Christian Louboutin and Sabyasachi Mukherjee in Hong Kong

A Sunday throwback; a memorable evening at Duddells.

Jing Zhang, former Fashion Editor of South China Morning Post, moderated the talk with two icons in the industry, 'the' Christian Louboutin and 'the', often mononymously known, "Sabya"  aka  designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

Louboutin is unquestionably one of the best interview subjects you can find, as articulate words pour out and his unflinching look at the industry and the ways of the world make for great, uncensored, non-pc copy. When his handlers leave him alone, he's great fun to chat with. At various points over the past 15 years, I've covered the man, his accessories in print - from early days of (the now defunct) Kee magazine, to Sentinel, to SCMP, Prestige and... so many others.

On a personal note, his fandom of Sridevi mirrors mine (his opinion of Aishwarya Rai however does not!). We've spoken at length about Bollywood. Good times.  Still my favourite person to interview.

With Sabya, just a fan. His work is second to none in India. But so shy and he wasn't doing press during his time here in HK. Well, not with my magazine back then.

Varn Dhawan strips off in Hong Kong

It was a bitterly cold day when Varun Dhawan landed in Hong Kong for the grand unveiling of his own wax figurine in Hong Kong's Madam Tussaud's. But with the frenzy of fans asking him to take his shirt off, the happy-to-oblige Bollywood movie star didn't exactly go full monty, but more half mast. The puns and innuendos just write themselves... 

Went with my photographer Ruby Law (who had never seen or met an Indian star before - or the fanaticism unique to Bollywood) mid-way through the press conference asked, 'What is happening?!" And a little later, "Is this normal?" 

Where do I begin to explain...

My full feature on the actor is up at SCMP.com here.

Coffee Coffee Coffee

Not that one needs more reasons to drink coffee but for those inclined, here's more good news. 

My afternoon with Kirsten Dunst, in Beijing!

Spending the afternoon with Spiderman's leading lady Kirsten Dunst was great fun - you can read the entire feature here at the magazine's official site - but what stands out was one of her not-so-pleasant assistants (or it was the film's assistant) and another lady who was just lovely to work with. Felt like the actress was flanked by good cop, bad cop to protect her from the world at large, in awe of Hollywood fame.

Got to stay at the impeccable Rosewood Hotel Beijing, my suite facing the city and its famed skyscrapers.

Dunst had flown down for a Chaumet event. 

Kiss and make-up

Outtakes from a shoot and feature on Hong Kong makeup artists. Some of my fav crew.

BTS: Shooting Lenka Korbova for a Look Book

Producing and art-directing this shoot with an all-girl crew for a women's-wear brand.

Madhuri Dixit by Gautam Rajadhyaksha

Left: Madhuri Dixit by Gautam Rajadhyaksha

Having interviewed Madhuri Dixit years ago when she was in Macau for IIFA, had the chance to write about la Dixit again for SCMP. Well, now Mrs Nene, for a feature.

Read the entire article at SCMP.com here.

Chilling with my photographer

For a wicked Wednesday throwback, this pic with my fav female event photographer Nicoline. As the caption read, Don't hate us cause we pretty. Ok we wrote the caption but we SO meant it. ;0)

Funny cause its true

Beat the Quarantine 15

Went running this morning after eons. Oh dear God the pudge... 

Ref jewellery shoot

Planning a shoot with my stylist Tash... 

Fashionable Friday with Avni Jhunjhnuwala

And now for a chapter I'd like to call, omg I'm old! I interviewed Sarika Jhunjhnuwala for South China Morning Post and later for Crave magazine and when I first met the family, the kids were... well, kids.

Fast forward a few years and now the kids are all grown up and have their own businesses and I'm still slaving away over deadlines and dreams.

Speaking of, dreamy looking Avni for a feature and shoot. As mentioned in earlier post, we were wildly distracted by their family pet who did not want to come near any of us!  After this shoot and feature, we had a lot of inquiries about how to get into the column - sadly, on account of a wildly unpopular editor (who has since excited the company), the column First Person was dropped. The loss was entirely the magazine's. Oh well. C'est la vie. 

The A to Z

For Pacific Place's magazine My Place. 

Sadly, the magazine is no longer in circulation.

Aliya Z brought it!!

Click on images to enlarge.

Tong twins: Bruce Tong and Chris Tong

Second gen actors and twins Bruce Tong and Chris Tong on cam and on set!

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. 

How the Cookie crumbled...

My cat Billyjean looks like an adorable little ball of harmless fluff but is in fact a neurotic, volatile, hyper aggressive lioness-beast wrapped into the tiny little body of a tuxedo cat.

Every few weeks, we've had to take the cat to professional groomers, at considerable cost and effort, where it takes three people and a prayer to hold her down to trim her... claws... talons. When we've tried at home, its usually turned into a blood-bath. A record nine groomers have sent regrets that they are no longer able to meet our cat's urgent man-pedi needs as medical insurance wouldn't cover acts of God or feline.

A longtime believer in throwing money at problems, we've chauffeured the cat to different groomers studded around the island of Hong Kong. The first few times, when she was but a kitten, we took her to the groomers in Kennedy Town and Cookie the dog (right - seen here with Linda Markova, who came to help contain the damn cat), came bouncing and wagging along to come play with Billyjean. My wide-eyed kitten had one look at the joyful pupper and instantly met her arch nemesis; she went ape-shit.

She scratched the dog, tried to bite him and growled and snarled her way. If you've never witnessed a hissy-fit, it's quite a sight. As witness to a domesticated kitten morphing into a feral wild cat numbed me into a motionless, petrified waxwork figurine of myself, I've never been more shocked in my life. Mind you, the cat is a fraction of the size of the dog. Linda had to hold the dog up and away from the cat to save him. She comforted the brown fluff all day while, once nudged into motion, I tried to hold the cat back with a restraints and cajoling.

Since then, recognising the scent of Billyjean, every time we went back thereafter, the dog hides under the furniture, trembling.

Billy's mostly unapologetic... about everything in life in general... Our last visit resulted in the owner giving us a full refund and asking us to never come back.

Cats. Not just a bad musical.

To quote Edith Piaf , "Non, Je ne regrette rien."

I regret nothing.

Also, Go away. 

Behind the Scenes: Magazine cover shoot

The crew behind Lifestyle's cover shoot. My last cover shoot with my dream team.

Friday plans in the age of Covid...

I don't even remember life BC.

Before Covid. 

Jewellery Shoot

Styled by Tasha Ling, shot by Olaf Mueller.

TBT to shooting Linda Markova for the jewellery supplement in Prestige magazine.

Forgot who did the makeup... probably Karen Yiu... cause she did majority of our shoots. Cause she's the best.

TBT: Edwin Chuang on set. And unpublished behind the scenes shots!

In front of the camera...




...and behind the scenes! Shooting Edwin Chuang for the magazine. With this gorgeous crew on set. Good times.

Shout out to wardrobe from Michael Kors. 

Photography by Olivier Yoan and hair and makeup by Reve