High Flying Fashion
- Amii Tam
- Jul 18, 2024
- 5 min read
December 2023 — January 2024
Although the story of how I came to love Jesus started with a pair of Bruno Magli shoes, I am not normally obsessed with luxury brands or high fashion. I think I realised early on that what matters most to me in the clothes and accessories I buy are quality, longevity and my personal style, rather than a specific brand or trend.
This is part of the reason I love supporting the work of Les Beatitudes Foundation (LBF) as one of its directors. LBF is an NGO that supports the creative work of “sewing mums” from Sham Shui Po, Wong Tai Sin, and other parts of Hong Kong. LBF trains these superb seamstresses to work through four key principles:
ReSKILL: Re-training in different skills for greater opportunities in the job market.
ReCREATE: Learning these skills through artistic expression, most commonly in the form of collective display pieces.
ReCONNECT: Community events showcasing their art that gather local people into one place to celebrate their efforts and share in their joy.
ReCYCLE: The sustainable use of old, used resources so that they are redirected for creative purposes.
For the latest LBF public installation, Hysan Place (a large shopping mall development in Causeway Bay) kindly offered us a free space in Lee Gardens Phase One over the Christmas period. We titled this promotion “Seasons of Love,” and it featured a series of collage art pieces arranged in boxes and wooden frames. They almost looked like a collection of Christmas tree presents (maybe because Operation Santa Claus HK was one of the exhibition’s sponsors), and one of the boxes created by a gifted LBF lady featured — you guessed it — a cute red butterfly.
Opening Ceremony with Special Guests
LBF Red Butterfly Collage
But this was not the only “butterfly moment”…
When my friend, Margaret, and I showed up to the opening ceremony, I noticed that LBF’s installation was sandwiched between two famous, glamorous brands: Louis Vuitton and Dior. And I also noticed that the entire shopfront on the Dior side, including the individual showpiece displays, was covered in butterflies.
The Dior Butterfly Shopfront "Seasons of Love” Location
Dior, LBA Display and Louis Vuitton (Lee Garden One Panorama)
After the “Seasons of Love” opening ceremony, I went into the adjacent Dior store and noticed that it wasn’t just their front-of-house display: all of their clothes, belts, and other accessories had a butterfly theme. Apparently, Dior’s head design team had chosen it as their icon this season! My first thought was to buy something small to celebrate this moment, but in the end, nothing jumped out to me. Nevertheless, I wondered if this butterfly story might fly even further than this LBF exhibition: something about this coincidence seemed like God was trying to tell me a bigger story…
Over the next few weeks, after I told my friends and family about what had happened, I discovered that it was not Dior HK that had butterflies as their main theme, but Dior all over the world. Some of my global friends got excited by this story and sent me photos of their local displays; they were beautiful! I was surprised to see how the butterfly theme went beyond the storefronts, too: my friends also photographed Dior Christmas trees and even an enormous, 6-story-high butterfly tower. Every single design was unique, and you could see how much thought, care, and creativity went into them. Seeing these photos felt very much like the global “butterfly movement” I hoped we could share through the book and this blog.
The sense of purpose that came from the Dior-butterfly link took on a new meaning in January 2024 when another friend, who lives in Toronto, sent a picture of the display in their city. As I looked closer at the image on my phone, I noticed something new: the mannequin in the front of the store, which had a white, silvery satin dress and a tastefully arranged multi-butterfly necklace, with huge, illuminated wings behind (almost like angel wings), had a stylised world map and a brand statement floating above its head.
Can you spot… …the difference?
The statement read: “Around the World // Christian Dior // Around the World.” I stared at it for a few seconds before I felt God ask me, “What happens if the word “Dior” isn’t part of the slogan?” Well, of course, you get: “Christian around the world.” This immediately reminded me of Jesus’ last words in Matthew 28:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
And also of Jesus’ final words to his disciples in Acts 1:8, before he ascended to heaven: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
I think you can understand why I thought of these verses; I believe it was God’s way of confirming his purpose for this butterfly journey: to share Jesus’ love and to make loving disciples wherever I go, in the way I know how (“pollinating heaven”). I also think that this was Jesus’ way of emphasising how important creativity and beauty were in communicating the Good News, to draw people in so they could find out more. That kind of “clothing” for the message really could spread all around the world, and reach all kinds of people.
These scriptural “lightbulbs” also illuminated a faint impression I first had when looking at the Dior store next to the LBF exhibit. The address for that location was Hysan Avenue 33, and whenever I saw the number 33, I was reminded of Faith Comes by Hearing’s mission “To work in partnership to see that the Word of God is recorded and freely provided in every language that needs it by the year 2033.” In other words, to see the Great Commission fulfilled!
And with those thoughts fluttering in my mind, I decided I would do a funny thing: why not send a copy of The Butterfly Effect to Dior’s HK offices? As a way for me to say thank you for their unintentional encouragement. That seemed like a “fitting” end to the story…
P.S. Some of this adventure has echoes of “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris,” with the sewing connections between the LBF mums and the seamstresses in the film, and the movie’s other focus, which is about Mrs Harris looking for beauty while processing the loss of her husband. It is a great story and I highly recommend you watch it, if you have time.
Les Beatitudes Foundation’s purpose statement: “Our mission is to support women, the underprivileged, and the handicapped through arts & crafts. We connect different groups to positively address social and environmental issues, and design products and events to create opportunity and to empower those who want to and need to work in a more flexible work arrangement.”
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