Designing The Full Gamut in an old factory building

An old factory building is not an obvious choice for a fashion exhibition. The Full Gamut took over a floor in Lai Chi Kok, in the middle of Hong Kong’s textile district. The rooms were industrial and had never been made for display. Our first job was to change that, shaping the space so it could hold the work of more than 40 design projects.

The Full Gamut: Fashion Beyond the Garment

The Full Gamut was a Design Spectrum exhibition by Hong Kong Design Centre. I co-curated it with Roger Wu, and it ran in Lai Chi Kok from 5 May to 19 July 2023.

Fashion, closer to home

Fashion is often seen as clothing alone. I wanted to show it as an industry that depends on many kinds of designers: architects, spatial designers, product designers, brand designers, socially inclusive designers and more. Over 40 projects from Hong Kong, Japan and the United States sat side by side.

Many of these works would not be called “fashion” at first glance. Yet they are things people meet every day, and they shape what ordinary people choose to wear, carry and use. That everyday reach is what makes them part of the story.

A factory, reimagined

The show took over a floor of an old factory in the heart of Hong Kong’s textile district. It was a challenging space for exhibition, so I had the intention of transforming the space fitting for an exhibition. We organised the floor into five circular spaces, each holding a group of projects. These rounded space became its own container and the choice was deliberate. It stands for collaboration, with every discipline facing the others, and it forms a close community in which each project within a larger theme sits side by side with one another.

Colour

A gamut is the full range of colors a system can show, and the title leans on that idea. The colors came from the work itself, set against a quiet backdrop so each project could stand out. Developed by Carrot/Salmon, the design team was responsible for creating the visual identity and establishing the color scheme that aligns with our spatial concept.

Cardboard, not spotlights

Fashion usually asks for glamour, and glamour usually means light. Spotlights, glow and polish are the language of the industry. We wanted to question that, so we built with cardboard, a material that is cheap, humble and recyclable.

The show returned as Re: Full Gamut from 29 November to 12 December 2023 at the HKDC Design & Fashion Base in Sham Shui Po. It was written about in Meniscus and in HKDC’s DMatters.