When you meet Edith Law, Sc’96, who is heavily involved in the Hong Kong fashion scene, it is nothing like a scene from The Devil Wears Prada. She is not wearing a $5,000 haute couture outfit and doesn’t display any Anna Wintour icy attitude.
“My office is not like The Devil Wears Prada. Lots of people think the fashion world is so glamorous, but it is a lot of hard work,” the Hong Kong resident said during a recent interview when she traveled back to Queen’s to visit her alma mater.
Ms. Law is the chair of Fashion Farm Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports fashion entrepreneurs and designers in Hong Kong. The person who is trying to help the industry expand worldwide admits she is more interested in the business side of the fashion, not the creative.
Her ultimate goal is to have more people wearing clothes created by Hong Kong designers, not just clothes made in China.
“Hong Kong is not like New York or Paris. It does not have a world-famous fashion designer atmosphere. I think we should become like that. I felt Hong Kong was lacking a creative sector, so I am trying to help close the gap,” Ms. Law said.
Fashion Farm Foundation encourages collaborations among Hong Kong-based fashion designers, industry experts, and retailers. The organization tries to put a spotlight on Hong Kong designers by doing things such as hosting shows during Paris Fashion Week.
Ms. Law has always enjoyed numbers and analytical thinking. She graduated from Queen’s with a degree in Electrical Engineering and earned a master’s degree in Science Management from Stanford University.
She became an investment banker specializing in telecommunications (thanks in part to her Queen’s engineering experience) in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Telecom projects exploded to keep up with demand created by the dot com boom.
After seven years, she left to work with her sister, Victoria Law, to run the financial side of her affordable luxury fashion company, bread n butter.
“As a banker I would look at other people’s businesses and try to improve their bottom line. I wanted to run my own operations and experience those challenges on my own and do my own problem solving,” says Ms. Law.
She is also an active member of the Hong Kong Branch of the Queen’s University Alumni Association (QUAA). Hong Kong is one of the QUAA’s largest international branches, alongside New York and London.
In June, the branch celebrated Queen’s 175th anniversary by hosting a gala dinner and awarding an honorary degree to Hong Kong Branch president, retired Justice Kin Kee Pang. Many of Queen’s leaders – including Chancellor Jim Leech, Principal Daniel Woolf, and Rector Cam Yung – travelled across the globe to attend. Ms. Law feels that show of support by senior leaders proves that Hong Kong is an important part of the Queen’s community.
Ms. Law loved her time at Queen’s and says the school’s “work hard, play hard” attitude is something she carried forward in her life. Her volunteer work with the Hong Kong Branch is a way to stay connected to a special time in her life.
“I loved Queen’s so much. Alumni in Hong Kong want to bond with other members of the Queen’s community and remember the tricolour spirit,” she says.
