Hong Kong tie-dye fashion brand has a hands-on co-founder, 8

Like many children, Emilia Li loves arts and crafts and hanging out at the beach.

But what makes the Hong Kong eight-year-old stand out from the crowd is Shek O Beach Club, a tie-dye fashion brand she founded with the help of her mother, Jillian Xin.

“I called it Shek O Beach Club because Shek O is one of my favourite places to visit,” says Emilia, referring to the beachside village in the southeast of Hong Kong Island.

On a damp and grey afternoon in May, Emilia, her mother and her three-year-old sister, Aria, pay an after-school visit to the beach to talk about the brand that launched on International Women’s Day this year.

The girls are decked out in clothes from a small collection – six T-shirt designs and shorts in three colours – which is big on durability, sustainability and practicality.

“All our T-shirts are dyed by hand using 100 per cent natural dyes and [none of the] chemicals that are often used in mass-produced clothes,” Xin says, and each piece is as unique as the child who wears them. “We’ll probably do a long sleeve T-shirt when the weather cools.”