Coffee with … Anais Mak
The 28-year-old founder of fashion label Jourden was raised in Hong Kong, trained at Paris fashion design institute Studio Berçot, then came back to start her own brand. With her clothes sold in well-known department stores across the globe (including Bar
My mom had a passion for fashion when I was really young; she loved reading Vogue, while I loved reading Teen Vogue — the stories about young girls throwing birthday parties and wearing designer brands. But then I dressed like a normal kid, looking at clothes from a distance. I think for that generation in Hong Kong, a lot of people naturally grew interested in fashion — when Joyce Boutique was bringing foreign designers to the city, like Tom Ford, Issey Miyake, Christian Lacroix, Dries Van Noten … the influence was unconscious.
I’d say it’s a training of taste, rather than technical. But it helped me clear my mind on knowing what I wanted to pursue. I really confronted my own identity. I was looking up to the Western fashion scene before, and I still look up to it now, but I feel more comfortable as to why I aspire to certain things — that you’re not trying to become someone else, but you’re honest with your own aspirations.
Hong Kong is a city where everyone is interested in trends and shopping in general — once they appreciate something, the next step is buying it. But if you’re in Europe, you write editorials or critiques, read about it, make nice images about the things you appreciate, or buy it – buying is one of the many options. In Hong Kong, though, to participate in fashion, you just buy.
It’s very inspirational. I grew up here, so it’s how I’ve been surrounded. It’s the culture here — people like to feel the ownership of products to feel that they’re part of it, which means a lot of curiosity and eagerness in participating. I think it’s a very honest energy and it’s brave. If you’re at a museum, you have distance — a comfort zone between the work and yourself. But when you actually put something on yourself, even if it’s part of the experiment, I think it takes a lot of courage.
Studio Berçot gave me a nice foundation, but I was really impatient to connect with the real industry. It was the first year of college. I travelled back to Hong Kong during the holiday and worked on a one-off collection of 20 pieces, mixing different exotic leathers. I was very lucky to get introduced to both partners of (local fashion boutique) Liger — Hilary (Tsui) and Dorothy (Hui). It was very important for me to understand that a good product can communicate with an audience without any marketing or strategic plans.
I work with a sales agent and a PR agent. I realised at a very early stage that I was going to focus more on doing my collections well and stay where I was strong. But I enjoy doing branding — it’s about the statements you want to make with your brand, ultimately. We do all the images, art direction and graphic co-branding in-house, but then how to actually push the things to a bigger audience… that’s the responsibility of the PR machine. I didn’t believe in competition before, because I think there’s a disconnect between celebration of creativity and actually making a brand sustainable, as well as having a real appeal in the market and being commercially successful. But the LVMH Prize was more, in the sense that… there were more than 1,000 applications that year, with 26 semifinalists including Vetements, OffWhite, Jacquemus, and Chinese brands such as Sankuanz and Simon Li. We brought our collection to the showroom in Paris for three days, where they had a panel of judges, consisting of editors, buyers, models, bloggers and designers. It was really monumental for me.
My only inspiration is the “girl of the present”. I’m always very reactive to my own surroundings. I like to
I really like Ryan Lo – he works in London, but grew up in Hong Kong. He has a really strong Hong Kong influence in his work. Prada has the most influence on me, both commercially and creatively. Miu Miu as well.
Lately I’ve been a fan of Japanese culture, so it was Kikujiro to Saki by Kitano Takeshi.