Get your coat
It may well be the 'real' millennium, but 2001 is also the centenary of the Burberry trench coat - a fashion legend in its own right. To celebrate the icon's 100th birthday and the label's new status as one of fashion's hottest brands, Burberry is planning a series of parties across the globe. The trench will be one of the stars at the Hong Kong event in March, when the spring/summer line will also be shown. 'The trench is now on another level,' says Sandra Hu, Burberry's regional general manager. 'It's sexy and beautiful, and we will be highlighting that at our combined party and fashion show.'
Leading light
If there's one party not to be missed, it's the Chanel bash at the Grand Hyatt this Thursday, one in a succession of glitzy functions being hosted by the hip French brand across the region. There was a spectacular do in Taipei a few days ago, one planned for Seoul on Tuesday and several more on the cards in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Shanghai and Melbourne. 'It's dizzying,' says Bonnie Gokson, Chanel's regional director of image and external relations. These parties-cum-fashion shows will feature such elaborate theatrics as optic fibres and neon to give the illusion the models are walking on light. But before Thursday's festivities begin, guests - of which 800 are expected to turn up - will be able to indulge in hand massages and manicures at nail bars and stylish massage booths set up in the hotel specially for the occasion. Gokson says it is all par for the course. 'We have new clients who are young and very hip, and this kind of thing will appeal to them.' Which makes those tea-time trunk shows Chanel used to have very much a thing of the past.
Cash flow
It's always good to see a former Hong Kong girl doing fab things in fashion. Once a buyer for Joyce, Tanya Traykovski, who moved to New York and launched Isadora Story, her own cashmere-accessories line, continues to scale the heights of success. Isadora Story is being sold from stylish stores in the United States and one of the label's T-shirts was recently sported by Courtney Cox Arquette on her hit TV show Friends. Traykov-ski has also been lured onto home-shopping television channel QVC, where she sold 1,500 pieces of the acrylic version of her famous cashmere ponchos in about seven minutes flat.