Leggings from the When Nature Reigns collection. Photos Provided to China Daily

Game on for designers

Fired up by clay

Former journalist Carrie Hare made the transition from writing about design to doing it. Rebecca Lo finds out how.

Successful businesses are all about knowing the market and finding a niche. While there is very little that's new in the competitive world of fashion, there is always room for a fresh approach by creative new talent.

Many people believe that they have what it takes to be a great designer, yet the reality TV show Project Runway stresses that it takes consistently fabulous work and grace under pressure to pull off a hit collection.

Hong Kong native Carrie Hare knows all about making it work. She originally majored in journalism and for four years she covered lifestyle topics such as art and fashion for the South China Morning Post.

As she gained familiarity with up-and-coming brand names, she found the industry fascinating enough to pursue a part-time fashion design course and worked on projects directed by graphic and fashion designer Silvio Chan.

"Through these projects, I understood that fashion design is more than just drawing on paper," Hare says. "There's a lot to play with in regards to materials and form manipulation. I could see myself having a lifelong career experimenting with all these ideas rather than working for a newspaper."