Appealing fashion:
Secondary school students use innovative designs to disseminate messages that call on young people not to use drugs.
Appealing fashion:
Secondary school students use innovative designs to disseminate messages that call on young people not to use drugs.
Transforming message:
A skeleton symbolises the dark life of drug abuse, while the silver white gown reflects the determination to quit taking drugs.
Transforming message:
A skeleton symbolises the dark life of drug abuse, while the silver white gown reflects the determination to quit taking drugs.
Choose happiness:
Black roses represent drugs’ harmful effects while the colourful flowers represent the joy of a drug-free life.
Choose happiness:
Black roses represent drugs’ harmful effects while the colourful flowers represent the joy of a drug-free life.
Wake-up call:
Student KC Ho, who organised the competition, wants to educate young people about the harmful effects of drug abuse after an overdose ruined his friend’s life.
Wake-up call:
Student KC Ho, who organised the competition, wants to educate young people about the harmful effects of drug abuse after an overdose ruined his friend’s life.
Team spirit:
The St Paul’s Secondary School team made a long train for their design out of ring-pulls the students and staff collected.
Team spirit:
The St Paul’s Secondary School team made a long train for their design out of ring-pulls the students and staff collected.
Life lessons:
Principal Roger Wong believes conveying anti-drug messages through fashion design is more compelling and effective than through lectures.
Life lessons:
Principal Roger Wong believes conveying anti-drug messages through fashion design is more compelling and effective than through lectures.
Fashion statement: Not now, not ever
May 25, 2014
A popular annual clothing design competition for students continues to make an enduring anti-drug fashion statement: Not now, not ever.
Established in 2010, it is another weapon in Hong Kong’s ongoing battle to encourage young people to “stand firm and knock drugs out”. A group of form five students from the Society of Boys' Centres Hui Chung Sing Memorial School organise the Inter-school Anti-drug Fashion Design Competition.
KC Ho was one of this year’s organising committee members, responsible for contacting the 16 finalist teams. He studied fashion design at the school, as do most of its students. Before, he had attended another school and had been a problematic student with a poor academic performance – and friends who abused drugs.
“When I hung out with a friend who took drugs, he needed to go to the toilet every 10 minutes. When we went to the beach together, I saw sores all over his back. He had no energy.”
He got a late-night call informing him that his friend had been sent to hospital after a drug overdose. He was brain-damaged and lost the ability to speak and take care of himself. This “wake-up call” spurred Mr Ho to educate other young people about the harmful effects of taking drugs and urge them not to indulge.
“Young people take drugs for the excitement, and think that there are no consequences. They don’t know how painful it can be when the effect of the drug fades away. Sometimes they take drugs because of peer pressure, but fail to quit. The harmful effects will last for the rest of their life.”
Transformational messages
On the day of the fashion contest, the school hall was converted into a catwalk for the teams to unveil their creative designs with anti-drug messages.
St Paul’s Secondary School team’s striking design had two distinct halves. The right side was a skeleton while the left was a silvery white dress.
“The right side symbolises darkness and death. The left side is a white gown with a long train made of ring-pulls, which symbolises drug abusers’ determination to quit taking drugs, and change from a life of darkness to a life of happiness,” team member Kate Chow said.
The model also wore a hat with a white bird perched on it, which “symbolises friends and families who help and support drug abusers to quit.”
The Helen Liang Memorial Secondary School team’s entry was a wedding gown with a white lace top emblazoned with black roses, which the model removed in the middle of the catwalk.
“The black roses represent the deadly lure of drugs. After the model takes it off, what remains is a white wedding gown with colourful flowers at the hem, representing the wonderful life after quitting drugs,” team member Victor Lui said.
More than 80 schools and about 200 design teams participated in this competition, supported by the Education Bureau. The 16 finalist designs will be exhibited at different schools, and the organising teaching staff and students will meet with other schools’ teachers and students, to share their experience of arranging this competition.
Society of Boys’ Centres Hui Chung Sing Memorial School Principal Roger Wong believes conveying anti-drug messages through such a design competition is more compelling and effective than through seminars or lectures.
“Participating students are not receiving information passively. They are expressing their own feelings about drug abuse through their designs. I hope this helps them understand and appreciate the importance of a healthy lifestyle,” Mr Wong said.
