For those of you who don't know me, I'm a British Pakistani (born & raised in the UK) who moved to Hong Kong in 2015. I originally came here for work so, in the back of my mind, I think I always assumed I would eventually move back home to the UK. Of course I then met someone when I wasn't even looking (who says fate doesn't have a sense of humour ?) so I got married here. He is open to living with me in the UK eventually (especially given Hong Kong's current political situation...) but we're living here in a small flat with my in-laws for now.

The reason I'm giving this long-winded backstory is because I think it helps to explain my mentality towards shopping in HK. Not only is it high stakes (because of my limited closet space), but I find it difficult because I don't live in an expat-heavy area, so all of my nearby shops cater towards local women's measurements. At 5ft3.5, I'm on the cusp of Western petite but on the taller side of average here - so sleeves & hems are often too short on me. I'm also classified as a 2XL (!) but the slim pickings in my size don't really accommodate my pear/ hourglass curves & mostly consist of glued-on rhinestones or huge cabbage roses printed on cheap polyester. That may work for your body shape & style, but it's not for me!

If I do eventually make the trek out to the Western brands on Hong Kong Island (where you're more likely to find English speaking sales assistants), they still put fewer clothing items in my size out on the floor & often charge up to 3x more than they would for the same item back home (a pair of Clarks shoes I bought for £75 in the UK cost £170+ over here!) The culture here is also for staff to be more pushy than back home (typically when I pick up an item to look for the fabric label, they'll come over to announce the price loud enough for everyone else to hear, or they'll take it from my hands & tell me they're hanging it up for me to try it on I the fitting room - never mind if I was just browsing at first, lol!)

All of this to say it probably comes as no surprise that I've mostly been shopping online from UK companies for the past 5 years. Or I wait to stock up on clothing when I migrate home for the summer, lol. I do want to give back to the local economy, but it seems like my body is shaped 'wrongly' for it (even the international chain stores often carry 'Asian' sizing for straighter figures). Enter solution: charity shops (thrifting).

When I was still in the UK, most of my clothing was secondhand - we have many small charity shops on the high street, supporting everything from Cats Protection to the British Heart Foundation. Those sorts of thrifting opportunities doesn't seem to exist here, which could partially be explained by Chinese & Hong Kong culture. My in-laws still carry heavy superstitions around the 'bad juju' of using someone's old things - for example, they wouldn't even let me bring home some furniture that my workplace no longer needed. So the idea of an 'estate sale' (where you willing *pay* to reuse a *dead* person's things) would probably give them a heart attack, lol. This sort of thinking took me a while to understand, because Pakistani culture is ALL about reusing things & getting a bargain lol - the pushchair (stroller) I used as a kid is *still* going strong with my cousins!

Young HKers seem to be rejecting some of this mentality with the proliferation of 'vintage' stores that now exist here. But I've noticed they're often capitalising on that Urban Outfitters 'hipster' aesthetic instead of much older vintage items. I'm talking about oversized men's t-shirts, with 90s graphic slogans & holes in them, selling for £40. It makes sense, given the popularity of the 'normcore' style in HK (brands like Dickies, Champion & Fila are being sold firsthand in 'luxury' malls here), but again, not for me!

Lately however, I've noticed international charities like Salvation Army setting up shops here. They're street level (not in malls) & I see a much wider demographic shopping there. So I tried them out & had a TON of luck! Some of you may know that I'm looking for clothing in more natural fibres these days. For example, I found a 100% wool jacket from Crea Concepts for 60 HKD (around £6) with the tags still attached! I think this may ironically be due to the above culture of valuing 'newness' above all else, but it definitely works in my favour! There are of course still some duds, but I think most people probably still don't feel comfortable donating 'too' well used clothing.

I'll share some of my charity shop successes in later threads (this has become far too long already!) but thank you for reading this far! Please feel free to share your own insights & shopping tips too - if you're familiar with Chinese culture, for example, please let me know if my analysis is off-base!