An unlucky fall comes on the heels of modelling agency's launch

The superstitious will consider what happened last Thursday at the Philia Lounge a bad omen. The event was a party for new agency Runway Models, which wants to discover Hong Kong's next top catwalk faces. Tired of seeing the same faces over and over at local events, they wanted to find and train the next generation of models. One task was starting a modelling competition. 'Our business group already organises many events, and we have our own PR company, makeup stylists, studios as well as beauty salons, so we need models all the time. That's one reason why we started this,' explained Alice Fok Ka-yee, spokeswoman for Runway.

'Many agencies here are only concerned with the local market, whereas the difference with us is we see a bigger picture in expanding to the mainland too.'

The group wanted to show off its first signing, a girl named Kwok Sze-lam (pictured), discovered right off the street, who has apparently been undergoing intensive training for six months with professional model Balia Chan Pui-ka.

Unluckily, as Kwok arrived, she tripped and fell (above). The embarrassment caused her to break into tears and she was heard later explaining her heels were too high. So, a very bad start to business; maybe a fung shui reading of the office is now in order.