Cover story: Jon Kortajarena: Behind the Scenes of a Cover shoot and story!

24 hours before we went to print, this interview, profile and feature of supermodel Jon Kortajarena came in. He was working on a movie and called in between shots - and I had to stay up all night to write up the feature. Joys of high gloss, print magazine publishing... 

As usual, my friend and photographer Olivier Yoan did his magic with a dream team behind the scenes. 

The visuals, the layout, all worked... not sure anyone read my lengthy feature as this special menswear edition of the magazine was all about the look! 

You can read the full interview at PrestigeOnline.

Parting Shot: Photoshoots in the streets of Hong Kong

The reference was obvious; the execution, perfection.

Photographer Olivier Yoan and our model and muse for the day — the incomparable Diane d’Arenberg — brought their A-game to a shoot that wrapped in just 15 minutes. We shot in the middle of the night in some forgotten corner of Sai Ying Pun/Sheung Wan, chasing the right street, the right lights, the perfect tone and texture — all while keeping Helmut Newton’s iconic 1966 portrait Le Smoking firmly in mind.

Calls were made to the powers-that-be at Yves Saint Laurent (hoping they’d loan a full menswear look akin to the original). Unfortunately, (re-named-) Saint Laurent didn’t have anything similar to the look… but d'Arenberg did. Because that’s exactly how she rolls. To pilfer a quote from her Insta (@post_ism)," Wearing my own hashtag#vintage and sustainable + unisex Berlin designers @estherperbandt on the streets of my beloved hashtag#HongKong. (I don’t smoke, so no ciggie with le smoking)."

Nicoline assisted with the lights, Olivier lay on the unwashed streets to get that shot and angle. I was prayin' the cops won't shoo us away. We'll do just about anything for the parting shot...

The Micahel Kors shoot with Edwing Chuang

Major throwback to this shoot with Edwin Chuang, a true gent in Hong Kong. We had a partnership with Michael Kors' Hong Kong team for a shoot and interview with three noteworthy young names in the city. Had the joy of working with Edwin for this one. 

Olivier Yoan did the photography, Reve for grooming and hair and on set with a dream team to create the pics which I believe are still some of Edwin's favs. 

Glory days of magazine life with brand partnerships. Waiting for the next... 

TBT to 14 June 2015: Post magazine fashion shoot with Olivier.

Incredible shoot in Post magazine by the amazing Olivier Yoan Passebecq Buyse!

To get this done... a lottttt went on behind the scenes. TBT to 2015

Shot in Hong Kong, Olivier made it look like we had the budget to shoot somewhere exotic.. 

The full shoot is up at SCMP.Com 

Some of the shots and outtakes are in the archive here.

 

TBT: Lifestyle: Couple on a Mission: Tenniel Chu and Carmen Chu

TBT: This cover story and feature for Prestige's annual Lifestyle.

The good people at Brooks Brothers came through for the cover shoot. 

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In 1994, when David “Mr Golf” Chu turned a patch of industrial wasteland in Shenzhen into the world’s largest golf course, it was seen as complete madness by many, including the provincial mayor. Golf was a nonentity in the country, frowned upon by the Communist Party ever since Mao Zedong declared the sport “too bourgeois”.

But David Chu’s vision paid off. Today, the Mission Hills Group dominates the golf industry in China, with huge multi-course resorts in Shenzhen, Dongguan and Hainan as well as hotels, leisure resorts, sports academies, schools, artist villages, malls and even a movie-themed theme park in Haikou called Movie Town.

But much of that expansion has been overseen by David’s son Tenniel, who works as vice chairman of the group alongside his brother Ken, the group’s chairman. Pioneering a so-called “golf and more” concept has broadened the popularity of the sport, helping to dust off the elite image it once held. Non-traditionalists might tut at the group’s more eccentric ideas – the upcoming Fantasy Course in Hainan features an island green with an 80-metre-wide bowl of noodles and 75-metre-long chopsticks serving as the lake – but the numbers don’t lie. Last year Mission Hills invested a total of 40 billion yuan in mainland China and the company is going from strength to strength.

Carmen Chu, Tenniel’s glamorous wife, is an arts enthusiast who balances being the mother of two children with her ongoing art history studies at the University of Hong Kong. She admits candidly that she decided to go back to university in order to understand more about the art world and also as a way of grounding herself against the seemingly endless series of parties and galas that come as a consequence of her husband’s jet-setting job.

We sat down with the dynamic couple in their well-appointed home to find out more. Read the full feature here at PrestigeOnline.

Photography / Olivier Yoan  

Styling / Florent Thiébaut 

Styling assistant / Marco Chan  

hair & Make-up / Reve Ryu    

Outfits / Brooks Brothers

This was the Lifestyle 2017 cover story. 

TBT: This shoot with Edwing Chuang and Olivier Yoan

Working with Edwin is always fun. Fantastic young man, good soundbites, great pics.

 

TBT: Charlotte Robinson of Caelum Greene

Charlotte Tsuie/Robinson of Caelum Greene. Outtakes from a shoot we did for my column First Person. 

Olivier Yoan photographs. 

You can read the feature up at PrestigeOnline.com here.

Outtakes with Pearl Shek

There was a time, BC (before Covid), when we were having lunch weekly at Apinara - co-founder and director Pearl Shek above. Photographs by Olivier Yoan.

Apinara at Pacific Place, Admiralty Hong Kong is one of my top three fav Thai food hot spots in Hong Kong.

First Person: Kayla Wong

First-born to actor Michael Wong and Hong Kong's supermodel Janet Ma, Kayla was one of our early features for the column First Person. Was getting a haircut and found this ol' issue that made me smile.

She's wearing her own designs for the shoot and feature.

Shot by Olivier Yoan.

Outtakes: Cover Shoot: David Oshry in Armani: Outtakes from Runway magazine cover for Prestige

Runway cover shoot; David Oshry in Armani.

Options that we were considering before making the final selection. Standing mid traffic or in motion...

South African model - based in Hong Kong - for Runway magazine cover shoot, for Prestige 

Pictures by Olivier. Of course. 

Shooting Menswear with Olivier Yoan in Hong Kong: Photoshoot on location

This menswear shoot with Olivier Yoan and a cast of models varying in age and demographic appeal is by far, one of the best done for Post magazine.

There was much drama behind the scenes before, during and after the shoot. Less said the better.

It's all glitz and glam in front of the camera, behind the seams, oyve.

Olivier Yoan continues to be a force of nature behind the camera. Still the best photographer I've ever worked with. 16 years on, that's saying somethin'.

TBT: The Fashionable Feiping Chang: Michael Kors x Olivier Yoan x Fei: Prestige Hong Kong exclusive

Having done several shoots in pretty frocks and jewellery, it was time for fashionista extraordinaire Feiping Chang to try something different. We suggested a glamorous, fresh look for the newly married Chang (whose nuptials with Lincoln Li were perhaps the most stalked event of the year on social media).

So we grabbed a hair and make-up stylist from Milan, the most popular French photographer we know, rented a studio for the day and lined up a rack of steamed autumn/winter 2017 wardrobe items and accessories. What ensued was the disco-glam antithesis to those much-photographed princess bridal looks.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART DIRECTION Olivier Yoan   

HAIR AND MAKE-UP Reve Ryu 

PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Leo M

HAIR AND MAKE-UP ASSISTANT Jojo Cheung

WARDROBE AND ACCESSORIES Michael Kors

Galaxy Spring 2015: Cover shoot for Galaxy Magazine: Location shoot in Macau

From a cover shoot done for Galaxy magazine back in 2015 with my fav gal Amanda Gonjito (Japanese Brazilian mix - the gal couldn't be more gorgeous).

Shot by Olivier Yoan.

Prestige Hong Kong's Runway is out now. The Menswear edition is spectacular!

 

Check out the sensational shoot at PrestigeOnline.  com - ie here!! 

Photography and Art direction Olivier Yoan
Styling Florent Thiébaut
Makeup and hair Reve Ryu
Assistant Pascal Brito
Model David Oshry at Model International

Shout out to Serge for this awesome video!  

Left: Model (citizen!) David Oshry holding his cover shot. Yep, it was a wig for the 70s inspired shoot. 

 

Behind the Scenes: Olivier Yoan and the team of Prestige Hong Kong: Corgis included

Yet another behind the scenes shot with Olivier. And Ck and Loretta. And the corgis!!!

Lifestyle: Couple on a Mission: Cover shoot and Cover story: 2017

Tenniel Chu

Tenniel and Carmen Chu

Carmen Chu

Tenniel and Carmen Chu tell Lifestyle and Prestige how the Mission Hills golfing dynasty is bringing the game to a whole new audience in China. Cover story is up at PrestigeOnline here. 

Photography / Olivier Yoan  
Styling / Florent Thiébaut 

Styling assistant / Marco Chan  
Hair & Make-up / Reve Ryu    

Outfits / Brooks Brothers

This was the Lifestyle 2017 cover story. #ThrowbackThursday

Behind the scenes; the two were the most hospitable gorgeous couple to work with. Was a dreamy cover shoot day where for once, everything went as planned! Awesome team behind the scenes, and in front of the camera. 

First Person: Diana D'Arenberg.

From chat to portrait, everything came out as envisioned. Feb issue of Prestige Hong Kong.


FIRST PERSON
Words: P. Ramakrishnan
Portrait: Olivier Yoan


I once spotted Diana d’Arenberg walking – correction, strutting – down Pedder Street in a chic black pantsuit fitted to perfection, with a top hat and an elegant, swinging cane. Along with her signature bold lip and blonde tresses tucked under her jaunty topper, she made heads turn left, right and centre. Très chic.

“I’d describe my style as silver-screen glamour,” she says, “with a bit of rock ’n’ roll goth.”

A multi-hyphenate, d’Arenberg is married to Jay Parmanand, is a writer (mostly about the arts) who sings in a band, a fashionista, a former model and muse, a global gallivanter and a blogger. No, not of the “OMG, I love this sponsored bag” ilk. Her perspicacious site, Post-ism, features musings on art and artists, existential cultural angst, and food for thought on matters new and old.

Her proclivity for vintage pieces – be it fashion, photography or art – isn’t a fad, it’s an informed decision at every point. “A vintage piece has a story, and it feels more special than the mass-produced, latest ‘It’-whatever that everyone else is wearing. I scour flea markets and vintage shops for design pieces. I’ve found some incredible vintage kimonos in Tokyo and Berlin shops. I also shop online – 1stdibs, Vestiaire, What Goes Around Comes Around, Shrimpton Couture.”

When d’Arenberg dons a power suit there’s good reason (in this case, recreating that Helmut Newton shot for YSL). “What women choose to wear has always been politicised. And sexualised. We’re damned if we do (wear skirts, a short dress, pants, a bikini, headscarf, a suit) and damned if we don’t. Hillary was the first woman to wear a pantsuit in her official portrait and it was definitely a political statement. But what’s not sexy about a powerful and intelligent “nasty” woman?” she says, quoting Trump with an eye-roll. “Although I have to say, the orange and aubergine suits did her no favours.

“But to say that a pantsuit or ‘masculine’ attire is empowering for women would be to suggest that ‘female’ attire – like skirts and dresses – is disempowering. That women need to masquerade as men to feel strong and empowered. The woman maketh the clothes.”

• Behind the Scenes: Shooting Diana with Olivier Yoan and Nicoline here. 
• First Person: Loui Lim, shot with the same team here.  
• First Person: Portraits, the first year here.

Galaxy, Summer 2014: Cover shoot with supermodel Mia Kang

Latest issue out.

PHOTOGRAPHY: OLIVIER YOAN
STYLIST: CHRISTIE SIMPSON
MAKEUP: ANAEL DARMON
MODELS: MIA K (CalCarrie's International),  ERIC T (Starz International)