People in Hong Kong refer to a certain manner of dress as Mongkok-style, more commonly abbreviated by the acronym, ‘M.K.‘. Mongkok of course is one of the city’s thriving shopping and eating centers on Kowloon side. It’s also literally one of the most densely populated neighborhoods on the planet.

The term Mongkok-style can be used for many different things. It can have negative connotations in addition to positive ones. The negatives relate to the areas cramped quarters and the prevalence of fake items. (I personally like Mongkok as much as Causeway Bay and don’t agree with the negative term.) In a positive way, marketers have harnessed the term ‘Mongkok-style’ to convey authenticity and to give a product street-cred. A diverse range of items use the term including a kind of potato chips, which mimic a type of sausage sold by street vendors in Mongkok.

When it comes to fashion, I’ve been trying to uncover the origins of M.K.-style for a long time and I actually have a confession: I used to dress ‘M.K’ many years ago. At the time I thought it was T.S.T. style since I bought the shirts from a local designer shop in the Beverly Shopping Center in Tsim Sha Tsui. But thinking back now, I was definitely on the forefront of M.K. style for a good two years!

In conducting my investigation, the first question I needed to answer was: what exactly is M.K. style? FULL POST COMING SOON!