Best Fashion 2011: Moustache Revealed

Monday, November 23, 2009

Moustache Revealed

j.a. daye's wonderful guide to Hong Kong.

Wei?! I have had such a great time exploring Hong Kong with Susie and have so much to style related finds to show. Alas, most of it will have to wait for when we are back in London but there are one or two things which just cannot wait. We have stuffed our cheeks with so many tasty treats (I sit here typing this on the morning after a five course 'In The Mood For Love' menu at Cafe de Goldfinch and now ask myself how Tony Leung ate so much and still looked so sharp in his suits!), lit incense at temples, ridden the Star Ferry and braved our fear of heights on the crystal bottom cable cars of Ngong Ping and of course we have shopped. As great a guide as Susie is, the city is a mysterious one and there is just so much to discover just wandering the streets and looking up, around and inside. It is these discovered pleasures which the best. I will bore you with my purchases later this week but first I'd like to share one such discovery with you...Moustache on Aberdeen Street.

The attractive sign for Hu Zi or Moustache.

Even finding the store itself involved a great deal of discovery and twists, so much so that I will just give you the edited version here and try and keep the story short and relatively succinct. Whilst Susie was off powdering her nose I decided to have a nosy around the bookshop located in a nook of the Brunch and Supper club in Causeway Bay. In amongst the magazines and literature, my magpie eye was drawn to a lo-fi guidebook. We duly bought the book and duly found out that it was written by two tailor shop owners from New York, Ellis Kreuger and Alex Daye, and an enthusiastic, well knowledgeable local, Brandice. The trio decided to write a small guide to Hong Kong for visitors to their tailor shop (located on Hollywood Road). The guide celebrates places not necessarily on the tourist circuit, whether it be a renowned wonton noodle shack in Soho or a fabric vendor in Sham Shui Po..and of course it introduced me to their wonderful tailor shop, j. a. dye which in turn led me to their newly opened store, Moustache.

The shop is their reinvention of the classic Hong Kong tailor shop. The former New York natives work with local tailors on two collections a year, all made with the same eye for craft, construction, and detail that are the hallmarks of this vanishing trade, but with a fashion perspective all too often lacking. They buy fabric from all over Asia - China, Japan, India and beyond - to make a vintage inspired yet modern wardrobe suitable for the tropical climate. The store is located just off Hollywood Road on Aberdeen Street, and nestled slightly off the beaten track in the world renowned Soho antiques district.

I had to sit on my hands to stop myself from buying this bag in an interesting denim-esque fabric.

I was instantly enamoured by the the vintage-inspired line of clothing and in particular the fabric choices and cuts offered. The combination of some of Hong Kong's finest craftsmen alongside high quality fabrics from japanese denim and Indian cottons, is a successful one. I could wax lyrical about everything in this store but the real highlights were the seersucker jackets, Bermuda shorts, lightweight shirts made from Indian cotton, safari shirts and even piped pyjamas (so, so very tempted by these so much so in fact that I might return to the store today).

Just one of the rails plump with tailored goodies.

I am so pleased to have discovered this store and of course, j. a. dye (more on this in the near future). It is great to find stores which meld the city's tailoring traditions with a fashion forward sensibility to produce bespoke and modern designs. I will leave you with a few snapshots of the wonders inside...