Hong Kong Black Book

I have yet to visit Hong Kong, though it’s been on my list forever! We have so many friends who were either born and raised there, or who go religiously for the menswear or food scenes—all of them telling me how much I’d love it. I’d been planning to use a trip there this year to jump-start our Black Book, but since that didn’t happen, we decided to go ahead anyway, asking 13 of our local friends and frequent visitors to share their favorite spots with us. Now we have the most excellent resource! 

Bernise Wong, a HK-born creative director who helped us build the WM Brown site and has an office just next to us, helped us get our bearings on the city, spread between Kowloon, Hong Kong Island, and a constellation of outlying islands. She described it as a place defined by contrasts—urban and wild, ancient and modern, with lingering traces of 150+ years of British rule (Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997). “Hong Kong is big-city buzz with a quick exit to nature, a vertical playground where one moment you’re in the clouds, the next you’re on a beach or a trail,” she said. “It’s East meets West, with people who tell it like it is but with real warmth, and the whole place runs on little treats and easy discoveries.”  We’re grateful to Bernise and the rest of our contributors for sharing their intel and demystifying this incredible city. —Yolanda

OUR CONTRIBUTORS 

Alessandro Pirounis is an Italian-Greek menswear entrepreneur and creative strategist. His family has been based in Hong Kong for three decades, spending the first seven years of his life in Hong Kong, and living there for three years in adulthood. After years of building respected menswear labels and advising brands around the world, he has launched his new namesake line, Pirounis—a collection rooted in timeless craftsmanship and quiet sophistication. 

Bernise Wong is a Hong-Kong born, New York-based creative director and designer who’s lived and worked across continents. She spends her days crafting identities, campaigns, and experiences for brands she loves—and her mornings chasing a cardamom bun worth the detour.

Buzz Tang is the co-founder and “artistic storyteller” of menswear purveyor The Anthology, with specializations ranging from traditional bespoke tailoring to a contemporary perspective on ready-to-wear. He is based between Hong Kong and London. 

Dominique Burgione is a Melbourne-based retailer dividing her time between Melbourne and Hong Kong. With a long background in retail buying and product development ranging from volume to luxury fashion, in 2019 she co-founded a slow-fashion label called demi ds premised on luxury fabrics and expert tailoring. 

Erina Pindar has been a traveler dating back to her earliest childhood days spent in Jakarta, and combines her rich multicultural background with a fervor for brand building in the luxury space. Erina joined SmartFlyer in 2010, and in 2022, was named Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner.  (Read our Frequent Flyer Q&A with her here.)

Juliana Loh is a Singaporean freelance copywriter and lifestyle journalist who has been living in Hong Kong for the last 10 years with her French chef husband and 5-year-old son. She’s also editor-in-chief of Chicken Scrawlings, a blog chronicling travel, food and motherhood.

Jules Maury is the head of Scott Dunn Private and has lived everywhere from Hong Kong to Switzerland, France to Australia, Vietnam to South Africa. She’s a true storyteller, a gift that fuels her work: orchestrating the yearly travel plans of Scott Dunn Private’s high-net-worth and most loyal clients, and designing tailor-made journeys from scratch. (Read our Frequent Flyer Q&A here).

Junyin Gibson is a Hong Kong-born, London-based creative known for his multifaceted expertise in fashion, art, design, culture and music. In his creative direction, design, brand strategy, and storytelling, he blends perspectives from both Eastern and Western influences.

Joanna White is a Hong-Kong based travel advisor and founder of White & Co. Travel, who builds trips through heart-led recommendations and hard-won relationships. She travels widely to uncover extraordinary experiences, selling only what she knows to clients she understands. Her journeys reflect each traveller’s pace, passions and personality, delivering unmatched service, insider benefits, and transformative experiences.

Mark Cho  is the co-founder of The Armoury, a group of classic menswear stores in Hong Kong and New York. In addition to his clothing ventures, he is also well known in the  watch world as a collector, writer, researcher and collaborator.

Mimi Thorisson is a French-Chinese mother of eight children, a cookbook author, food writer, and television host celebrated for her elegant, soulful approach to European home cooking. Born and raised in Hong Kong and France and now based in Turin, Italy, Mimi continues to teach, write, and share her love of seasonal, family-centered food. Her cookbook, A Kitchen in Italy, is out now. 

Sai Pradhan is a writer and artist who lives in Hong Kong, with a past home line-up that includes LA, Edinburgh, Louisville, London, Mumbai and Washington DC. When she isn’t writing or working on art, she roams the southern coastal parts of Hong Kong island with her husband and her dogs, adding cool things she sees to a travel and design curation on Instagram called The Particular Rover.

Teresa Muk, originally from Hong Kong, is the head of brand and strategic marketing at Swire Hotels group, including the HK-based Upper House. Since 2018, Teresa has led all brand-building and strategic marketing initiatives for Swire Hotels, driving the group’s mission to continually evolve and strengthen its brands in the eyes of consumers.