It's been a long time coming but Hong Kong finally has its very own hip hotel of boutique proportions.
While New York, London, Paris and Sydney have long cultivated the designer home-from-home for style-meister travellers, Hong Kong has relied on its plethora of top-line hotels with harbour views to lure the tourist dollar. Enter JIA, designed by Philippe Starck and owned by Singapore entrepreneur Yenn Wong, 26.
Until March last year, JIA was a run-down residential eyesore off Jardine's Bazaar. It was bought for $120 million by the Yenn family. Yenn teamed up with Yoo, the design company founded by Starck and property developer John Hitchcox, and 57 serviced-apartment-style hotel rooms, from studio to penthouse, were the result.
White walls with yellow lighting, sheer, flowing curtains, oddly placed coloured gnomes for footstools, rose-coloured baroque couches and gilded mirrors set the opulent tone. Rooms are compact but still find space for small kitchens, and broadband access is provided.
It's a delight for fashionistas, with staff clad in Shanghai Tang, and enough complimentary Japanese bathroom cosmetics to fill your handbag. While room service is not on the menu, Australian celebrity chef Teage Ezard recently opened his fine dining restaurant, OPIA in the hotel. Ezard's street cafe,
Y, is also open and features Asian-Mediterranean home-style eats in a casual setting. Melbourne fashion designers Vicious Threads are also in evidence, running up natty ensembles for restaurant staff. London-based Hong Kong designer Andre Fu was responsible for the interiors.