LATEST ARTICLES

The suit is not dead

The suit is not dead

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought Hong Kong’s world-famous tailoring industry to its knees, says Stanton Ho, co-founder of the local menswear establishment Refinery. Dressy social occasions have been lost in the dust of lock-downs and social-distancing rules. Nine-to-six office rules and dress codes have changed, perhaps forever. 

Brands heed call for sustainable changes

Brands heed call for sustainable changes

As plastics horror stories pile up, consumers across the developed world are turning away from the modern convenience of plastic bags and plastic packaging, or at least trying to avoid single-use plastic as much as they can. There have been too many dead whales found with bellies full of disposable bags, boxes and bottles; too many …read more

Diamond debate is not so clear-cut

Diamond debate is not so clear-cut

The different directions are as sharp as the angles on a multi-faceted brilliant. Pandora, the Danish company that makes the world’s most jewellery pieces, mostly inexpensive High Street ware, has announced it will no longer use naturally-mined diamonds.

It’s not so cut and dried

It's not so cut and dried

Ever-creeping climate change is spelling the end of the lawn as we know it. Environmentalists everywhere see the neat and weed-free grass lawn as an ecological disaster in an age of ever-increasing heat, shrinking water resources and increasingly scarce wild habitat.

Rolex winners, Swatch losers after Swiss luxury watch industry’s devastating year

Rolex winners, Swatch losers after Swiss luxury watch industry’s devastating year

Joe Biden chose to wear a classy US$7,000 stainless steel Rolex Datejust when he was sworn in as US president on January 20, giving the up-market Swiss watch brand a fillip after a diabolical year for luxury watches. Unlike a number of his predecessors who chose to wear utilitarian brands as men of the people …read more

Plunders never cease

Plunders never cease

Qing dynasty treasures, including a carved white jade figure of the star god of longevity, Shulao, are scheduled for auction in Hong Kong on November 30 in a sale titled Imperial Glories from the Springfield Museums Collection.

A bittersweet history

A bittersweet history

Considered an important medicine in China for 2,000 years, rhubarb has been discovered over and over again in its long history. Full of oxalic acid, rhubarb leaves might have poisoned a US president; smuggling valuable rhubarb root warranted death in Russia, and, centuries later, when the heavily sugared stalks were used in desserts, rhubarb was mercilessly …read more

Dior’s dolls in couture echo post-war miniature fashion show

Dior’s dolls in couture echo post-war miniature fashion show

French couture house Dior has this week remembered a time of crisis 75 years ago, when the bloody upheaval of WWII pushed French fashion designers to dig deep to revive the French fashion industry. Rising to the challenge, in 1945 post-war French couturiers dressed miniature mannequins in high fashion collections and sent them on a tour …read more

Cruising for a bruising

Cruising for a bruising

Eric Lee Tsun Lung has enjoyed more than 50 ocean cruises since he was a youngster and he looks forward to going to sea again soon, regardless of the spate of coronavirus outbreaks on cruise liners, frequently dubbed “floating petri dishes” in the media.

Orientalist scholar Roger Benjamin unimpressed by Birmingham’s Twitter take-down

Orientalist scholar Roger Benjamin unimpressed by Birmingham’s Twitter take-down

The respected art historian and University of Sydney academic was startled to see his research featuring in an unflattering tweet from Simon Birmingham. Professor Roger Benjamin, regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on art inspired by Orientalist or Arabic influence in southern Spain and northern Africa, including the work of renowned artists such …read more