Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with These Five Luxurious Mooncakes

With the Mid-Autumn Festival happening right around the corner (the annual celebrations happens on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month) it’s hard to ignore the abundance of advertisements currently circulating throughout the city of Hong Kong. Mooncakes come in an assortment of variations that span across different Asian cultures, from the most prevalent version which sees lotus seed paste combined with egg yolk (蓮蓉), all the way to a variant that uses five different types of seeds and nuts as filling (五仁).

While the 3000-year-old holiday has its origins tied to China’s history in agriculture, the mooncake in modern times serves as a symbol for one of the most significant holidays in Chinese culture — much like how fruitcake or a gingerbread house can evoke the emotions tied to Christmas in Western cultures.

On top of international fashion brands getting behind Chinese New Year — in terms of Asia exclusives and timely promotions — this year sees new heights for the mooncake. In the days leading up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, we received an assortment of special edition mooncakes from some of the biggest global fashion houses and brands. It was shocking as only a few years ago, there were only a few brands creating mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn holiday, but this year saw an overwhelming amount from unexpected names. Rather than show you every single one, we have selected our top five mooncakes that best represent their respective brands, yet maintain the millennia-old tradition — Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Louis Vuitton
LV Monogram

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

This year, Louis Vuitton‘s mooncakes are at the top of the list for presentation and quality. Taking cues from its Necessaire A The tea display trunk, the top of the box opens to reveal individual sliding compartments that house the mooncakes. The left side of the “trunk” has a larger opening which contains an exclusive blend of tea made by Mariage Frères — another direct reference to the house’s traditional Chinese tea case.

Gucci
GG Monogram

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

For this year, Gucci has elected to take a playful approach on the traditional mooncake, swapping the customary lotus paste and egg yolk with a custard filling. This is the same filling that is found in the popular sweet-bun dim sum dish — nai wong bao (奶黃包). Each mooncake has been miniaturized and stampped with Gucci’s “GG” Guccio Gucci logo. The packaging sees a floral snake pattern that is predominately green with black edges.

A Bathing Ape x Chef Nic
1ST CAMO Bape Head

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Milton Lam/Hypebeast

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Milton Lam/Hypebeast

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Milton Lam/Hypebeast

BAPE completely strays from the conventional methods of mooncake preparation, teaming up with celebrity chef and actor, Nicholas Tse. Working with his Chef Nic food imprint, BAPE and Chef Nic have combined the texture of a butter cookie with lotus root and egg yolk — the result is a hybrid mooncake-cookie. As expected, the four mooncake-cookies come in a 1ST CAMO display box, and are individually wrapped in 1ST CAMO packaging. Each cookie is stamped with the iconic BAPE head logo.

Burberry
Thomas Burberry Monogram

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

Burberry‘s mooncakes come in at the top in terms of traditional presentation. Much like the mooncakes you would find at local Hong Kong bakeries, the Burberry mooncakes comes in the time-honored square tin case, where each of the four cakes are equally positioned for balance. A nice touch was seen in the lid of the box, and on the mooncake surface; as the newly developed “Thomas Burberry” monogram print by Riccardo Tisci and Peter Saville is seen in full effect.

Salvatore Ferragamo
Gancini

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

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Heison Ho/Hypebeast

Salvatore Ferragamo‘s mooncakes stand out via it’s large presentation box. A colorful duck motif is perfectly blended in with golden frames and rope graphics — taking you straight to the baroque-era. Where the packaging is large, the mooncakes are the complete opposite. Each mooncake is roughly the size of a macaron, just big enough for a single Gancini logo AKA the Gancinco, and is intended to be consumed in a single bite.

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