My Balenciaga debut at Paris Fashion Week: first Hong Kong model to walk for label on catwalk nerves and doing as he pleases

Leung Pak-ting’s star is rising and he’s going to go where it takes him. The 36-year-old model, musician and photographer was the first Hongkonger to take to the catwalk for Balenciaga in Paris during fashion week.

“You can’t see it in the photos but I was so nervous,” he says. Wearing a silk shirt and silver velvet pyjama outfit, he had to walk fast in leather slippers that were easy to slip out of, no easy feat in front of a giant room full of fashion editors, buyers and customers.

But Leung managed to pull it off and describes the experience of modelling for one of the world’s biggest fashion labels as “mind blowing”.

Nine months ago he met an acquaintance through Instagram who asked to meet him, and Leung didn’t think much of it, as he meets people through social media all the time. The young man hung out with Leung and, before they parted ways, took some pictures and videos of Leung. Only then did he reveal that he was casting models for Balenciaga.

However, nothing happened and Leung didn’t think much of it. Two months ago, the same scout contacted Leung and said Balenciaga designer Demna Gvasalia liked his profile.

“I was so shocked. At first I thought he was joking and said, ‘Come on, are you kidding?’ He asked me to take some videos of me walking and even some selfies. I sent them off and a week later I got an official letter.”

When he arrived in Paris, Leung was worried about meeting Gvasalia, as he had heard he could be rude and difficult, but the Georgian designer turned out to be very nice, and decided Leung would wear the pyjama outfit and how his hair would look; an entourage of stylists then took over, following Gvasalia’s directions.

Leung was one of 106 models in the show, and the only one from Hong Kong.

Even though models were flown in from around the world, they were not confirmed until days before the show, which left some who didn’t make the cut in tears. “You have no idea of their criteria, you never know why they choose you,” Leung says.

“The way people see models is different from 10 years ago. Before they had to be handsome and beautiful, but now it’s more about personality, character. Not only Balenciaga, but other brands too,” he says. These days one-third of all models, men and women, are from Asia, he notes.

The Balenciaga models practised walking down the catwalk in several full dress rehearsals, and before that they practised walking with very particular instructions: look straight ahead, walk fast and don’t move your arms too much. They also had to walk very close to the front row, almost brushing past the guests.

For Leung the catwalk was not new, having done Tokyo Fashion Week for a brand called TTT_MSW and Hong Kong Fashion Week, but Paris was a much bigger proposition.

Fashion has always been a passion for Leung thanks to his mother, who he calls his muse. “She makes clothes and knits jumpers. She would buy Japanese fashion magazines, [Hong Kong publication] Ming Pao and I flipped through those magazines,” he says.

Leung studied design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, but got bored and impatient; by his second year he had started freelancing, which meant skipping classes, and he was eventually kicked out of the programme, but he didn’t look back.

His first job was at Lane Crawford in 2005, where he did visual merchandising for various departments, including beauty, home furnishings, and men’s and women’s fashion. This was followed by a stint at Canadian label Ports 1961, which enabled him to attend shows in New York and Los Angeles.

“I always wanted to go to the US and being there opened my mind. Going to fashion week and New York was different from what I had imagined,” Leung says. “My English wasn’t good so I would watch lots of TV shows, first with Chinese subtitles then with English subtitles.”

Later he went to work for Joyce and was an accessories buyer at I.T, where he also created striking window displays in its Hysan Place store in Hong Kong’s Causeway Way shopping district.

But after more than 10 years in the fashion industry, Leung wasn’t happy and didn’t know what he wanted to do. His other passion is music; he is a one-man band – singer, guitar and bass player and drummer. He quit his job in 2016 and travelled to the US and Europe to make music and take photos with his friends.

A few months later he came back to Hong Kong with no money and started working as a waiter in a cafe in Kowloon Bay near where he lives. “I started work at 7am every day delivering breakfast so that I could draw and make music in the evenings. I worked very hard and enjoyed it. Even though I had to wear a uniform, I would accessorise it and my boss liked me, and didn’t mind my tattoos,” he says.

In 2017 he contacted friends in the fashion industry again and offered to do odd jobs for them. One fashion correspondent asked him to take photographs for the menswear collections shown that year.

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Just before his Paris debut, Leung was in Paris and Sweden to model for one of his favourite fashion brands, Our Legacy, and also in London walking for Hong Kong brand izzue, where they even used music he composed.

He says his family watched him walk the Balenciaga catwalk on live streaming and called him after the show.

“I see fashion as many different kinds of forms. It’s art, and also a kind of armour depending on the occasion. When I attend family dinners, I try to look as conservative as possible so that I look like a good boy, but when I hang out with my musician friends I can be myself,” he says with a mischievous smile.

Leung’s career has propelled him out into a global audience and he isn’t complacent about it. “I never know what will come next – I might do something new,” he explains. Because of his experience, he encourages others to do what they like, or if they don’t know what they like, to at least try something. But one thing he is sure of is his identity.

“When I meet people I always mention that I’m from Hong Kong. China is so large compared to us that I want to make sure they know there are not only models from China, but Hong Kong too.”