Celebrity Life

As a child, when Indian film director Tushar Tyagi used to dream of a UFO dropping in the Indian Ocean, or when he used to sketch clouds with vivid characters at the back of his school notebook, he never knew that later his style of storytelling will bring so much accolade and prestige. His 2020 release […]

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Serial entrepreneur and cultural maven Joanne Ooi talks curating diverse, sophisticated and inspiring art and culture content.

Since moving from the Hong Kong hustle to the idyllic English countryside, Joanne Ooi had been looking for a project that would make an impact in her new home. The EA Festival in East Anglia was born, debuting at the end of July at the ancient Hedingham Castle. From music to culture and sex, Ooi talks about curating diverse, sophisticated, inspiring content and how her previous careers informed the way she’s taken on this latest, very different challenge.  

Name: Joanne Ooi
Profession: Founder of EA Festival
Industry: Culture & Arts
Company Size:
Startup Since: 2020

Tell us about your business. What do you do and why did you start it?

I’m the founder of a new music, art, and culture festival in the UK called EA Festival. I started it during lockdown because, since I moved to the UK from Hong Kong, I had been mulling ideas about, first, what to do with my life, and, second, how best to make a contribution to the community where I now live, the rural countryside on the border of Suffolk and Essex counties in England.

What is the message behind your brand?

The EA Festival brand is very much about fastidious, personal curation combined with the concept of ‘glocalisation’. The latter means presenting issues of importance to regional and local audiences, but through a lens that allows those discussions to resonate universally. To take an example, one of our panels in the opening festival is entitled 'The Ethical Carnivore'. The goal is to debunk pernicious myths about livestock farming’s contribution to climate change by speaking to farmers and experts from East Anglia involved in regenerative agriculture. Grazing ruminants are indispensable to the latter. There’s no point in talking to audiences out here about the preoccupations of urban millennials, like vertical farming or going vegan. It’s important to remember my audience but also to create content of universal fascination and utility.

This festival also disregards silos completely and operates across a breathtaking range of subjects and styles, from traditional arts and letters to talks about sex and eco-fashion. Siloed content is usually the product of marketing or manufacturing convenience rather than programming devised to optimise the pleasure of the consuming audience. The most obvious example is the traditional literary festival, which is essentially a marketing platform to launch new books. But that’s not how people necessarily want to consume content. Anyone with a vibrant intellectual life is interested in a wide range of issues, not just history or wine or poetry or chamber music. Rather, most sophisticated audiences want excellence more than anything else. My sincere belief is that anything can be interesting.

Tell me about your best and worst days at work?

Monday is god awful because of the sheer quantum of work that has piled up over the weekend. The best day of the week is Saturday, for the simple reason that it’s the only day I take a wee spot of time off. At least that’s the way it’s been for the past three months.

How hands-on are you?

I’ve basically launched this festival by myself with 1.5 interns and a quarter-time volunteer. But I love it -- because a festival is all about quality control -- literally down to the sentence.

What advice would you give to someone looking to do a start up?

I’ve done and been in many startups and startup situations. Be ready to acknowledge major mistakes and modify or correct the business model IMMEDIATELY to take those into account. Second, great ideas never translate automatically into large audiences. Building the latter is hard graft and unavoidable. It takes three years to make anything big or great.

What would you be doing if you weren’t doing what you do now?

I’d be doing what I’ve been doing for the past five years since moving to the UK, consulting companies on marketing and SEO. My consulting clients are always in big cities, so I launched this project to implant myself where I actually live.

What do you do when you’re not at work?

I’m insane about tennis and watch and play it every day literally. Outside of tennis, I’m usually reading about tech, sociopolitical analysis or listening to a podcast about the same thing.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

In my thirties, someone told me my writing really sucked and I took that very, very seriously and actively worked on improving it.

As a child, what did you aspire to be?

All I can remember is that I was obsessed with fashion and wanted to work at Vogue instead of becoming a corporate lawyer.

What has been your biggest hurdle and how did you overcome it?

I’ve enjoyed a privileged life, armed with a blue-chip education, so there haven’t been many hurdles, objectively speaking. The main hurdle anyone faces -- in life -- is connecting thought to action -- acknowledging flaws in yourself or your plan -- and making the changes necessary to ameliorate either the outcome or one’s character.

My biggest “hurdle” is definitely my perfectionism. I can’t accept a mere 80/20 Pareto outcome. This personality trait leads me to do everything myself instead of relying on others. Consequently, I didn’t start relying on other people until I was around 45 years old and, considering the very big projects I had undertaken until then, it was a very stressful and exhausting way to live one’s life. That’s my way of saying all my hurdles have been mental ones -- in my own mind.

What's kept you sane during the pandemic?

Switching off the phone and delving into old -- as in classic and ancient -- masterpieces - in short, serenity and aestheticism. This was a new diet I overlaid on top of my usual one of voraciously consuming tech and tennis.

What's been your career highlight so far?

I’m still remembered and introduced as the former creative director of Shanghai Tang who turned it around when the Richemont Group invested in the brand BUT, in fact, my main career highlight is starting an environmental group and being an activist on the street. It was my introduction to third sector life and forever changed my perspective on what I should be doing with my life. There is no reward greater than contributing to civil society and influencing attitudes and behaviour that shape the polis, to use the Aristotelian term.

What are your goals for 2021? And in the near future?

For 2021, my goal is just to survive this upcoming festival without losing my shirt or my mind. But longer-term and following on from my answer to the last question, it is literally to increase the supply and demand of culture in non-urban areas, beginning, I hope, in East Anglia, where I live. After moving to England four years ago, finally, I figured out what I want to do with my life -- what I SHOULD do with my life. That mission entails increasing the supply of high quality art and cultural events where I live.

How do you define success? Do you consider yourself successful?

Considering my workaholism and perfectionism, you’ll be surprised at this answer: What really counts is your children; it’s really the only thing that you’re concretely leaving behind for sure. My son, now 22, shows me that I’ve already succeeded in life.

The post Startup Life: Joanne Ooi of EA Festival on Curating Diverse Art and Culture appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Meet Ashwin Mawle, a celebrity fashion stylist from Hyderabad who started his career as a model at the age of 16 and it was his keen interest in fashion and styling that he later decided to convert his passion into a profession. In Ashwin’s opinion, it was actor Allu Arjun who gave him his first […]

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Meet Dr. Farhan Khan, a homeopath physician, who has been practicing since 2012 in the city of Belgaum, Karnataka, and apart from his full-time profession as a doctor, he is also a creative soul who creates varied digital content on social media platforms by the name ‘Fizuliyat’. For Farhan, it’s been all about serving mankind […]

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Delray Beach photographer Francesca Coviello Dunham lives out of her Airstream Overlander when traveling to shoot weddings and engagements

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We talk to multi-hyphenate entrepreneur, reiki healer and mother, Belinda Koo, about balancing corporate life with wellness and fitness businesses. A blend of “persistency and consistency” keeps her going as founder of XYZ and One Ten Foundation, while also being a managing director at UBS.

What are your favourite ways of getting active in Hong Kong, aside from at your XYZ indoor cycling studio?

I love going outdoors when the weather is nice. I’m learning to wakesurf and it’s so refreshing to be out in the water once or twice a week. To me, being active means trying out new things. Things that push your comfort zone a bit, not necessarily really difficult ones, but to create new neuropathways in your brain and allow yourself to move in ways you’ve never moved before. It’s challenging our brain to connect differently, because new activities require different muscle groups to work in whole new ways. It’s that adrenaline rush of the unfamiliar and uncomfortable that I also love and crave.

Why and how did you start XYZ?

The heart is the biggest and most important organ in our body. When my father passed away from a heart attack when I was five years old, it made me realise how crucial cardiovascular movement was – even if it’s just 30 minutes a day to stay active and move around. The heart keeps us pumping, keeps us alive.

What do your day-to-day work and workout outfits look like?

It depends on how I feel and my mood on that particular day. I love to mix and match workout attire with work attire. So it would be leggings and sports-bra tops underneath, with blazer jackets and flowy throws on top. We’ve tended to dress more casually and relaxed in recent years and that allows me to play mix and match with colours I’ve never worn much of before.

How was your own fitness journey? Have you always been sporty and athletic?

I’ve been active and sporty since I was very young. I started ballet when I was four and was in the track-and- field team since primary school. I feel very much alive when I move. I’d observe my breathing and love being in the alter state of being, where my movement just floats and my mind just lets go. To me, movement is meditation – dynamic meditation.

How did your upbringing affect your attitude to life and entrepreneurship?

My mom always told me that rolling stones gather no moss. I think it’s that persistency and consistency that gives me a good foundation to not give up. If I really believe in something, I’ll go for it and “just keep swimming” (like Dory, the blue fish in the Nemo cartoon). As long as the direction is right, the speed doesn’t matter. Failure is just an opportunity to learn and refine the method.

You started One Ten as a social enterprise to bring the benefits of wellness to Hong Kong’s younger generations through sports and support. Where did you see the need and how is this important in shaping young minds?

We’ve all been there, knowing how hard a young adult’s life can be, not to mention the challenges they’ve encountered in the past few years. But what would be possible if our society were composed of emotionally intelligent people? Investing in youngsters is the starting point to make our dream come true. By educating the interdependence between mind, body and emotions, even youngsters with less access to resources stand a higher chance of surviving life-changing transitions. Our unique blend of emotional learning and non-competitive sports help support them in exploring their unique pathway to emotional wellbeing and resilience.

Since Covid-19 there’s been an increased awareness of the importance of mental and physical health. How has this been manifested in your circles and with your clients?

Nurturing the mental and physical has always been at the core of what I do. Raising awareness means growing with and spreading this to those around us, to help them on their journey too. Gaining inspiration and awareness from the outside, and using it to transform on the inside. Everyone’s journey is different.

You work with Reiki too. How do healing and wellness tie in with the journey of fitness?

Most of us only attend to our physical bodies, but there are actually more layers in our bodies: energy body, astral body and causal body. I’m a total believer in the metaphysical side of things and our physical body is just a reflection of our emotional wellbeing. Our seven chakras, or energy centres, dominate our hormone systems. Therefore understanding our emotions and emotional literacy is the key to physical wellbeing. We can never separate our body from our mind. They’re one and we should nurture them like that.

What are the routines that keep you grounded personally?

At home, I’ll smudge the environment, play a mantra, lie down on a mat with both feet Grounded on the floor – kick off the shoes – and just breathe. If I’m outdoors or in nature, I take off my shoes and walk barefoot on the ground.

What does your workout routine look like?

Setting intention, observing my breathing and going into the zone. Each workout is like a genuine conversation and search of myself. And, of course, to have fun.

Who are your style icons?

I don’t actually have a style icon. I kind of live in my own imaginary world when it comes to style. Mix and match and let it flow!

You switch between corporate dressing at UBS and more casual and athletic at your fitness businesses. Do you like the transition and what does each style say about you?

I love combining the two for seamless transition. As my schedule is always here and there, I like the freedom of athleisure wear and the structure of corporate attire. It really depends on my mood that day.

You’re a busy woman professionally, as well as a mother. Tell us what’s always in your bag.

Water, headphones, two phones and a charger, La Mer lip balm and hand cream. It’s quite simple.

Where in Hong Kong do you find the most inspiration?

I can find inspiration everYwhere here. Hong Kong is such a dynamic city.

What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?

We add resistance to training to strengthen our physical body. Difficulties in life are just opportunities to strengthen our mental mind and faith.

How do you like to wind down your day?

Spend time with my kids, my husband and my dog Snoopy. Then it’s me me time to reflect on my day, to journal and end with a breathing exercise/meditation to put full closure to the day. I believe in properly starting the day by setting the intention, and closing the day by scanning ourselves with gratitude. To let go of any entanglement and judgement we’ve made on ourselves and others, to acknowledge it, accept it with gratitude, then let it go.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to follow your footsteps?

Things change little by little. Little things add up to be big, big, big!

The post Founder of XYZ Belinda Koo on Balancing Corporate life With Wellness appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Promoting events was Charlz Ng’s life until he discovered the more rewarding joys of nurturing communities. He tells Prestige about creating IRIS, Hong Kong’s preeminent yoga festival, organising the Gay Games 2022 and his life goals.

When I meet Charlz Ng at House of Fitness, the boutique high-intensity studio in Sheung Wan that he co-founded with business partner Michael Melly, there’s a class going on. The venue is dark, awash with the blue and purple hues of florescent lighting, and absolutely pumping with music. The trainer shouts over the din as members stretch and move their bodies in unison to the beat. If it feel as if I’ve just walked into a nightclub, then maybe it’s intentional, because Ng started his career planning events in the nightlife industry.

Ng has an exuberant energy and positivity that are immediately evident as we greet each other for the first time. We haven’t met before, but anyone who’s in the least bit interested in fitness will have heard of him – and if his name doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps the festivals and events he’s put together will. IRIS: Your Escape, the festival that’s taken Hong Kong by storm since 2015 and propelled yoga and wellness into our collective consciousness, was the result of Ng’s blood, sweat and tears.

Active as a youngster, Ng played various team sports while in boarding school in the UK, but in university, he discovered a passion for organising parties, and fitness fell off the agenda. It wasn’t until years later, exhausted mentally and physically from late nights at the clubs, that he and his partners discovered the benefits of yoga and the importance of balance. Soon after, Ng’s Hybrid Group made the transition from hosting music events
to hosting wellness events: the first-ever IRIS was attended by almost 200 people, who showed up at Discovery Bay for a beach yoga session.

Through wellness, Ng also found a new purpose in life. Although IRIS started out as an event, it’s now evolved into a community for like-minded individuals. Yoga was a large part of the festival, but now, running into its sixth year, IRIS encompasses a yoga stage, a silent disco, a zen garden for meditation, a fitness space for other types of workouts, an insider platform for talks and performances, and even a marketplace to showcase a range of products, from fitness apparel to health foods.

“Before, when I ran an event, my goal was to maximise ticket sales, get sponsors and milk every dollar,” says Ng of his own wellness journey. “But when I started doing IRIS, the sense of empowerment I felt and the ability
to spread positive messages really grew on me. It gave me a new mission in life and it made me want to continue doing more,” he says.

He remembers receiving a note thanking him for organising the weekend festival, which helped the writer change their perspective on how to live well. “I was like, wow, this email really just sets the foundation for what
I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve found my mission, my goal, and I just want to multiply this formula to all the different businesses and communities that I’m involved in. I like being able to spread any sort of positive message, even if it’s to three people at a time, or 30 or 300 or 3,000 … As long as I can touch a person’s life, it’s something I want to do.”

For someone who just turned 31 this year, Ng has done quite a lot. After IRIS, he helped his team at Hybrid bring the Spartan Race to Hong Kong. He’s also the co-owner of the boutique gym House of Fitness and the director of ceremonies of the forthcoming Gay Games 2022, an event that he’s been preparing for over the last five years and is potentially the largest and most significant sporting event the city will see in years.

Ng admits, a little sheepishly, that five years ago he had no clue what the Gay Games were. He first discovered them when he saw his friend Dennis Philipse’s Facebook status on recruiting volunteers while Philipse was bidding to bring the international event to Hong Kong. Impressed by his passion, Ng offered to help. “Later on I was gobsmacked when I learned more about it. I couldn’t believe I’ve never heard of it before – but then no one
in Hong Kong had heard of the Gay Games. It was such a North American thing.”

Ng attended his first Gay Games in 2018 in Paris. “I thought I knew in my head what the Gay Games were, but arriving in Paris I got goosebumps. Oh my God, I’m getting goosebumps again right now!” he says, as he rubs his hand down his arm in excitement.

“The entire city, the entire airport became rainbow-coloured. It was so welcoming. Paris had a very unique position – as they’re hosting the Olympics in 2024, the city council was using the Gay Games as a trial. But it was great and the city was really vibrant.”

Aside from competing in the 10-kilometre run, Ng acted as a volunteer photographer, gaining the opportunity to run around the different tournaments and events, and experiencing the Games at close quarters, noticing the competitiveness, the seriousness and the sportsmanship displayed at every level.

He has fond memories of his time there, from cheering for the volleyball team at the finals – “All 90 of us who flew to Paris from Hong Kong went to the stadium to support and cheer. It was really emotional and obviously, we got gold” – to marching into the stadium at the start of the games, proudly waving the Hong Kong flag.

It’s his dream to replicate that level of excitement, acceptance and pride in Hong Kong next November. Although it’s involved five years of hard volunteering work, the Gay Games 2022 is starting to gain traction in the city. The team has long had the support of the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Equal Opportunities Commission, and they’re hopeful that more major governmental departments will also sign up.

Hong Kong counts itself as an inclusive city and, as Ng points out, social media has enabled people of his generation and younger to express themselves freely. “Our parents are probably the last generation who are still stuck in a traditional mindset,” he says. “I think they had less information and there were fewer role models at that time to really explain or stand up for LGBTQ at that time.

“But this is exactly why the Gay Games is so important for Hong Kong. We’re not here to promote anything political, or even fight for marriage equality, nothing of that sort. It’s simply to raise awareness and tell people that, gender aside, an LGBTQ person and a straight person are equals. We can play sports, we can paint, we can meet,” says Ng. “Even for my parents, it was easy for them to understand what the Gay Games is and they’re quite supportive.”

Ng describes himself as an outgoing and social person who’s always been open about himself, but says he only came out to his parents in 2018. It wasn’t easy, he says, because he was waiting for the right moment. “I always had this script, this perfect scenario, like a dream proposal,” he recalls. “And my dream was to come out when I had a boyfriend. It just so happened that I didn’t until 2018.”

His parents have always supported everything he’s done in his life, but still, it was a difficult conversation. “As much as my parents love me and support what I do, they’re still traditional. Deep down, they still embrace this traditional thinking and this hope of having a son who’d carry on the family name,” he says. “That part was difficult because I’m trying to explain that being gay doesn’t mean you can’t have a baby. That’s not a real concern. And also, if I were straight, what were the guarantees that I’d have a partner or a baby anyway? If I didn’t have friends or a job but, oh, I were straight, would that be better? It’s all about perception.

“My mistake was to wait until I had my perfect story, but as a matter of fact you’ll never have that perfect moment to have that conversation,” he says. “After having it with my parents, I realised I could have had it 10 years earlier and it would have been no different.”

Having found power in building communities, for Ng’s next venture he’d like to move away from event planning. “I’ve had a fresh thought recently. I don’t think I want to stay in event management and production for life,” he says.

He’s currently working with eight other partners on Carbon, the new 8,000-square-foot restaurant, bar, entertainment, lounge and lifestyle concept that’s set to open at H Code in the late summer.

“It’s quite exciting because it combines everything I’ve done my whole life. Nightlife, wellness, building a community and an event space. It’s all coming full circle for me,” says Ng.

I ask him if there’s anything left that he’d like to accomplish one day. He pauses and then says, “The first thing that came to me was to go to Iceland, but that’s easy. One of my goals in life is to buy my parents a flat and also put them on a first-class plane to any dream destination. That’s something I really want to do.”

The post Charlz Ng: From Parties to Wellness and Gay Games 2022 appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Our cover personalities tend to be extremely busy people – but we must admire the unwavering sportsmanship and animated demeanor displayed by both Cecilia Yeung and Nicholas Choi over the course of an eight-hour shoot on a Saturday evening.

The two professional athletes arrived on the set following a week of intensive training for their respective sports: high-jump and fencing. If they were exhausted – as we almost certainly would have been – they never once let it show as we put them through their paces. They arm-wrestled, jumped on trampolines, and laughed their way through a core workout together – and at one point, Choi even gave Yeung a bout of fencing instruction, but not before the high-jump master puts him through three rounds of an intense core workout.

Watch it all unfold in the video below.

The post Watch Nicholas Choi Teach Cecilia Yeung How to Fence appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Jeweller Audrey Savransky joins the rich pantheon of inspiring women who create fine jewellery for ladies on the go.

A long-time resident of Hong Kong, back in 2008, Audrey Savransky launched her company AS29 out of a little room in our city - and now her accessories can be seen on the swan-like necks of supermodel Chanel Iman, Alessandra Ambrosio and Bella Hadid. Be it former first-lady Michelle Obama or queen bee Beyonce, there’s tremendous buzz about the signature collection of Savransky that decks the napes and necks of the most powerful and glamorous women in the world.

With a wide range of glittering jewels of all shapes, sizes and colour, her artistic yet immensely wearable collection and statement pieces have received acclaim by many a fashion editor. You see that mop of striking red hair streak through the arteries of Central and recognise the Belgian designer – no matter how masked she may appear to be, as she whizzes by, in a flurry over the constant demands of client meetings, motherhood and helming her own globally recognised company.

Name: Audrey Savransky
Profession: Fine jewellery brand owner 
Industry: Fine Jewellery
Company Size: 15+
Startup Since: 2008

When did you launch your own company?

Diamonds have been running in my family’s DNA for the past four generations. I feel like this professional path was in my destiny and that I had to redefine my family’s diamond legacy. I used to manufacture for other brands in the past, so one fine day, I just decided to launch my own brand in 2008. 

What have been the challenges running a jewellery brand in city like Hong Kong that is so accustomed to designer and legacy brands?

Being based in Hong Kong has been amazing in terms of launching my line. I’ve been able to travel to China and to other countries in Asia in order to manufacture products, which is definitely an advantage that you can’t get in Europe. I believe there is definitely a niche market of people interested in modern fine jewellery in Hong Kong, and that’s why you can find our brand in stores such as Lane Crawford – which was our first point of sales in Asia when I launched AS29. Now, I’m very happy to announce that more than 10 years later, we are carried in stores around Hong Kong, as well as in stores in Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai.

How many pieces do you design each year?

Too many! I always get overwhelmed when designing a new line and testing out new samples. But in general we launch around four collections per year. Usually, our collections come out around Christmas and New Years - they have far more pieces. We also have collections of different price ranges, some of them you can now find exclusively on our new website www.as29.com.

Tell us something about your latest collection – what was the inspiration?

I launched three collections in early March this year, they are called DNA, TAG and LOCK. I took a deep dive into the inner identity of the brand, creating a collection where you can notice the letters and numbers. This is representative of a new foundation for AS29, while at the same time still staying true to the unique and rebellious design and heritage of the brand. The three collections are made of perfectly pave white diamond encrusted pieces and solid 18k gold. I wanted to create something modern, that can be worn forever.

I loved seeing your shoot with an all-girl team. Girl power 2021!  The campaign is stunning. Tell us a bit about your crew.

We had indeed a great team shooting for this and previous campaign. I loved working with very talented girls, the photographer Ruby Law and the stylist Justine Lee. We had the great pleasure of shooting at The Hari Hong Kong hotel for the first time, a new venue for a new collection!

What’s a normal work day for you?  What are the biggest challenges?

Being a mother of two children, a regular day for me starts at 7am and by the time I’m back home it’s already after 8. I have long, intense, hectic, exciting days… but never a dull moment!

The biggest challenges I faced were during this year was not being able to travel to see my clients and visit our factories due to the pandemic. It was a big, big issue for us. We had to change the whole strategy of our brand to be sold mostly, if not entirely, online - which I believe was the case for many other companies too. Luckily, we managed to increase our online presence by being sold on Goop, Moda Operandi, Threads Styling, and of course Farfetch.

As a teen – was this the passion – what did you aspire to be? 

I grew up in this industry, always surrounded by gemstones and watching not only my parents but my husband handling these incredible precious metal and incredible jewels. Even though I never studied jewellery design or went to GIA, this passion grew with me since an early age and it became  evident that I was meant to do this.

Are you as hands on at home as you are at work?

I’m very hands-on both at home with my kids as well as at work. So it can be challenging at times. I always pick up when they call, which is usually, like clockwork, after 3pm, when schools finish. It can be quite hectic. But I wouldn’t change it in any way. I’m very lucky to do a job that I love and still make time for my children whenever they need me. And I have the amazing help of my husband who’s an amazing father and partner in life. 

Actually, It’s a patronising question isn’t it – to ask what its like to juggle marriage, motherhood and career? No one asks a man the same queries about balancing job and family.

Indeed - but I think it’s important to ask this question to women to raise awareness. Nowadays, more and more women are starting to have two jobs, one being a mum and the other one involving making money - which was not common in the past. I think I can freely speak on behalf of many working mothers; some days are really, really challenging. But, others are simply amazing and make up for every other difficult day. Marriage, motherhood and career are three things that many women experience, and it does not get easier, you learn to balance with experience. I’m a creative person and my work helps me express myself through the jewellery I create each season. Being able to do a job I love and still have quality time for my family is a luxury I’m very aware of having. So don’t worry, I still loved the question!

What advice would you give women trying to establish their own company? 

Believe in yourself, otherwise, who else will? Sometimes people might believe in your talent, but once they are aware of your age or your gender they can change their opinion. I honestly believe that there are no rules for talent, if you believe in it, fight for it, and surround yourself by people that can help you grow. Never look back, only forward.

What are your biggest markets that might surprise us to know about?

We have a very strong presence in the Gulf region both online and in terms of being sold in brick and mortar, local stores such as Ali Bin Al in Qatar, Qirdala in Kuwait, Asia Jewellers in Bahrain, Mi Concept in Saudi Arabia, Sylvie Saliba in Beirut just to name a few. Our second biggest market is USA, and then Hong Kong! When I first started, I did not predict this international chart.

Gotta ask the pandemic q’s – how did it disrupt your industry and how did you adapt to recover?

As I mentioned before, I have never seen anything like this covid pandemic before in my life. It changed so many things in terms of production and seeing our clients - jewellery is a very tactile business and a personalised one. it’s been interesting to see how willing our clients are to buy directly online or through video calls. If you asked me a few years ago if we can sell jewellery by Skype (pre zoom!), I’d say you’re crazy. But now, we've sold over zoom, expensive pieces over WhatsApp Video Calls! Makes me want to live on an island and work remotely forever!

Where would you like to see your company in five years? 

Honestly, I’ve been very happy on how it has turned out – we are in our 13^th year now. As long as the company keeps on moving forward, my clients love the jewels, and I can still maintain a good work and life balance I am happy.

What’s in the works currently?  

New collections are coming out in October, and we have a list of new stores who will be carrying our brand in the US. We are constantly updating online of course. In HK you can find AS29 at Lane Crawford IFC or at www.as29.com – shipped worldwide.

The post Startup Life: Audrey Savransky of AS29 on Her Brand and Girl Power appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

No guts, no glory; no pain, no gain. High-jumper Cecilia Yeung and fencer Nicholas Choi have been competing professionally for most of their adult lives and understand, more than anyone else, what it’s like to deal with self-doubt and struggle. We talk to the two athletes and influencers about their drive, their sacrifices and their olympian dreams.

Competing in the Olympics is a dream harboured by every serious athlete. Getting there is another story. Talent alone isn’t enough – a multitude of other factors come into play: passion, hard work, strength of mind, timing, maybe even a stroke of luck. Traditional media tends to focus on the big wins – breaking records and going to the Olympics are headliners that draw people’s attention. But behind the scenes, an athlete’s internal battles, sustained injuries and stagnant growth don’t always come to light.

Professional Hong Kong athletes Cecilia Yeung and Nicholas Choi tell us that struggle is just as important as milestones. Yeung made headlines when she cleared 1.88 metres and set the current Hong Kong women’s high-jump record in 2017. Choi shot to fame when he qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics and, at the age of 19, became the youngest fencer to represent Hong Kong at the Games. Today, they’re both sitting out the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, but their sights are still on the ball – going to the Games in 2024 in Paris is a shared dream.

“It was always a dream for me to go,” Choi tells me on the day of the cover shoot. It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon, but Choi is all smiles on and off the camera, his slicked-back, platinum-blond hair cutting through the gloom. “For fencing, the biggest competition is the Olympics.” In fact, when he did eventually qualify to go, it didn’t feel real. “I felt like it was still a dream.

I called my parents, my family, everyone was crying and everyone was so happy. But for me, it took a few days for it to sink in and for me to be like, Oh my God, I’m actually going to the Olympics. Like, actually.”

The former Olympian grew up around fencing. His father was a team manager for the Hong Kong Fencing Association and his twin sister, Natasha Erica Choi, competed at an international junior level. In fact, he’s credited his sister in the past for being his motivation. When she was selected to join the Hong Kong Sports Institute junior fencing team, he resolved to train harder so he’d have his turn too.

And his turn did come. In 2010, Choi placed second at the Cadet World Championships and in the same year qualified for the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. By 2012, he was part of the senior fencing team and went to the 2012 Summer Olympics, for which he received a Hong Kong Potential Star Award. In 2018, at the Asian Games, he won a silver medal in the men’s foil event.

But his rapid move through the ranks took its toll.In December 2018, he announced his retirement from the sport, posting on Instagram, “The past 15 years have been an incredible journey. It’s now time for me to venture elsewhere and create a new chapter in my life, even if there’s no absolute plan about my future for now.”

He’s been training every day since he was 14 as a junior cadet, he tells me. “It was a very easy decision to retire in 2018 because, back then, I really felt like I was done. After the Asian Games, I was so done with fencing. I knew I did really well, but I wanted to start a new page. I was tired of doing the same thing every day and there were other things I wanted to do, other things I hada passion for.”

Sport, at the highest level, can be a lonely journey that not everyone’s capable of making. Choi struggled as early as 2015, but his coach, his teammates and therapy helped pull him through. It’s a struggle that Hong Kong high-jumper Yeung understands completely, having found herself in similar circumstances during her formative years.

Yeung only became a full-time high jumper in 2016, when she was in her second year of university, explaining her decision as a natural evolution in her sporting career. “It was simply a matter of feeling that I had the potential, and at that time I wanted to put more time into it, to see how far I could go. That’s how I became a full-time athlete,” she says.

She discovered a talent for jumping when she was in her high-school volleyball team and her schoolmates would comment on how high she could reach during her spikes. She started training with a part-time coach; within two years she found herself ranking among Hong Kong’s best athletes and joined the Hong Kong team. This year marks her 13th year in the sport.

“I began to realise that I was actually pretty good at this. I felt like I belonged here,” says Yeung. “One of the reasons why I love high jump so much is because of this feeling you get, this ‘hang time’, which is like a moment of suspension in the air when it feels as if time has completely stopped. It makes me feel as if I’ve left the world behind and I’m looking down and everything is in slow motion. It’s an amazing feeling and that’s howI fell in love with the sport.”

Yet she struggled to make an impact. As a member of the Hong Kong team, Yeung was good, but she wasn’t the best and for a long time – six years, in fact – felt she was making little or no improvement. “There was a six-year period when nothing happened, and I wasn’t improving or breaking records. I wasn’t even ranked first in Hong Kong at the time. I wasn’t special among my team members.”

Yeung says she tended to overthink and get into her own head, and as much as she wanted to improve and work hard, there was a mental block she couldn’t overcome – or at least not until she took time away from the sport to figure things out.

“I set aside high jumping for a bit,” she recalls. “For nine months, I completely stopped jumping and focused on other things instead. I picked up dancing in university and joined the dance team. I think that’s when I learned how to relax and I started to make sense of where I was with the sport.”

Yeung’s fitness and strength improved with her dancing, and she was able to get back into high jumps with a fresh mind. “It was only when it was time to enter competitions again that I actually got back into high jumping. Everything felt so fresh. That’s when I started to see results and started breaking Hong Kong records.”

“‘Hang time’ is a moment of suspension in the air when it’s as if time has completely stopped. It makes me feel as if I’ve left the world behind … It’s why I fell in love with the sport."

Cecilia Yeung

When, at last, she broke the record she was elated. “The moment I found out I’d broken the record, I was at an all-time high. It took me eight years, but I did it!

I was high jumping for two years and did really well before I joined the Hong Kong team, which was when I set myself the goal of breaking the Hong Kong record. After I said that, it only took me six years to actually achieve it,” she says, laughing at the irony.

“I feel that there are a lot of things that only become meaningful because of how hard it was to achieve them. Maybe it’s my mindset,” says Yeung. “Things that come too easily for me make me not know how to treasure them. I need to know that I’ve put in a lot of effort for something great to happen. That’s when I learn to treasure it.”

Every moment of glory is underlined with years of strife and sacrifice. According to Yeung, her career can roughly be divided into three stages. The initial stage was the long road to her first Hong Kong record. The second stage was when she was at her peak, breaking six records in succession – until she injured herself and tore a tendon in her Achilles heel, effectively putting her out of the sport while she recovered. Now, she’s getting back into the sport post-injury, feeling more mature and in a better place mentally.

Both Yeung and Choi live extraordinary lives outside of their sports. When Choi took a break in 2018, he turned his attention to fashion, an area of interest he shares with his sister. Whereas his sister works for a brand, Choi makes a living from being an influencer, showcasing his immense sense of style on Instagram, and attending shows and events in Hong Kong.

“I love doing shoots,” he tells me. “It’s kind of like a healing time for me from training and other stuff. When I’m at a shoot, I feel really relaxed.” Choi loved fashion enough to step away from the world of sport and write a new chapter for himself. When he retired from fencing two years ago, he really thought it was the end. But now, after a two-year hiatus and amid Covid, the sport has once again piqued his interest.

“I was really stressed and tired of fencing then, but now that I’ve taken a break, I thought it might be good to pick it back up again.” Covid changed things for Choi, who had his heart set on attending fashion weeks and travelling the world. Finding himself stuck in Hong Kong, fencing once again piqued his interest. As it was his passion for so long, it seemed right that it would drag him out of this interminably depressing situation.

When Choi retired from fencing two years ago he thought it was the end. Now, after a two-year hiatus and amid Covid, the sport has once again piqued his interest

He has a new coach, and although he still has the same teammates he tells me that “it feels very different coming back, it’s like a different life. Even though I’m still training with the same teammates, I was the one who left and came back, so everyone’s also different now. We have a different coach, a whole new training programme, so to me it’s like, ‘Wow, this is all so new, so fresh.’It’s been a month now but it’s still fresh to me and I’m really enjoying it.”

With more life experience under his belt, Choi also feels that he’s in a new frame of mind when it comes to competitions. He took part in his first competition in years just a few weeks ago and, without stressing himself too much, he achieved fifth place – a pretty good start for someone just beginning to get back into the game.

“I used to suck at competing, because I’m always giving myself unnecessary stress,” he says. “I overthink andI can’t sleep, and during a competition I just want it to end. It’s not healthy for an athlete. And as a fencer, overthinking it won’t make you better, it’ll only make you worse.”

Choi describes fencing as being like the chess of sports. “With fencing, I’d say half of it’s about physical training. The other half is about mental training, because you’re constantly predicting your opponent’s next move. So, before the start of the game, you need to calm down and focus. Even if you’re physically strong, if you’re mentally weak you can lose in the first round. And vice versa, if you’re weaker but you can stay calm, you can just as easily win.”

Choi is in it for the long haul. “I train every day from Monday to Saturday, but I do have little breaks in between and I’ll go to events or shoots,” he says.“But my priority is fencing again. It’s all about time management. If you really want to do something,

I’m sure there’s a way to do what you want.”What he really wants is to qualify for the Olympics once again. “My teammates are going this year andI hope I’ll get to go to the Asian Games next year. But my main goal is the next Olympics. I’m back on the team now and, as professional athletes, we need to aim for the biggest goals.”

Since her return to high jumping several years ago, Yeung’s passion for high jump hasn’t faltered. Although she’s an influencer and part-time model, high jump is her number-one priority. “To me, high jump is the most unique thing about myself,” she explains. “The other things I do give me exposure and opportunities, but they wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for high jump. It defines me and gives me the greatest sense of accomplishment.”

She laughs and says she loves to eat – even when she landed a job in Paris walking in Off-White’s fashion show she didn’t give up on eating her favourite things. On the other hand, she’d do anything for a competition, sacrificing late nights and junk food for success on the athletics field.

Yeung could have given up and retired when she injured herself and tore her Achilles heel in 2019, but she’s nowhere near thinking about quitting. “I don’t want to retire yet,” she says resolutely. “Even though I’m not 100 percent back, I tell myself I must try. At least, even if I fail, I’ll know I tried my best and won’t regret it later.”

Throughout our conversation, Yeung often reflects on the kind of person she is and wants to be. She didn’t have the easiest of childhoods – her parents separated when she was young and in past interviews has described herself as a street kid, extremely independent, preferring to do things on her own rather than receive help from others. She points to volleyball, a team sport that she enjoyed but ultimately dropped in favour of high jump, a solo sport in which her successes and failures depend on her – and her alone.

“It’s just the way I am,” she says. “I’m very harsh on myself. I think I can do it all and I’ll push myself to do everything myself. But now that I’ve had an injury, I’m trying to listen to people more often and I also try to listen to myself more often. If something hurts or doesn’t feel right, I’ll tell my coach rather than try to figure it out myself.”

She’s reading The Champion’s Mind, a book by sports psychologist Jim Afremow on how the greatest athletes think, train and thrive, which she finds deeply inspiring. “I’m now at a better place in my mind,” says Yeung. “I can still feel I’m not where I used to be, and even now I’m still healing from my injury. But I’m improving myself in other areas, and I know I have the ability to be even better than before.”

Currently aiming to qualify for next year’s Asian Games, she says she still feels she’s a better athlete.“I think my injury has made me learn a lot about myself. I want to be able to enter competitions now with this new and improved Cecilia Yeung, who has a better mindset to deal with big competitions.”

(Hero Image: (ON HIM) OUTFIT CHRISTIAN DIOR RING BOTTEGA VENETA BRACELET GUCCI (ON HER) OUTFIT CHRISTIAN DIOR EARRINGS, NECKLACE AND BRACELET DIOR)

Cecilia Yeung and Nicholas Choi Cover Story

PHOTOGRAPHY KARL LAM
STYLING JACKY TAM
FIRST ASSISTANT STYLIST LAZ LAM
SECOND ASSISTANT STYLISTS MELODY CHAN AND WAYNE CHOW
MAKE-UP EVELYN HO
HAIR JEAN TONG

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