Trinkets, T-shirts and toys: discover Hong Kong’s retro shopping scene
Hong Kong is a city obsessed with the new: new buildings, new restaurants, new brand names, new trends. But underneath all that newness lies a burgeoning retro scene, one that’s a little more attached to the past. From genuine vintage to old-school cool, Hong Kong has a lot more to offer than mere novelty.
Best for: China kitsch
Cat Street
Officially named Upper Lascar Row, after the lascar sailors who used to bunk here, this little alley just off the Hollywood Road antiques drag is known universally as “Cat Street”. In Cantonese, a “cat” is a fence for stolen goods, and the street was once well known for its less-than-legal wares. These days the trinkets lining Cat Street are rather more legit. They still might not quite have the pedigree of the antiques stores that surround them, but this strip lies at the intersection of capitalism and communism: the stalls are full of mass-produced copies of Mao’s Little Red Book, Communist-era propaganda posters, and Chinese Politburo playing cards (can you name them all?). One store even features large marble busts of Mao, Stalin and Lenin, if your breakfast nook is in need of a touch more authoritarianism. There are also bronze tchotchkes, jade necklaces, Hong Kong postcards, and Bruce Lee posters aplenty for the souvenir shopper. But best of all are the wristwatches featuring a waving Chairman Mao on the face, his arm ticking away the seconds. Halfway up this short street, the Man Mo cafe serves up some fascinating fusion dim sum, such as pan-fried truffle brie dumplings.
Best for: pre-loved labels
Hipster 9
Hong Kong’s ladies who lunch are known as “tai-tais” – literally just “wives”. There are plenty of them in this city of status and money, and along with all the high teas and spa days come an awful lot of designer labels. But even the rich in Hong Kong are squeezed into smaller living spaces, and when they run out of walk-in wardrobe space they bring their brand names to Hipster 9 to be sold on consignment. What that all translates to is a regular stock of barely worn clothes, accessories, jewellery and shoes that tend toward the Pradas, the Ferragamos and the Guccis, with some choice vintage options on top – all for far less than you’d normally expect to pay. Rumour has it that Hong Kong celebrities are prone to dropping off their pre-loved items here, for that touch of extra glam.
Best for: small memories
Miniature models of vintage (and modern) Hong Kong vehicles make for perfect gifts
Tiny
Not all retro is secondhand, of course. Modelmaker Tiny’s toys summon up times gone by, with die-cast models that are a serious nostalgia hit for Hongkongers. Tiny is fully stocked to create the old-school Hong Kong diorama: crumbling tenement building facades, in front of which tiny model street hawkers roast up miniature chestnuts, while vintage taxis and “hot-dog buses” – double-deckers so named for their colour scheme and lack of air-conditioning – wait for passengers alongside rickshaws. Even if you didn’t grow up in the city, these iconic trams, delivery trucks and even soft-serve ice-cream vans make for perfect gifts. The company also creates miniature Boris buses, if your predilections incline towards London.
Best for: making Americana great again
Midwest Vintage
The city’s very first vintage store was founded back in 1993 as a company selling used clothing across Asia, Russia and eastern Europe. But after a while it discovered that the Hong Kong market was just as interested in vintage as anywhere else. Midwest Vintage stocks genuine classic Americana, sourced straight from the Lone Star state itself. Think vintage T-shirts, Levi 501s, US air force surplus flight jackets and navy pea coats – stylish and utterly impractical in the sweltering heat of Hong Kong. Hence the shop’s homegrown label, First Edition, which takes vintage fabrics and merges them with contemporary designs for clothing that’s – just like Hong Kong – the very best of both worlds.
Best for: forgotten fashions
Mee & Gee’s crammed racks
Mee & Gee
Hong Kong doesn’t have much of a thrifting scene, but Mee & Gee (sometimes known as Mee & George) is a goldmine, as long you come equipped with time and patience. This shop brings mostly secondhand Japanese fashions into its many crammed racks, and shoppers are expected to get stuck in. There are plaid shirts in every hue, adorable print dresses, leather coats of wildly varying quality and age, some amazingly ugly shirts – and a surprisingly large selection of mesh fishing vests. You have to steel yourself for Mee & Gee, and you might not always come away a winner, but the HK$10 (£1) rack right by the entrance can hold treasures.