NEW YORK, Feb 14, 2003/ FW/ --- Last week, when New York Fashion Week opened, one of the first shows was Re/Visions, a show sponsored by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to promote the designers from the island.

And though this is the third time that the HKTDC has sponsored such a show, it has always made me wonder why some fashion reviewers are still amazed by the good showing of the Hong Kong designers!

Hong Kong, for a very long time has been the fashion center of Asia. It is a very modern city, and until the turn of the millennium, it was under British rule.

It is modern and forward thinking.

Just like Manhattan which is a microcosm of the American way of life, Hong Kong is also a microcosm - an incubator of things to come. Fashion is just one of them.

So to say that the HKTDC show was a good show is redundant. Of course it is a good show! After all, Hong Kong's best and brightest are the ones showing.

The silhouettes are modern, the tailoring superb and the designs - as individualistic as each designer is - meaning it's their own style.

Making a comeback this season is Dorian Ho, winner of back-to-back 'Best Collection Award' of Hong Kong Fashion Week.

Leaning towards the sophisticated, the collection will probably find its way to the closets of the ladies who lunch.

Showing for the third time are sister labels Bleu de Chine and Blanc De Chine. Mimimalist and urbane, the two labels show a marriage of east and west.

Making his debut at the tents is Harrison Wong, winner of the 1996 Young Designer Award from Hong Kong Fashion Week went back to the 1920s and the Jazz age as inspiration for his collection.

With updated flapper tunics in chiffon matched with cigarette pants, the young designer showed creativity that belied his youth.

Another newcomer is Hidy Ng who went to Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard to capture its drama and style. It was not about the silver screen goddesses, but more of the denizens of the cinema world who were the inspiration of this collection.

Annie Ling stayed in Hollywood too, but this time not at the movie studios but on the small screen. Inspired by 'Addams Family' it was very easy to see a very modern Morticia on the runway.

Flora Zhang went for a metaphor of the 12 western zodiac signs. It was a little bit stoic and too stylistic.

But the same thing has been said about John Galliano and he has continued to be one of the major forces of Paris' fashion powerhouses.

Re/Visions did exactly what it set out to do - introduce Hong Kong's stars to the world.

But 7 designers in one show can be confusing to the audience.

And with each designer showing only several pieces, it is really hard to get a depth of the designer's creative range.

As Karl Lagerfeld has said, 'a set of 10 is not a collection.' With the designers showing about the same number of pieces each, I understand now what Karl Lagerfeld meant.

Maybe next season, the HKTDC will get a second stage or lessen the number of participants in their show to give each designer enough time and space to show what they do best - design clothes.