Celebrity Life

Time to start planning your next trip to Singapore.

Hong Kong and Singapore have agreed "in principle" to set up a travel bubble allowing residents to move freely between the two financial hubs as long as they test negative for the coronavirus.

The announcement, which came yesterday, is a rare moment of good news for a tourism industry battered by the pandemic and offers a glimpse into how places with less severe outbreaks might be able to safely restart some travel.

The two cities released joint statements announcing the deal which they said would be implemented within weeks. "This milestone arrangement will help revive cross-border air travel between the two aviation hubs, in a safe and progressive way," Hong Kong's government said.

[caption id="attachment_211313" align="alignnone" width="1024"] With the new Travel Bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore, it won't be long before you get to visit the latter's famed Gardens by the Bay. (Image: Roslan Rahman/ AFP)[/caption]

"I think it's a significant step, a small step but a significant one because both Hong Kong and Singapore — we are regional aviation hubs, even global aviation hubs," Singapore transport minister Ong Ye Kung said.

Ong said he hoped the travel bubble could be "a model and a template for us to forge more such relationships and partnerships".

Shares in Hong Kong's flagship carrier Cathay Pacific which, like all airlines, has been hammered by the coronavirus closed more than six percent up on Thursday. Singapore Airlines was trading up a more muted 0.5 percent.

Singapore is one of major source markets of Hong Kong's tourism industry with over 450,000 visitor arrivals recorded in 2019, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

[caption id="attachment_211312" align="alignnone" width="1024"] View of Hong Kong Island from The Peak. (Image: Bady Abbas/ Unsplash)[/caption]

No quarantine on arrival

The joint statement said there would be no limit on what type of travel will be allowed between Hong Kong and Singapore, meaning tourists will be as welcome as business travellers.

Those travelling between the two hubs will need to have a negative coronavirus test result and travel on dedicated planes. They will not need to quarantine for a period of time on arrival. No transit passengers will be allowed on board the travel bubble flights.

Both governments "look forward to the resumption of travel between both cities, with the necessary safeguards in place to ensure that public health concerns of both sides are addressed," the joint statement said.

[caption id="attachment_211314" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Singapore. (Image: Swapnil Bapat/ Unsplash)[/caption]

Industry groups welcomed the announcement and said they hoped similar bubbles would be formed. Jason Wong, Hong Kong's Travel Industry Council, said the arrangement -- though welcomed -- wouldn't save the city's tourism industry that has been largely paralysed by the epidemic.

"We would most love to have similar schemes with destinations like Japan, Thailand and South Korea," Wong told AFP. "Hopefully having the first one would help Hong Kong to convince more partners."

Public health experts cautiously welcomed the Singapore Hong Kong travel bubble but cautioned corridors only worked for those places that have got a handle on the disease.

(Main and featured image: Swapnil Bapat/ Unsplash)

The post You May Soon be Able to Travel Between Hong Kong and Singapore Without Quarantine appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

I’ve been sitting in Dubai airport for the last 13 hours. I have another 7 hours to wait before I finally board my flight home…

The post What it is like to travel right now appeared first on World of Wanderlust.

The Rolex Perpetual Music concerts are held in support of musicians weathering the pandemic.

Since August, Rolex has launched Perpetual Music, an initiative that supports musicians and singers amidst the COVID-19 period. The project keeps in tune with the company’s enduring commitment to champion those setting the highest standards in the world of music while helping this art form remain as an integral part of daily life.

Three Rolex “Perpetual Music” concerts were held at prestigious venues in Italy, Germany, and France. Three Rolex Testimonees – Juan Diego Flórez, Sonya Yoncheva and Rolando Villazón – have supported the initiative since its infancy. They perform the repertoire prepared accompanied by singers and musicians. These talents entertain in solo performances or various ensembles. Renowned French violinist Renaud Capuçon also lends his adroit ability, joining his peers in support of organising this special initiative.

[caption id="attachment_210991" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Juan Diego Flórez (Image: Rolex)[/caption]

The concerts embrace the participation of approximately 100 musicians whose work and lives have suffered adverse impacts of the pandemic. The initiative projects its reach to hundreds of thousands of people in over 180 countries through the free streaming platform, medici.tv.

[caption id="attachment_210992" align="alignnone" width="1024"] French violinist Renaud Capuçon (Image: Rolex)[/caption]

“During these difficult times, when musicians have suffered both the loss of audience and income, we aim to provide them the opportunity to perform with renowned artists at prestigious venues with the finest acoustics,” says Arnaud Boetsch, Rolex Director of Communication & Image.

“By broadcasting the concerts via medici.tv, a Rolex partner for over a decade, we can give worldwide visibility to the artists supported by the project. Significantly, this gift of time and exposure is in keeping with the company’s pursuit of excellence and its long-term commitment to foster the work of those who aim to reach the pinnacle of their profession.”

[caption id="attachment_210993" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Sonya Yoncheva (Image: Rolex)[/caption]

For nearly 50 years, Rolex has encouraged artistic development and exceptional performance globally. A part of the company’s legacy, the support of these concerts is a testament to Rolex’s all-encompassing support for music. Presently, Rolex is also assisting in funding artists at the Metropolitan Opera in New York whose work has been negatively impacted by the coronavirus crisis.

Visit medici.tv to enjoy the Rolex Perpetual Music Concerts 2020 until the end of October.

This story first appeared on Prestige Malaysia

The post Rolex Introduces Perpetual Music, a Series of Concerts to Support Musicians appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The pandemic has claimed yet another high-profile name.

Japan's most famous fashion designer Kenzo Takada, founder of the global Kenzo brand, died in Paris on Sunday aged 81 after contracting Covid-19, his spokesman said.

Takada, the first Japanese designer to decamp to Paris and known especially for his signature floral prints, died in the American Hospital of Paris, the spokesman said in a statement.

His death comes 50 years after he launched his first collection in the French capital which he adopted as his home. "Every wall, every sky and every passer-by helps me build my collections," he once said of the city.

[caption id="attachment_210911" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Kenzo Takada died from Covid-19 complications yesterday. (Image: Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/ AFP)[/caption]

He retired from fashion in 1999, six years after selling his eponymous fashion brand to luxury conglomerate LVMH, and dedicated his time to one-off projects, including a design collection at the start of this year.

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Dreamed of Paris

Born in 1939 into a family of hoteliers, he chose to study art not catering, becoming a star pupil at Toyko's Bunka Gakuen college, where he carried off the top prize. He went on to work for Sanai, a major chain of fashion shops, but dreamed of Paris.

The 1964 Olympic Games finally gave him his opportunity to come to Europe. The block of flats in which he was renting an apartment was to be demolished to make way for a stadium. Like all the tenants, he was paid compensation and decided to blow the money on a one-way ticket on a cargo boat to Marseille.

[caption id="attachment_210913" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Kenzo Takada posing during a photo session in his home in Paris last year. (Image: Joel Saget/ AFP)[/caption]

Arriving in Paris in the winter of 1965, hardly speaking any French, the only job he could get was in a poodle parlour. In 1970, however, he took the lease of premises in the Galerie Vivienne, then a rather down-at-heel shopping arcade. "With a few friends for three months we painted the walls with jungle scenes like Le Douanier Rousseau's Snake Charmer and baptised it Jungle Jap," he recalled later.

His first show using amateur models to save money was held there. One of the only 20 people invited included the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine who liked the collection so much she ran it on the front cover.

[caption id="attachment_210918" align="aligncenter" width="683"] A model presents a creation by Kenzo's fashion label Jungle Jap for Autumn/Winter 1977 in Paris. (Image: AFP)[/caption]

He became a name almost overnight. For financial reasons his first collection was made in cotton, often quilted, a look which young fashion leaders took to instantly. But his real impact was with his revolutionary and totally contemporary knitwear, which revitalised the industry. In 1976 he established his studio and boutique in the Place des Victoires.

By the time the likes of Rei Kawakuba of Commes des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto arrived from Japan in the early 1980s, Takada was already well-established on the French fashion scene. His first men's collection was presented in 1983 and his first perfume, Kenzo Kenzo, in 1988.

From the early 1980s boutiques opened all over the world in New York, London, Milan, Toyko and Rome, followed later by Hong Kong, Munich, Venice, Bangkok and Singapore.

[caption id="attachment_210919" align="aligncenter" width="833"] Supermodel Iman with Kenzo Takada after the presentation of his spring/summer 1983-1984 collection at the Château de Maisons-Laffitte. (Image: Pierre Guillaud/ AFP)[/caption]

Romantic style

Kenzo's romantic style, with its eclectic mix of colour, touches of exoticism, ethnic prints and folksy embroidery, suited the mood of the 1970s but adapted well to the sharper-looking 1980s and 1990s.

For inspiration, he drew on his travels as well as Japanese work clothes, such as his favourite military tunics and coats. Peruvian striped blanket throws, colourful shawls, oriental blouses, peasant smocks, printed velvet, were all part of his signature.

[caption id="attachment_210914" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Kenzo Takada salutes the audience at the end of his ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 1998/99 collection presentation in Paris. (Image: Joel Saget/ AFP)[/caption]

It was a measure of his success that he was notoriously prey to copyists. British designer Jasper Conran, interviewed on the problem, said he knew of a company in South Africa specialising in ripping off Kenzo, seam for seam. "They make a fortune — more than Kenzo I reckon — but there's nothing he can do about it."

He was made chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1986 by France in recognition of his career. He tried his hand at film-making with "Reve apres Reve" in 1980 and designed costumes for a Stockhausen opera.

Apart from travel, his other obsession was gambling. He guarded his privacy by building himself a house in the country in the very heart of Paris, only a few yards from the Bastille opera house, complete with authentic tea pavilion and a pool of carp.

(Main and featured images: Joel Saget/ AFP)

The post Looking Back on the Legacy of the Late Kenzo Takada, Founder of Kenzo appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The pandemic has triggered massive changes in investor-adviser relationships that we’re only just beginning to understand.

How high-net-worth individuals and family offices work with their financial advisers to protect and grow their money after Covid-19 is today’s most pressing issue. The pandemic will be remembered as a near cataclysmic, black-swan event that continues to shake global economies, markets and industries in ways that are still being worked out. The effects of human isolation have both worsened and changed how people relate to each other and make investment decisions.

Private wealth managers say that extended periods of restricted personal interaction and communication among family members can exacerbate existing tensions about estate succession and wealth management. Mega-rich family dynasties can quickly descend into a showcase for dysfunction, highlighting the witless cruelty of the entitled and the pathetic emotional inadequacy of the endlessly spoiled. The scheming and backstabbing between monstrous and self-entitled family members can become exposed for all to see, as if it was all in a television soap opera. As Tolstoy said in his novel Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Governance in a sprawling family office risks being largely based on family relationships rather than institutional policies. A private banker once told me that he asks his wealthy clients, “What is your relationship with your money?” Because how you relate to your money says a lot about your personality, and ultimately decides how succession and management conflicts will be resolved.

[caption id="attachment_210883" align="alignnone" width="1024"] (Image: Liv Bruce/ Unsplash)[/caption]

For families, the weakness is that most decisions are undergirded by emotion – and that’s unpredictable and undemocratic as a basis for a family’s long-term investment policy. The gut rules as its own tyrant. It doesn’t have to account for itself any more than divine inspiration can be questioned by believers. It’s not open to contradiction because it’s entirely personal. All decisions must flow from the instincts of the singular leader. So everyone must accommodate themselves to unpredictability. And when you’re rich, whatever you say is considered wisdom. Engaging in realistic and critical thinking is a lot more complex and challenging than resorting to clichés.

Governance risks lurk in the market for family-owned, public companies. Activist funds and proxy advisory firms hunt for opportunities to exploit the impaired structures and weakened valuations of family- owned businesses trying to appoint unqualified second- or third- generation descendants as top managers. Balancing the interests of professional managers and the desires of the next generation is an ongoing family risk. Young people love risk because they can’t imagine the consequences, while the older generation love building golden tombs and sealing the rest of the family in with them.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance of sustainability and the fragility of our entire ecosystem and relationships. Never lose sight of the primacy of preserving capital, downside protection and the importance of sustaining a collective and disciplined succession process. Building and maintaining a formal family-governance and individual portfolio-management policy requires effort, especially in a time when normal communication methods are impaired.

Many clients have been forced by the pandemic to remain at home. Travel, in-person meetings and socialising have largely ceased. While videoconferencing capabilities have existed for a long time, they were never the first choice for communication. Now with the pandemic in full swing, it has become a major lifeline, offering an opportunity to improve the dialogue and relationship between clients and their financial advisers.

Advisers have observed how commonplace mobile video-conferencing technology allows them to devote more time to clients because their daily work routine has become disintermediated. At the same time, clients want to be better informed and comforted about their investments and the markets in such an uncertain period.

[caption id="attachment_210884" align="alignnone" width="1024"] (Image: Stephen Dawson/ Unsplash)[/caption]

The pandemic ironically represents a unique opportunity for high-net-worth individuals and wealth managers to better understand each others’ goals and services.

Carefully discerning how you and your family’s life and investment objectives change over time and market conditions has never been more important. You need to maintain discipline to cultivate and maintain long term goals. Ignore short-term, emotional, reactive trades trying to catch opportunities in a volatile market. However, investors at all times need to fully understand their personal tolerance for risk and expectations of returns.

Despite resistance to change, there is little doubt the post-Covid world will offer a significantly different operating and living environment. Human communications and how technology is used to establish and maintain relationships are undergoing profound changes that have not yet been determined. That more people are more comfortable with working from home will alter the nature of the workplace.

Nonetheless, the post-Covid financial world will still demand some sort of one-on-one, relationship-driven nature in wealth advisory. Consuming information and planning portfolios entirely online has always been possible, but now mobile applications have made it more accessible and conventional. However, clients also need to experience a level of investment intimacy, sympathy and personal service, too.

The digitalisation of financial services has been reshaping the traditional banking landscape for years. But the pandemic has forced all participants to further redefine how humans interact with technology. Innovations may reduce the need for regular face-to-face engagements and force a redefinition of what constitutes a financial relationship and how people make investment decisions.

This story first appeared on Prestige Singapore

(Main and featured image: Shutterstock)

The post How to Manage Your Finances After Covid-19 appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

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How Sofi Sui managed to retain all her staff even when the business dropped by 90 per cent.

The post 4 business and life lessons from restaurant operator Sofi Sui on surviving a pandemic appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

How Sofi Sui managed to retain all her staff even when the business dropped by 90 per cent.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

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The post Being Stuck Overseas during the Pandemic appeared first on World of Wanderlust.

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This is the first mask project by the Museum of Contemporary Art, and features designs by artists such as Andy Warhol, Virgil Abloh and Yoko Ono.

The post Exclusive face masks with designs by famous artists appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

This is the first mask project by the Museum of Contemporary Art, and features designs by artists such as Andy Warhol, Virgil Abloh and Yoko Ono.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.