights for Cheung. Although the

family’s original fortune came via textiles, she was too young to

have direct exposure to it herself growing up other than the tales

her grandfather would tell at the dinner table.

“I knew it was a big industry in the Fifties, Sixties and even the

Seventies, but I didn’t know it was that big,” Cheung shared.

“Every person I talked to, even government officials, has at least

Fendi Baguette Launch Party

Ralph Lauren RTW Fall 2019

SIGN UP

Supernatural Video: Sam WorriesAbout the Consequences ofJohn's Return



Recommended by

one relative if not immediate family member who was working

in the factories in Hong Kong at the time. That was really

surprising to me and how much pride they had in their job at

work.”

According to the South China Morning Post, the city’s English

newspaper of record, textiles and garments production formed

Hong Kong’s biggest industries starting in the Fifties,

continuing for nearly four decades.

During The Mills’ grand opening in December, the company

invited back several former factory workers, now well into

retirement, some of whom had even kept their aprons and staff

cards.

However, as much as The Mills is a look into the past, the project

is designed to be forward-thinking and the hope is to inspire the

current generation of Hong Kong-ers to become interested in

the field.

With the incubator Fabrica, The Mills takes entrepreneurs either

in the fields of “tech” or “style” — a play on the word “textile”

and helps them develop their business concept.

“It could also be wearables and we’ve been working with

emphasis on sustainability with an environmental impact or

social impact. It’s not limited to just fashion design,” Cheung

said.

There are 10 such entrepreneurs at the moment, although

there’s no formal cap on the number, nor a set duration of

mentorship or take-in date. Cheung wants it to be as practical as

possible and offers help when the start-ups need it and for as

long as they want it.

“We teach them business skills, how to network and we also take

them with us to lots of conferences,” she said. “We match them

up with manufacturers — real concrete help that will help their

business, not just [giving] money.”

“I think a lot of times now businesses don’t necessarily require a

retail front or a shop space,” Cheung noted. For the most part,

the start-ups don’t see getting a shop front as a big milestone or

measure of success, or office space, for that matter. “The start-

ups that we talk to, they don’t even want an office space. They

work from home or just want more flexible space.”

Jennifer LawrenceMadly In LoveWith Cooke

How Barry JenkinsPrepared ReginaKing For Her Os‐

Aman’s Next Re‐sort is Opening ina Secret Garden in

@wwdchess of Sussex recreates one of Carolyn

ette Kennedy’s most iconic looks at the

vor Awards in London. . . . . . . #wwdfashion

lynbessettekennedy #duchessofsussex

#meghanmarkle #carolynbessette

Gig

@kellyt

SOCIAL STUDIES



More From Our Brands

At CHAT, the gallery section, the focus is to spark community

involvement. Sometimes that’s as straightforward as offering

knitting and crocheting classes to the public, or it could mean

inviting artists to think up interactive projects.

One project saw an artist build the basic structure of a dragon

before inviting the public to help weave the rest of the body with

him. The dragon was eventually used in a traditional dance at

The Mills’ grand opening ceremony.

Another workshop paired young designers to work with an

innovative antibacterial fabric to make aprons for neighborhood

wet market vendors.

“We’d pair a young aspiring designer with actual vegetable stall

vendors, fish mongers, butchers, to understand their needs and

design a new kind of apron they would use according to their

trade,” Cheung said. “That became a very successful initiative

and campaign. People wanted to buy these aprons, and we came

up with a domestic friendly version of the apron as well and we

sold them over the holiday period.”

The goal isn’t to make a profit with The Mills’ activities, but

“we hope it will be a self-sustaining project,” Cheung said.

China

blog comments powered by Disqus

0Comments WWD Login1

t Tweet f Share SortbyNewest

LOGINWITH

ORSIGNUPWITHDISQUS

Start the discussion…

?

Be the first to comment.

Recommend



© Copyright 2019 - Penske Media Corporation

FOOTWEAR NEWS

Jeremy Scott’s Fall 2019Show Was Full of Sala‐cious Headlines

6h Ago

FAIRCHILD LIVE

2019 WWD men’s style2019

4w Ago

SOURCING JOURNAL

Things You Need toKnow for the WeekAhead

10h Ago

ROBB REPORT

RM Sotheby’s Is Show‐casing Coveted Carsfrom the Late 20thCentury

3h Ago

SHEKNOWS

Andy Cohen Babywear‐ing on a Plane Is#DadGoals

11h Ago

Subscribe to WWD’s

newslettersGet all the top news stories and alerts straight to yourinbox.

Enter email address SIGN UP

The Mills Remembers Hong Kong’s Textile Past and Promotes ...€¦ · 2/9/2019 The Mills...

Documents

Transcript of The Mills Remembers Hong Kong’s Textile Past and Promotes ...€¦ · 2/9/2019 The Mills...