Belle International and Lam Wing Yee were the big winners at 8th Footwear Design Competition Hong Kong awards show, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Ms Lam picked up the Staccato Award for Grand Champion, the Millie’s Award for the Most Promising New Talent 2008, and the Ladies’ Boots award for her Amphitrite design theme.
Belle International swept all three corporate prizes, including the Shoemaster Award for Best Corporate Design and the Texon Award for Corporate Creativity, impressing the judges with her Flying Belle design theme.
The company also received the Licheng Award for the Best Commercial Prospect. More than 1,100 entries were submitted, and Tang Yiu, Chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Footwear Ltd, was impressed with the high design quality.
“The competition is meant to develop young design talent and to enhance creativity and quality in the Hong Kong footwear industry.
All these are vital to the growth of the industry,” said Mr Tang, who chaired the organising committee for this year’s Footwear Design Competition.
Ladies’ Shoes and Bags was this year’s new category, joining six others: Children; Sports; Men’s Shoes; Ladies’ Boots; Ladies’ Sandals; and Ladies’ Shoes. Judging was based on creativity, fashion aesthetics and ease of design production. Prizes were awarded in each category.
In addition, a number of special awards were presented: the Joy & Peace Award for Creativity; Fiorucci Award for Most Eye-catching Design; le saunda Award for Modern Chic; Amann Award for Intelligent Design; Y-NOT KiDS Award for the Most Smart Kid’s Shoes; Classical Award for the Best Charismatic; APLF Global Market Award; and China Shoes for Best Fashion Sense Award.
The winning designs will be featured in Hong Kong Footwear, published by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC). They will also be displayed at several major fairs, including Style Hong Kong and Fashion Access.
Hong Kong footwear exports amounted to US$5.4 billion (HK$42.1 billion) in the first 11 months of 2007, with the United States, Japan and the Chinese mainland the top three markets.
Exports to the Chinese mainland, Italy and Germany grew substantially over the same period last year, up 15 per cent, 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. The competition was organised by the Federation of Hong Kong Footwear and the TDC.
