Asia Fashion Weekly News Bulletin – ISSUE 40 Week of 10 November 2025
(1) Colombo Fashion Week Introduces Couture + Trousseau
Colombo Fashion Week launches November 2025 couture/bridal season for Sri Lankan designers, tapping South Asia’s growth and destination weddings. Builds on 20-year legacy, expanding opportunities beyond summer focus.
(2) Kazakh fabric artist’s Hong Kong exhibition reflects on heritage and ‘historical traumas’
Kazakh artist Gulnur Mukazhanova’s “Dowry of the Soul” at Hong Kong’s Chat (Nov 14–Mar 1, 2026) weaves Central Asian textiles into heritage reflections, with atrium installation evoking fragile hope and Soviet traumas.
(3) Luxury brands turn on the charm in China to kindle nascent spending recovery
FASHION TO RECONNECT (Nov 17–Dec 25) brings 6 Third Paradise installations to HK landmarks and sustainable fashion by 9 HK/15 Italian designers to ArtisTree, bridging East-West eco-creativity.
(4) Kering and Shanghai Fashion Week launch new CRAFT programme
Kering and Shanghai Fashion Week have launched Kering CRAFT, a new initiative to support Chinese creative talent in fashion, craftsmanship and technology, promoting international exchange.
(1) Colombo Fashion Week Introduces Couture + Trousseau
(Photo Credit: The Island)
Colombo Fashion Week (CFW) announces a new November 2025 season dedicated to couture, trousseau, occasion wear, bridal, and destination weddings, opening high-growth South Asian opportunities for Sri Lankan designers. This segment, identified by CFW as ripe for expansion, aligns with Sri Lanka’s tourism push for destination weddings and encourages local talent to upgrade skills in functionality, wellness, craft, identity, sustainability, and celebration. Managing Director Ajai Vir Singh plans a modest launch before a full season in 2026.
Since 2003, CFW has evolved into a premier South Asian platform, welcoming designers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Europe alongside Sri Lankans, ranking among Asia’s four 20-year legacy fashion weeks (with Japan, India, Australia). The March season traditionally focuses on versatile summer foundations, while this new initiative targets couture/bridal’s regional boom, fostering business growth and professional pride—from one established designer in 2003 to nurturing a young generation dreaming big.
CFW’s strategic pivot capitalizes on South Asia’s bridal/couture surge amid post-pandemic luxury recovery and destination wedding trends, positioning Sri Lanka as a creative hub beyond textiles. By balancing heritage with innovation, it empowers designers against global competition, though success hinges on inclusivity for emerging talent and sustainability integration to attract international buyers. This expansion reinforces CFW’s role in regional soft power, potentially boosting exports and tourism synergies.
News Source: https://island.lk/cfw-introduces-couture-trousseau/
(2) Kazakh fabric artist’s Hong Kong exhibition reflects on heritage and ‘historical traumas’
(Photo Credit: Chat)
Kazakh artist Gulnur Mukazhanova’s solo exhibition “Dowry of the Soul” at Hong Kong’s Chat (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) in The Mills, Tsuen Wan, opened on November 14, 2025, running until March 1, 2026. The centerpiece, “False Hope or Moment of the Present,” is a three-storey installation of deconstructed Central Asian textiles (90% Kazakh-sourced) hovering in the atrium, symbolizing inherited dowries—gifts of colored fabrics at weddings carrying positive and negative heritage, including historical traumas. From ground level, it evokes dreamy clouds; the third-floor view reveals pinned fabrics hinting at fragile hope amid beauty and unease.
The exhibition features over 100 felt paintings, sculptures, patchwork, photography, and video works, blending traditional Kazakh felt-making with global influences like Chinese peony prints for local dialogue. Mukazhanova, born 1984 in Semipalatinsk under Soviet rule, uses textiles to explore globalization vs. tradition, language loss, and identity erosion—Kazakhstan’s last Soviet republic independence in 1991. Curator Wang Weiwei praises it for layering human-textile interactions to reflect history, society, and heritage. Complementary events include a free November 13 concert by Kazakh musician Samrattama and a November 15 felt mask workshop contributing to “Eternal Renewal” (2025).
Mukazhanova’s work, exhibited from Moscow to Venice Biennale’s Central Asia Pavilion, heals Soviet-era cultural voids through felt’s “energy,” honouring 2022 protests (262 deaths) via planned 82 felt pieces. In Hong Kong’s revitalized Mills (former cotton mills), it fosters emotional connections, urging reflection on personal pasts. Amid rising Central Asian representation in global art, the show bridges nomadic heritage with urban modernity, challenging viewers on fragility in progress—timely for Hong Kong’s own identity negotiations—while workshops ensure interactive legacy-building.
News Source: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3332146/kazakh-fabric-artists-hong-kong-exhibition-reflects-heritage-and-historical-traumas?module=top_story&pgtype=subsection
(3) Luxury brands turn on the charm in China to kindle nascent spending recovery
(Photo Credit: FASHION TO RECONNECT A Tale of Two Style Capitals)
FASHION TO RECONNECT: A Tale of Two Style Capitals, co-organized by City University of Hong Kong (CLASS) and Cittadellarte – Pistoletto Foundation, curated by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, and funded by CCIDA, runs November 17–December 25, 2025, as part of Hong Kong Fashion Festival. Supported by the Italian Consulate, it features six reinterpreted Third Paradise art installations by Hong Kong artists at landmarks (Sophia Loren House, HK Airport, CityU, Cultural Centre, Red Harbour Promenade) and a sustainable fashion exhibition at Taikoo Place’s ArtisTree (November 25–December 24) with works by 9 Hong Kong and 15 Italian designers.
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Third Paradise—symbolizing harmony between artificial and natural worlds—debuts in Hong Kong with six large-scale installations (plus digital imagery) across five sites, the largest such activation globally. The ArtisTree exhibition, inspired by Third Paradise, showcases sustainable fashion masterpieces and creative processes, urging eco-conscious choices. A November 27–28 symposium at Soho House, “Sino-Overseas Exchange: The Tale of Two Style Cities,” with Paolo Naldini, Sara Sozzani Maino, and Tiziano Guardini, explores cross-cultural sustainability in design, resource management, and heritage.
FASHION TO RECONNECT elevates Hong Kong as an East-West creative hub, merging Italian artistry (Pistoletto, Guardini) with local talent to reframe fashion as social change. By activating public spaces with Third Paradise, it democratizes sustainability discourse beyond galleries, while the exhibition and talks foster actionable industry dialogue. As CLASS Dean Ho Tat-kei and coordinator Esterina Nervino note, it boosts Hong Kong’s cultural brand, inspires community vitality, and models cross-sector collaboration for a greener future.
News Source: https://hk.news.yahoo.com/%E6%99%82%E5%B0%9A%E7%9B%9B%E4%BA%8Bfashion-reconnect-tale-two-style-010000032.html
(4) Kering and Shanghai Fashion Week launch new CRAFT programme
(Photo Credit: Kering)
At the eighth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai on November 5, 2025, French luxury group Kering signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shanghai Fashion Week to launch Kering CRAFT—Creative Residency for Artisanship, Fashion and Technology—aiming to nurture emerging Chinese talent in craftsmanship, creativity, and innovation. The program, announced during the Kering Pavilion unveiling, fosters cross-continental exchanges in Milan, Paris, and Shanghai, empowering designers to build global “glocal” brands while promoting sustainable practices and dialogue between China and Europe.
Kering CEO Luca de Meo hailed China’s “vibrant creative energy” as aligning with the group’s vision, emphasizing international business, culture, and innovation exchange. Selected via a rigorous international jury with the Shanghai Fashion Designers Association, talents will gain business and brand skills. Shanghai Fashion Week Director Ji Shengjun praised the “integration of local and international visions,” expanding the ecosystem for local designers to engage globally and strengthen brand capabilities. The initiative supports Kering’s deepening China ties, where half its stores opened in the last decade across 40 cities.
Kering CRAFT positions the group as a bridge for Sino-European fashion synergy amid China’s rising creative hub status, countering market slowdowns (e.g., 18–20% domestic luxury decline in 2024 per Bain) by investing in talent and sustainability—core to Kering’s “Creativity is our Legacy” ethos. While empowering “glocal” brands, it risks over-reliance on state-aligned events like CIIE, potentially limiting radical innovation. As Shanghai evolves from runway showcase to Asia’s top fashion week, this MoU amplifies its global clout, fostering long-term soft power amid U.S.-China trade tensions.
News Source: https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/kering-and-shanghai-fashion-week-launch-new-craft-programme/2025111284861
