Best of Design: Robb Report Hong Kong

 

Robb Report Hong Kong: The Best in Art, Design & Gear 2025, From Sonus Faber and Baccarat to Christofle, Christie’s, and Aman Interiors

Going For Baroque

Numbers don’t compute easily when you look at the staggering figures that have emerged from auction houses this past year as top-tier brokers expanded their presence in the city, sending out unmistakable global smoke signals: they are here to stay. Hammers were slamming down in quick succession as the four leading auction houses in Hong Kong displayed remarkable prowess, each carving a unique niche in the dynamic art market—and in their new homes.

Bonhams Hong Kong celebrated a record-breaking 2024, achieving an impressive 18 per cent increase in total sales amounting to HK$670 million, the highest since its inception in 2007. In fact, its new Asia-Pacific headquarters at Six Pacific Place facilitated a 68 per cent surge in private sales, while Christie’s opened its current regional headquarters at the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Henderson, which heralded a remarkable inaugural auction that amassed HK$1.3 billion.

Similarly, Sotheby’s achieved stellar sales at its 24,000-square-foot maison in Central, unveiled last summer, fetching HK$252.5 million for Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Yellow and Blue). Despite a difficult year, the auction house is optimistic in its outlook: An official statement released at the start of 2025 revealed the company’s 2024 earnings, with Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart reporting US$6 billion (HK$46.62 billion) of consolidated sales against what he referred to as “a clearly challenging market backdrop.” While the auction house made better numbers in 2023 with US$7.8 billion (HK$60.61 billion) in sales, all things considered, the results are not too shabby as Sotheby’s figure was “the highest in the industry for last year,” according to ArtNews.

While the art world was going for broke, the design world went hard on minimalism. Embodying the living contradiction of “less is more,” interiors were all about clean lines in kitchens, offices, and shared spaces—think islands of plush sofas, coffee tables with nominal fuss, and furnishings in all the right angles eschewing adornment for function. Even Italians, the noted originators of Baroque in the 17th and 18th centuries, have turned the tables, expressing Nordic minimalism in the shape of sleek lamps, monochrome carpets, prismatic tables, and monotone chairs—has the highly ornate and elaborate been spirited away for good?

Some semblances of curlicues and curvaceous design were evident in tech as vinyl made a comeback and designer chess sets and speakers brought back hints of ostentation with a touch of gold here and a flash of silver there. (Instead of looking forward while engineering gadgets, many are choosing to hark back to simpler times and the age of innocence.) Altogether, these noble houses, producers, and brands not only reflect the thriving ecosystem in art, design, and gear, but also set the stage for a promising future in the world of curated collectibles.

Read the entire feature here at Robb Report Hong Kong. 

Rooms With a View: the Portfolio of Interior Designer Peter Remedios

 Peter Remedios has his signature in some of the region’s grandest interiors, hotels and resorts.

For a Western interior designer based in LA, how Peter Remedios became the definitive go-to guy for the most important hotels and properties in the region is a story worth investigating. So we did. As luck would have it, the man himself was in town to unveil the latest suites at the Four Seasons Hong Kong. 

Remedios’ stellar reputation lands long before he does; over 30 years of expertise in the field of high-end hotel and resort design as Principal Designer and Managing Director of Remedios Studio. Founded in California (in 2007), the Hong Kong branch was subsequently set up in 2010.  

Read the entire--lenthy!--feature here at Robb Report Hong Kong. 

Luxe Interiors: SV Casa: A Brand You Haven’t Heard Of. Till Now.

 Collaborations with top designers studded around the planet, product placement in every major hotel and resort – and yet, you’ve probably never heard of SV Casa. Until today.

Think of any five-star hotel or resort on the planet, chances are you’ve used, felt, photographed something that stems back to SV Casa, a premium interiors, luxury brand that was born and flourished in Hong Kong. Their exhaustive portfolio lists over 320 luxury properties with bold-faced names that require no introduction; Four Seasons, Rosewood, The Mandarin. So who or what is this brand all about?

Read the entire feature here at Robb Report Hong Kong.

The Best in Gear, From Bang & Olufsen and Samsung to Devialet and KEF

Turntable

Bang & Olufsen

Beosystem 72-23 Nordic Dawn Limited Edition

Groovy, baby, the 1970s are back! In March 2023, a BBC headline went viral for reporting that vinyl records outsold CDs for the first time in decades. For a generation of a certain vintage, nothing compares to the audible pleasure of vinyl. Well, a daring Danish brand heard the siren call and released a limited-edition vinyl turntable and stereo speakers to meet our needs: the Beosystem 72-23.

“As part of the Recreated Classics Initiative, the Beosystem 72-23 Nordic Dawn Limited Edition symbolises a new beginning for a future where audio products are designed to last, where luxury is expert craftsmanship that expands beyond the first life cycle, and where connectivity can be timeless,” says Mads Kogsgaard Hansen, head of product circularity at Bang & Olufsen.

As expected from the renowned brand, it’s a visual delight as much as audible; the Beogram 4000C turntable, created in warm colours with a birchwood panel and Nordic aesthetics, is accompanied by a matching pair of Beolab 28 speakers. A Beoremote Halo remote control allows for seamless operation of the system. Each unit comes with a walnut presentation box, which doubles as a storage cabinet for your record collection—it’s a nostalgic touch of the past that warms our heart, while the handy wireless charging station looks into the future.

Read the full feature and list of Best in Gear here at Robb Report Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's fashion community speaks: The present and the future of an industry in question

 What’s the future of fashion? What’s unique about Hong Kong style? What’s next for your industry? What’s in and what’s out? We pose these questions to the designers, entrepreneurs, leaders, stylists and influencers who’ve made an impact on fashion here.

With Covid focusing attention on our own backyard, this era of style in the city is renegotiating in familiar territory. And from talking to the experts, common arcs emerge. 

You can read the entire feature online here at PrestigeOnline.com

Decorator to the stars Martyn Lawrence Bullard on making small look big

A really good interior is something that's curated and makes a cultured blend of things, says the interior designer and reality TV celebrity. 

View of singer Cher’s bedroom seating area. The sofas, covered in raw silk were designed by Martyn Lawrence Bullard. The wall hanging is a Burmese late 19th-century tapestry woven with pure gold thread.
Photo: Martyn Lawrence Bullard

Martyn Lawrence Bullard's 250-page glossy interior design tome, Live, Love and Decorate, with a foreword by singer Elton John, provides a peek into the domestic lifestyle of the rich and famous.

It features the glitzy homes of celebrities such as singer Cher and former Jimmy Choo chief executive Tamara Mellon, as well as the tastefully appointed homes of Hollywood stars Edward Norton and William H. Macy. Bullard has also created earthy and stylish mansions for singer Kid Rock, actress Pamela Anderson and Ozzy Osbourne.

"Most of my clients end up becoming friends - it's about having a connection. You have to have a connection with your client from the start, to get a good result," says Bullard, who was in Hong Kong recently.

"If the feeling isn't there, I don't think you can understand each other and create a beautiful space. I don't have a signature in my design style. I want my design style to be your design style. I want it to be what you love because I'm decorating for you. So it's really about understanding your clients, you have to get into their heads, work out their design dreams and become the implementer; make it happen."

Cher's Indian-inspired bathroom.
Photo: Martyn Lawrence Bullard

The debonair British-born designer, with his signature tucked scarves, manicured salt-and-pepper stubble and designer jackets, is a celebrity in his own right (Bullard is part of the cast of US reality TV shows Million Dollar Decorators and Hollywood Me) catering to wealthy clients with velvet-gloved ease and brass-knuckled get-the-job-done spirit.

The decorator to the stars didn't aspire to or study for the role he now performs. He went to Hollywood 23 years ago for the same reason millions of others do - in the hope of becoming a star. "I was going to follow my father's footsteps - he had been an actor and an opera singer - so I put myself through drama school, buying and selling antiques and objects on the side, for theatre stage sets. Then I thought, right, I'm going to go to Hollywood and become a movie star. So I moved to Hollywood … I didn't become a superstar. I sort of flailed around, trying to get bit parts here and there, and eventually I got cast in a movie - a very small part, but it was ever so meaningful at the time."
It's a blend of cultures that makes any space - a room, a house, a city, a country - interesting
Martyn Lawrence Bullard

I proffer the old adage that there are no small parts, just small actors. "Well, I was a very small actor then, my dear," he says with a notable English accent he's not shaken off despite living in LA for more than two decades.

"I became friends with the producer and his girlfriend (I think she was, at the time) and they ended up coming to my little flat one night. They loved what I had done. I didn't have any money then, so when they asked me to do their house - of course, I said yes. It was kind of a Casablanca, Moroccan vibe."

It's a vibe that he continues to spread with his homes dotted with 18th century Tibetan monk sculptures, antique French apothecary jars, mother-of-pearl inlaid trays, garden sofas upholstered in Zanzibar from his fabric collection, glass lanterns from the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul and Tibetan tapestries woven in pure gold thread.

Singer Kid Rock’s Malibu home featurs a lot of Indonesian-style woodwork. Photo: Martyn Lawrence Bullard


But can most residents in Hong Kong, with flats the size of Eva Mendes' closet, relate to this?

"I love small spaces - there's something cosy and wonderful about them. One should never be restricted by space; it's all about dreaming big. Just because you have a small apartment doesn't mean you have to live in a white box with a couple of chairs. It's about being inventive."

And invention means bringing elements of the outside inside. "Colour is a really important tool and can turn a small space from a white box into an amazing jewel. I always tell people to experiment. It changes a space. A great trick with a small space is rather than just painting the walls, paint the whole thing. If you put [the same] colour on the ceiling and the walls, you create this extraordinary cocoon effect. It makes everything feel bigger."

Bullard says he's lucky that his work both for television and for his international clients often takes him overseas in search of antiques.

"I've kind of got out of the tourist traps and discovered amazing new worlds. Little villages in Jaipur, off-the-beaten paths in Istanbul, deep in the arteries of Europe and Asia you find these little gems."

In Hong Kong, he found similar treasures in Hollywood Road.

"The antiques stores, those little streets with a fish market and then there was a trendy pop-up store, and then there was a deserted former restaurant I think where people were getting tattoos. It was mad but amazing. I mean, what a fabulous feel of life."

The Los Angeles home of Martyn Lawrence Bullard (above and below) has a well-travelled vibe: Indian lanterns, 19th-century Turkish tables, Peruvian mirrors, and vintage Indian textiles, all spun with a 1920s-style glamour. Photos: Martyn Lawrence Bullard

He was also struck by the city's mixture of very modern and ancient.

"Being in Hong Kong, I've seen everybody wants everything to be very new. There's no room for vintage here, it's all about brand new and sparkling. But the reality is a really good interior, or really good space, is something that's curated and makes a cultured blend of things. And I think more so than ever it's a blend of cultures that makes any space - a room, a house, a city, a country - interesting."

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 04 June, 2015, 1:56pm

P. Ramakrishnan