1968 - 2012

an appreciation

Are parties important? And if they are, why? I’m thinking about this after the death of my friend Greg Derham on October 4. He was 44 years old.

Greg was an event organizer, an entertainer, the owner of the House of Siren, the creator of costumes and the Magus of parties. He was witty, outrageous and more than slightly naughty. And he was a creative genius, too.

In many ways, Greg was also the muse of HK Magazine. He was present at all of our big events, starting with our first anniversary party on the Peak in 1992. And he was the only person to ever to appear twice on the cover of the magazine – although if I were to reprint those covers now, he would rise from the dead to kill me.

He came to Hong Kong in 1989, a country boy from Victoria, Australia. I assume he had with him nothing but a glue gun, some glitter and a dream. It was not long before he created his business, House of Siren. He had literally thousands of costumes, all bespoke, and most covered in beads, sequins, braids, tassels and trims. Do you want a Venetian duke? Got it. The Queen of Hearts? Sure. A Marie Antoinette dress with a working chandelier sticking out of the skirt? Of course.

The 90s were, as Greg would put it, “very full on.” Greg worked for all the major luxury brands, LV, Dior, Hermès, Moet. He must have organized hundreds of events over those years – his office has dozens of black binders with thousands of photos of crazy costumes, glittering sets and usually bleary-eyed guests.

Typically when Greg was hired, there was no time, a limited budget and a histrionic marketing manager screaming at him to make it perfect. He usually did.

In 2001, he organized the 10th anniversary party for HK Magazine which, years later, people still tell me was the best party they ever attended. A thousand people gathered on the stage of the APA, which had been built out to look like a fantasy Chinese pavilion. Hundreds of Chinese lanterns and glitter balls hung from the 80-foot ceiling. There were dragon dancers, drummers, DJs, a champagne bar. The King of Kowloon painted and the Monkey Man – another star of the time – walked around kissing his monkey. Throw in a few half-naked boys dancing on pillars, and you had a Greg Derham party.