The Riley jumper: can millennial brand’s Insta-famous cashmere knitwear revive a Hong Kong industry?
- Jumper label Common Thread, whose Riley roll-neck style took off after its launch, makes its pieces in one of Hong Kong’s few remaining knitwear factories
- The founders, two college friends, talk about reviving knitwear manufacturing in Hong Kong
“[Lifestyle guru] Estee Lalonde wore a pink jumper that looked a lot like our Riley [knit] and we saw comments [on social media] saying, ‘Is that the Riley?’,” recounts Kawai Cheng, co-founder of cashmere brand Common Thread.
That’s the moment when 28-year-old Cheng realised the brand had made it on Instagram. “We were like, ‘What?!’ It’s such a little thing, but it’s so exciting for us.”
Cheng launched the online label with her friend Kitty Lau, 30, at the beginning of 2018. And, in under 10 months, their bestselling roll-neck jumper has become instantly recognisable in the fashion world and referred to by a single name.
The pair were housemates at the University of Nottingham, England, where Lau was studying law and Cheng was studying product design and engineering. Nowadays, Cheng splits her time between New York and London, while Lau is based in Hong Kong, where they manufacture their clothes.
“We looked at a whole bunch of countries,” explains Cheng, who handles the brand’s marketing and social media. “We just wanted to make sure that whatever we sourced was sustainable and was manufactured in a good factory. We have a personal relationship with Hong Kong, as my dad is from there and so is Kitty.”
