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
wow this is indeed a crafter paradise ! I have never been to hk … and now I know where to get info if I decide to go there one day
thanks for sharing this 7 part series … it must be hell lot of work !
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Rachel Reply:
October 24th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Haha, the tough bit was looking for the place in HK. It was quite ez to pull together the posts. One tip I have learnt scouting for the streets in HK is to always bring a street map along with u. The streets in HK can be rather confusing and the busyness adds to the confusion!
How awesome! This is will be my haven! Another reason to visit HK…. (someday!)
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Serenely Reply:
October 24th, 2012 at 9:09 am
BTW what sort of crafty things did you mainly buy? More fabric or haberdashery type things?
Serenely´s last blog post ..Old friends
Rachel Reply:
October 24th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
I used to do sewing quite often a year ago, sewing my own bags and pouches. So I will buy buttons, lace, ribbons. This trip was more of sight-seeing and a photo walk thrown in, and I was tasked by my mom to find some lace for her. But could not get the type of lace that she wanted in the end
Really lovely place. My hb’s grandfather use to run a craft shop too in HK back in the days. The shop is still there but run by one of his workers.
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Rachel Reply:
October 24th, 2012 at 2:48 pm
Yes, it’s a fun place…I am sure you will know alot more of HK since u are there pretty often to visit your in-laws.
Wah!!! So many nice things… the beads and ribbons will make a crafter out of anyone!
Wanna visit HK. Preferably without the little boy so I can explore these places. Do the shopkeepers speak basic English round these parts? If not I’m a goner! Sure kena ketok!
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Rachel Reply:
October 24th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Got to go without the little guy if you want to shop, cos will need to walk to get to these places. The shop assistants do speak English in these wholesale places, as they do get alot of caucasians visiting their shops very often.
Nice. Love the vintage look of the photos. 😉
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Rachel Reply:
October 24th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
Thanks Kless!