The Hotel Miramar is in the middle of a complete makeover but instead of the usual local designers and corporate firms, they've hired one of Hollywood's top celebrity party planners for the job.

The high profile soirees Colin Cowie has orchestrated include Oprah Winfrey's 50th birthday celebration, Elton John's Aids benefit Oscar party as well as glam affairs thrown by Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Jerry Seinfeld. Oprah watchers might recognise him as a regular guest as a style consultant.

So far, 18 distinctive custom-made chandeliers in four different sizes are among his new highlights for the ballroom. Each chandelier consists of thousands of triangular prism crystals from the Czech Republic with multi-layered steel-plated metalwork. A team of 20 engineers and craftsmen from the Czech Republic spent six months on their design and engineering, and four weeks in Hong Kong to install the 18 tonnes of crystal.