Last week I got an invite from the W Hong Kong for their W Insider movie launch. I once interviewed their General Manager here, the Ozzie Peter Hildebrand, and one of the things that stood out from that interview was him sharing his first experience with the W:

“You have to be careful with that line of being too casual or too cool. I stayed in W San Francisco 10 years ago. It was my first experience of the W, and everyone was in black, they all had their little goatees… I went to the bar and I felt like ‘I’m not dressed, I’m not cool’…and the scene at the bar: there were 3 or 4 guests and the bartender was the star, he knew them all by name and was chatting with them – I just felt out of place. I felt ‘I’m not cool enough to be here’  – so you don’t want that. You have to try and make sure people remain humble.”

And that interview with him was my first experience of the W. Since then I’ve been more aware of this trendy brand amongst hotel chains (I hear their resort in Seminyak Bali is sick), and actually wanted to check into their Taipei branch, but the nightly rate was a whopping US$700+! Well, I soon forgot about that but insisted on getting a drink at their Woo Bar in Taipei anyway:

So, on the actual event that I went to last Friday:

 

 

The W sure knows how to throw a party. This year, their theme was “old/new Hong Kong”, and dress code was:

OLD HONG KONG – Qi – Pao for ladies / suite for gentlemen

NEW HONG KONG – modern chic / you as a trendsetter

I actually asked my sister to ship my old Qi Pao purchased in Shanghai for the party (I’m so happy it still fits 4 years later). The result:

I loved the little HK-classic details they injected into the party:

…and other street food in old-school carts (soy milk in glass bottles, etc.!) And of course, DIM SUM!

I now regret not making it to their WET Series last summer (W’s rooftop pool party) due to last minute laziness to go home for my bikini Well, there’s always this year – thanks for the invite, W Hong Kong!

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