From Wong Kar-wai to Wing Shya, an exploration of how Hong Kong cinema shaped fashion’s visual language of desire, colour and modernity
In this piece, IM alumna Anvi Sharma explores how Hong Kong cinema continues to shape contemporary fashion, visual culture and photographic language. Tracing the aesthetic legacy of filmmakers such as Wong Kar-wai and photographer Wing Shya, she reflects on how cinema from the 1980s to the early 2000s transformed clothing, colour, silhouettes and mood into enduring cultural codes. From the symbolism of the qipao to the influence of films In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express, this article explores how Hong Kong cinema moved beyond the screen to become a lasting reference for designers, visual storytellers and the global fashion imagination.
Why Hong Kong Cinema Became Fashion’s Most Enduring Visual Reference
Blurry city scenes streaked with neon light, high contrasts and colour-soaked interiors frame sensuous, slender figures draped in ornamental tradition. The vision is unfocused but attention-catching, off-centred but shrouded in smoke—evoking an ultra-modern metropolis alive with unguarded emotions and obsessions. Hong Kong’s cinema of the 1980s through the early 2000s wasn’t just about action or romance—it was about style.
Wing Shya and Wong Kar-wai’s cinematic fashion and expressionistic visuals created a universe defined by bold, inventive compositions that strike a balance between commercial allure and creative experimentation. This became the very identity of Hong Kong cinema, so deeply woven into its fabric that it still influences the visual culture across art, fashion and photography, capturing the city’s chaos and hidden textures.
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How Wong Kar-wai and Wing Shya Turned Cinema Into Style
In the Mood for Love and A Better Tomorrow turned fashion into artistic storytelling, with sensuality, timelessness and modesty at its core—tamed, playful silhouettes defining the mood. This ran throughout Hong Kong cinema at the time, giving it its signature style.
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Qipao, Trench Coats and Restraint: Fashion as Cultural Identity in Hong Kong Cinema
Maggie Cheung wore meticulously tailored 1960s qipao dresses. Floral ties and trench coats highlighted a palette of restrained desire, capturing the femme fatale in simple yet bold representation. The era’s women’s fashion was defined by loose, jet-black hair or claw clips, subtle concealer, and a dark red lip, all paired with long, conservative yet modern, sleek dresses.
Here, British and Chinese cultures converged, influencing fashion imagery across Asia. Designers created subtle scandal through modesty, incorporating high mandarin collars, side slits, diagonal fronts and knots.
Men’s fashion featured loose, Armani-inspired suits and metal watches, each accessory telling its own story. Smoking cigarettes, these characters guarded their feelings, often appearing mysterious yet approachable thanks to the understated simplicity of their wardrobes and personas.
Colour, Silhouettes and Desire: Visual Codes of Hong Kong Cinema
Another interesting aspect of this visual language was the use of matching colours between characters to show their reliance on each other, telling a story of trust and shared passion.
Why Films Like Chungking Express Still Shape Contemporary Fashion
Even when featuring modern clothing—as in Chungking Express or Fallen Angels—the style remained both guarded and bold, urban and unapologetic, with tight-fitting dresses, leather jackets, pops of colour in nighgown-like dresses and high heels, or loose shirts and sandals.
The film presented women as introspective figures navigating a modern metropolis, embodying the pinnacle of character design. The deliberate casting of actors with long, slender limbs, especially legs, became a potent fashion statement, influencing style both then and even now.
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From the Screen to the Runway: Hong Kong Cinema’s Influence on Designers
Paired with high pumps and skirts, this fashion scene inspired several designers, including Roberto Cavalli, Derek Lam, Erdem, Rodarte and more recent designers like China-born Huizhe of Scarlet Sage.
The Wong Kar-wai Aesthetic and Its Legacy in Fashion Photography
Wing Shya and Wong Kar-wai’s costume choices infused cinema with the atmosphere of a fashion show, while the rich, saturated tones of their photography established an iconic mood.
Days of Being Wild and Happy Together, featuring rainy streets, moody interiors and expressive costumes, introduces the recognisable Wong Kar-wai filter for fashion shoots that have inspired photographers like Zeng Wu and Zhong Lin, among others.
Today, Wing Shya continues to serve as art director for Vogue China, L’Officiel Hong Kong, Hypebeast, Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta, A Bathing Ape and more. His distinctive style remains evident in his work, evoking a timeless yet so fresh aesthetic that echoes his and Wong Kar-wai’s vision.
The cinema of that era still influences our fashion, visual culture, and choices today. Without its influence, wouldn’t fashion be left in monochrome?
Anvi Sharma
Fashion Writer and Stylist, IM alumna of the Master in Fashion Promotion, Communication & Digital Media, Milano