Posted on Thu, 1 Dec 2011

Star Gazing At Roger Vivier

Simply Fab got invited to the opening of the new Roger Vivier store at Harbour City last week and I attended it based on 3 counts – #1 that the brand has seriously upped its hot factor because the French 1st lady just happens to have a thing for their bags and RV has always designed for royals, celebs and the likes and #2 this brand has become the epitomy of cool in HK and #3 I just wanted to see how a star-studded event gets handled in Hong Kong and who gets invited. It was an eye opener for me and quite different from the way a press event gets held in Singapore. Mostly perhaps its because we have no movie and entertainment industry and hence an obvious lack of celebrities in Singapore!

I also learnt a thing or two that evening about organising store launches here in Hong Kong!

Monica Chen, QiQi, Candice Yu, Victoria Law, Balia Chan are all fans of Roger Vivier

Rule number 1 - no store of any worth in Hong Kong gets launched without a bunch of celebs in attendance touting the brand’s latest wares. The folks at RV definitely unfurled the carpets as there was no shortage of show ups – from the familiar to the fresh.

Rule number 2 - get the VIPS spending money first to pay off the appearance fees that you are going to pay for the celebs to attend later. I live next door to the store (literally) so yours truly thought that an early peek at the goodies might be worth my while but sorry no, this was a VIPs only event and as press I had to wait till 6pm. It turned out that the action I saw in-store was a VIPs exclusive cocktail preview which took place an hour before the media – where the brand’s VIP (read big spenders) were invited for a sneak preview and a private shopping experience.

Rule number 3: There shalt be Vodka and plenty of it .. I looked wistfully at the blissful Vodka bar and focused my trajectory on a lycheetini which I am sure had my name on it but alas it was not to be and I never got beyond the red carpet into the vodka bar. It was a good thing already that with my media pass, I was already ushered past the crowd of curious onlookers and shopping public onto the red carpet whereupon, I asked to join either one of two media groups – the media interviewing the stars or the paparazzi and TV crew with their bulky cams taking shots of the stars on a slightly elevated platform bearing the brand initials. I could not speak Cantonese and the two groups were packed so I decided to ask if I could go into the store but even that was not to be. I had to first wait till the event was over – an approximate 2 hours to go in to browse as the celebs were still in and outside the store entrance with their possies.

Its a good thing that I live at Harbour City itself so I will make it a point to pop in tomorrow (Shop G304-6, Ground Floor, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui) to see the actual wares but here in Hong Kong, the power of print here and the brand pull-factor for local media attending the event is definitely on which pretties (has beens and IN Queens) lend their names to your pret-a-porter.

Well I was near enough to see them up close so here are the faces that I spotted:

Cherie Chung showcased Roger Vivier’s new Miss Viv’ purse and Rose n’ Roll heels