Design Purveyor | Storerooms

In the frantic Mongkok (Hong Kong) shopping district on the fourth floor of an unmarked and run-down building hides a small, beautifully curated and worldly inspired concept store named Storerooms.

In this edition of the Design Purveyor we caught up with Lee Eden, Storerooms owner and founder to hear his journey - from leaving school at 16 to collect beautiful items, to moving away from home to become a fashion buyer, and then creating a boutique concept store in a city where unique is uncommon.  

How would you describe creativity?

Ideas that can be shared with everyone/anyone, and it make their life better. It’s about pushing forward human civilization.

Where do you find your creativity as a designer?

From nature, feeling it and thinking about how it is made.

You have created your own fashion label? Can you tell us more about it?

Yes, I created that during last season FW15. Actually it was a hard work in Hong Kong, as you see chain brands has everywhere now, especially in this mini city.  This problem was very horrible. I guess local brands and boutiques only have 10-20% in HK now – the other 80% are large chain brands, so everything looks like a copy from the same model now. That's why we created our own label – to make some unique and high quality clothing.  We are trying to back to initial.

You left school at 16 years old to start your own furniture import business. Now, you are a successful business owner at the very young age of 26! Tell us a little about what have done since leaving school.

Yes, actually I left my school at the age of 16 and studied graphic design.  I worked a part-time job during the year of 16 – 18 as my father is antique collector - it influenced me a lot. I love collecting. At the beginning I tried to collect many vintage things from around the world like polaroids, bags, and furniture.  I would then sell them. It was after this that I created the "storerooms" Facebook page in 2011.  This page attracted a local brand called "Initial Fashion" and they called me in for an interview. They know I had a good sense for beautiful things. I then became a professional buyer at 22 years old. I collected beautiful things from around the world for their shops, and then they appointed me to Shanghai for their food and wine business. I also worked for buying, furniture design etc during this period.

What inspired you to open a design store?

In 2013, my Facebook page was getting popular on internet. I felt that thet city of HK was dying - everything looked so boring.

I didnt have much budget at that time, and shop rentals in HK are the most expensive in the world. So I found an old building with an upstairs place available in Mongkok. I started my new life and new design shop concept in HK.