We first met up with local fashion brand ANIFA at Centerstage Hong Kong in 2019. At that time they were quite recently established and already presenting some very creative and colourful designs, focusing on what has become their trademark style, trendy funtional activewear utilising advanced space cotton and stretch fabric.
“From the beginning, I wanted to make the future of fashionable sportswear / activewear, that was our simple goal,” explains Simon Kuong, one of the founders of the brand.
Their first runway show was at Tokyo Fashion Week in 2018, presenting casual athletic-leisure styles.
“We had a tennis dress with lace and a yoga bra top with lace, but this lace was also functional and stretchable. It looks elegant, but it’s sportswear,” notes Simon.
After three years, the brand is now becoming more focused and defined, and will open the catwalk at this year’s Macau Fashion Festival at The Venetian Macao in October.
Simon Kuong
“We are very honoured to be chosen to open the Festival, and this year’s theme is technology and science fiction, so this is perfect for us,” says the designer. “We are more focused on making sports suits now. We make other items too, but this is the main item we are promoting.”
ANIFA’s latest item for this season is a very thin layered sports jacket made from a high tech nylon and polyester knitted material.
“Our previous jacket used neoprene, which is the same material as wetsuits. It’s quick to dry and stretchable and feels nice when you wear it. This year we’ve added this very thin one. It’s not neoprene, it’s even thinner and more stretchable, it dries quicker and is breathable and easier to wear in the summer. It doesn’t look too sporty, just like a normal jacket, so you can wear it for work or meetings, a kind of crossover,” explains Simon.
The new thinner material makes for a very versatile and functional item, one that can be worn all year round. Because it’s breathable, if you sweat, it doesn’t get wet or stick to your skin. It’s also machine washable with no need to iron, so very easy to maintain.
“We actually developed this fabric for FILA, because we are a main supplier to them,” comments Simon. “Our original business is manufacturing and we work with a lot of big fabric companies in Japan and China.”
As the brand matures, ANIFA is also adding design elements to make it more recognisable.
“From a branding point of view, we want to have a distinctive style so people know what ANIFA is, so for this suit jacket we have our signature stripes, that all of our items have. We are using an illuminating print that glows in the dark, which is fun in a bar or nightclub.”
Simon also has some other exciting elements that he plans to incorporate in the opening catwalk of Macau Fashion Festival 2021, adding to the science fiction theme.
“We are collaborating with another company, Macau Nanometals Technology who make illuminated panels for safety wear, so we are going to make suits with illuminated panels.”
Simon sees this merging of technology as the future of fashion and the way forward for the ANIFA brand.
“For our next item we want to make smart suits, a suit that can charge your phone just by putting it in your pocket, or if you’re cold you can press a button and it heats up. This technology already exists, we just need to combine it with clothing. And now with illumination, if I’m riding a bike at night time, I can just push a button and it lights up. These are the kinds of functions we want to build in to our suits.”
Currently, ANIFA remains a niche brand with a small production, but they have seen their popularity grow quickly, despite the challenges of the past 18 months.
“We only produce 50 to 100 pieces of each item. If we can expand our channels this year, we may open up to a franchise or partnership to open more stores,” notes Simon. “We are selling to around 20 to 30 select shops in China and are planning to open a store in Sogo in Hong Kong, and probably in New Yaohan very soon, and also opening our own store in Guangzhou. We already have our own shop in Zhongshan, so slowly we are expanding our distribution.”
The brand also collaborates with former English footballer Michael Owen.
“Michael is very supportive and has always loved our items. They really suit his lifestyle. Because he was a sportsman he doesn’t like to wear suits, but he has a lot of events to attend so he cannot dress too casual, so ANIFA is perfect for him.”
Another intriguing element of ANIFA is the colourful label design attached to their clothing. What might at first just look like a random arrangment of colourful lines is actually known as warming stripes or climate stripes, a series of coloured stripes chronologically ordered to visually portray long-term global warming trends, developed by climatologist Ed Hawkins. “We care about climate change, and ANIFA’s core value is to create the future of activewear, meaning we also want to reduce our carbon footprint by creating clothing that fits more occasions so people will buy less clothes,” explains Simon.