If you are a crafter who love your hand-mades, Yu Chau Street is a place to go in Hong Kong for buttons, zippers, cloth, beads, lace, ribbons and sequins. This place will put Textile Centre in Singapore to shame :P, with their shops after shops of wholesalers peddling vast array of sartorial wares.
This is the same street where I am certain ETSY sellers from Hong Kong get their supplies of these items, and are probably earning a healthy profit from selling them online.
Don’t get distracted by the busy markets in Ap Liu Street though, as it is the first street that you will see when you step out of the MTR exit at Sham Shui Po station. Yu Chau Street (see map here) is one street after Ap Liu Street, towards Nam Cheong Street.
Look out for the signs (if you can read traditional chinese), ‘Cloth’, ‘Buttons’, ‘Beads’!
Beautiful fabric at Nam Cheong Street, but you need to spot some of the shops that are willing to sell to individual buyers. Or be prepared to buy ALOT.
You can purchase lace by meter, the selection of laces come from China predominantly. These shops used to import European laces, but far lesser these days.
Lots of retro styled buttons. You can purchase buttons individually.
All types of ribbons, sold by the meter.
Vintage-style brooches and Bling
Love to make your own accessories? Then this place is where you should go to find baubles, resins, wood and stones of all kinds.
Look what I spotted in a small alley opposite Nam Cheong Street?
An Old School Barber!
To get to Yu Chau Street, take the Tsuen Wan line MTR to Sham Shui Po station and take A2 exit to Ap Liu Street. Yu Chau Street is just one street after.
Next, part 4 of Hong Kong 2012 will touch on the beaches in Lantau Island.
Here are the other parts of this series of posts :
Part 1 – Hong Kong Disneyland Fun and Food