FEMINISTS and the politically correct are not going to like this: Cartier's new perfume sets out to honour 'female prettiness'. Even with an eye-rolling name like So Pretty de Cartier, the fragrance is reported to be an 'overwhelming success' in Europe, where it was billed as 'a tribute to the beautiful women of the 20th century'.
Here, it is being pitched by Cartier's Corinne Djaoui as 'a tribute to the beautiful women of Hong Kong'. And to launch the scent, 30 of the territory's 'prettiest' women have been invited to host a table each at a lunch in the Grand Hyatt ballroom. (Strange that the best-looking women in Hong Kong all shop at Cartier.) Among those whom Cartier decrees 'lovely' are Betty Kadoorie, Lilian Azar, Reina Chau and Yvette Yuen. The 30 have each been asked to invite 10 of their most attractive friends for the bash, the theme of which is 'beauty and illusion'.
Perhaps the biggest illusion is that a campaign which apparently judges women on their looks should be deemed appropriate in the 1990s.
Material witness ANYONE who has ever tried to get a dress made in Hong Kong knows how hard it can be to find good quality fabric. But one woman, who thought she'd solved her problems at Zeepha Couture in Ice House Street, discovered that sometimes even finding the right material is not enough. After being buzzed in to the expensive store - no open-door policy here - she found the blue lace she had been looking for and asked the salesman for a swatch: at $1,300 a metre she wanted to check it with her dressmaker.
'He refused to let me have any,' said the still-angry shopper. 'So I asked him how I was supposed to make my dress if I couldn't have a swatch.' To which the salesman replied, 'You can't make it then, can you?' Fabric shoppers take note: you may be better off heading for Angus Ltd near the airport where, after checking out the affordable silks and satins, you can entertain the kids by climbing onto the roof and watching the planes zoom past overhead.
Guess what ...
HONG KONG seems to have become the regional home for 'flagship stores'. Hard on the heels of the DKNY shop on Canton Road comes a virtual Guess? 'mini-mall' in Causeway Bay. Stocked with everything but homeware, the Mega Guess-mart will open on May 18 with a series of shows highlighting the latest creations from the company's founders, the Marciano brothers.