Agenda Men: August issue of Prestige magazine

Agenda Men: August issue of Prestige magazine. 

What's hot among menswear and accessoires this season - according to the biggest brands; Tiffany and Co, Calvin Klein, Moncler, Dior, Berlutti and Armani. You know, the usual suspects... 

  

Art Agenda: August 2021, Prestige magazine feature

Tragically, the layout had already gone to print as the crackdown on travel, the rules and restrictions changed so for readers of the magazine in Hong Kong, - so all the galleries around the world where we ask our readers to visit were... well.. 

On the plus side, you can check out the galleries and exhibitions virtually. Not quite the same I know... 

Top Ten Non-invasive Cosmetic Procedures in Hong Kong

As I was writing this, I knew it would do well online - and its easily my most read feature. Ever.

Where do celebrities, ageing models, ladies who lunch and an ever-increasing contingent of men in Hong Kong get their non-invasive cosmetic procedures done? We asked. They answered. Anonymously

Check out the entire feature at PrestigeOnline here.

There's something to be said about the power of suggestion and the lean to persuasion. After talking to all those people, by the end I was looking at the mirror thinking about what to get done. 

Fortunately better sense prevailed - as someone with an addictive personality, I'd start off getting my forehead jabbed... end up looking like Michael Jackson by 2025. And in debt for millions. Also like MJ... 

The Wellness Industry: Yogi KOL Gianni Melwani of Ikigai

Many in the wellness community are familiar with this soft-spoken, serene Yogi, sportsman, entrepreneur and now, co-Founder of IKIGAI (the wellness, meditation, yoga and movement centre with branches in Central, Causeway Bay) Gianni Melwani.  

Melwani holds other titles too such as Director of BKR Group (an entrepreneurial business and investment firm), co-founder of Hybrid Group, he was part of IRIS: Your Escape (Hong Kong's Largest Health & Wellness Festival) and brought Spartan Race (The World's #1 Obstacle Race) to Hong Kong. His circuitous path to wellness came along with interesting bumps and turns. That exterior calm was formed after a globe well-trotted.   

Read up on my chat with G at The New Moon here.

Original portraits by photographer Edwin Datoc. 

 

The Wellness Industry: Chef Arnaud Hauchon

In Ayurveda, its written in stone that the appropriate food, eaten correctly, nourishes the body, mind, and spirit. It sees food as medicine – the original integrative medicine for holistic healing process from one's core being, for essentially wellness. While reading this synopsis out to the nodding-in-agreement man, it was preaching to the choir as Chef Arnaud Hauchon, native of the Champagne region of France, based his entire food philosophy on 'food as medicine'.

The culinary director at Fivelements Habitat in Hong Kong, his menu is as nourishing as it is textured, colourful, vivid and delicious. He also eschewed the tired notions that healthy food is bland food. We took him out of his element for an exclusive photoshoot with The New Moon on a busy street in On Lan Lane, but spoke with him later, while he was walking barefoot in nature, somewhere in the trails of Sai Kung.

Read up on the good chef at The New Moon here.

All original pictures by Edwin Datoc. 

The Wellness Industry: Fitness Influencer Keith Lee of 2 Percent Fitness

The multi-hyphenate Keith Lee is a lawyer by day, co-owner of 2 Percent Fitness gym by night and a fitness KOL (as we go to publication, a respectable 85k followers stalk his every post on Insta') in perpetuity on Instagram.

With a baby less than a year old, a demanding job, opening a gym during the thick of the pandemic while the government imposed debilitating restrictions on the industry, how Keith stayed calm during the financial maelstrom needed to be noted.

Read up on my chat with Keith here at The New Moon.

All original portraits by Edwin Datoc.

 

What's up Doc? Dr. Peter Duchemin

Dr. Peter Duchemin is a multi-hyphenate. Greater than the sum of his parts; an artist, magician, scholar, and Tarot reader, these are some of the arrows in his heavy quiver.  He's also a new father - his baby was born on the day of our photoshoot - and we postponed the session to a later date!   

With decades of experience behind him, this Canadian extract is the sort of pansophical being you want to have a warm brew and long ruminations with. Before you tilt your head with suspicion, he is a learned man, Duchemin holds degrees in Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Humanities, and a Doctorate in Interdisciplinary Studies (on the philosophy of magic no less!). 

We had so many questions, but only some of them we got to during our tête-à-tête.  

Check out my entire conversation with the good doctor at The New Moon here.

Original photography by Edwin Datoc. 

The Wellness Industry: Malbert Lee

Hong Kong native Malbert Lee is one of many yoga teachers studded around the island with a passion for the meditative workout, but what makes him so uniquely popular in the city brimming with yogis is his practice of sound-healing. 

As a “sound-meditation facilitator,” he’s been covered by the media and has his own following for those who seek to vibe with him. Trained on different singing bowls with gong masters from Nepal, the UK, the US, Germany and Hong Kong, he is part of the calm in the cacophony of Hong Kong.  

Read up on my chat with Lee here at The New Moon. 

Portrait by Edwin Datoc. 

Startup Life: Startup Life: Nicolas Pollet on the Evolution of CBD Beauty and Wellness

 

Earlier this year, while continuing his other enterprises, Nicolas Pollet surprised everyone by launching Anandha Wellness: a lifestyle product with the healing properties of cannabidiol, better known as CBD.

Read up on the feature at PrestigeOnline here.

One of the weekly online exclusive features I do for the site. 

All images by Hong Kong photographer Flossie Wong.