Royal Dragon celebrates with spirit

Most one-year-olds get a birthday cake and a clown for their birthday party, but Royal Dragon Vodka's first anniversary party featured sexy female models in sharp men's suits cradling large bottles of RDV with not a cake in sight. But there was definitely an abundance of vodka at the party, held at local hotspot Dragon-i on Wyndham Street.

Guests included French Consul General Arnaud Barthelemy and his wife Elisa (right), French "queen of lingerie" Chantal Thomass, jeweller Jeanine Hsu, and socialites Olivia Buckingham and Lumen Kinoshita.

Royal Dragon Vodka is a luxury bottle featuring a hand-blown grass dragon, crowned with an 18-karat gold pendant cap decorated with diamonds. Then there's the vodka, which has been distilled five times, and is laced with 23-karat gold leaf for a glittering finish.

Bright idea

Hong Kong's lights went out on Sunday night when the city observed the WWF's annual Earth Hour event, along with more than 7,000 cities around the globe.

The environmental group hosted its Earth Hour 2013 Countdown Event at the Sky100 observation deck at the ICC, where Environment Secretary Wong Kam-sing was joined by Earth Hour ambassadors from the entertainment industry - singers Kay Tse On-kei, Karen Mok Man-wai and Gloria Tang Chi-kei (pictured, from left) and other VIPs to witness the city go dark.

Also lending their support were model couple Anthony Sandstrom and Jocelyn Luko-Sandstrom, who helped the WWF's promotional campaign to raise public awareness. "The three Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle," Sandstrom said when asked how Hongkongers could do their part for the environment. His wife suggested: "Less is more. Hong Kong is very more, more, more. Think about [how] less is more, and [and how you can do] something for the environment."

Big names in the frames

The Gagosian Gallery in Central held a VIP preview on Thursday of its eye-popping new exhibition, the aptly titled Popstraction, which featured many of the most influential figures in contemporary art like Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Richard Prince. Champagne flowed as guests also checked out works from younger artists who had previously not shown in Hong Kong, including Dan Colen from the US, and Warsaw-born Piotr Uklanski. A particular highlight was Uklanski's Untitled (Future Past), in dyed, oxidised cotton, which created the effect of a large sunset on a grassy plain.

The viewing was followed by a dinner at the Brickhouse restaurant, hosted by Nick Simunovic, managing director of Gagosian Gallery Asia. Guests included entrepreneur Kevin Chau and his wife Reina (left), Benjamin Cha, Adrian Cheng, Stefan Rihs and Doreen Merkel, So-Yon Sohn, Nick Taylor and Haewon Hwang, Zoltan and Tamara Varga, Hugh Zimmern and other prominent personalities in business, finance and design.