When the fashion designer Han Chong, 43, was growing up on the Malaysian island of Penang in the 1980s, he always looked forward to the 15 days of festivities, beginning in January or February, that signaled the start of the lunar calendar. “Those are some of my happiest memories,” he said recently, recalling how his extended family would congregate in and around his father’s store in George Town — which sold Chinese delicacies like lap cheong (cured sausage) and dried pork jerky — to gossip, cook, eat, exchange lai see (red envelopes containing money) and watch the local lion-dance troupes perform. Seeing his mother and aunts wearing their finest clothes for the occasion also piqued Chong’s interest in fashion. “I loved watching them put so much effort into dressing up,” he said.