Style Edit: Hong Kong jewellers Chow Tai Fook aim for a global audience with the Rouge collection, a tribute to the brand’s legacy of using pure gold

May 27 , 2024

Hong Kong jewellery brand Chow Tai Fook is celebrating its 95th anniversary with the Rouge collection. Photo: Handout

As the Hong Kong brand celebrates its 95th anniversary, its creative director of high jewellery, Nicholas Lieou, seeks to reinvent Chinese craftsmanship for a more international audience

The Rouge collection stands apart from competitors for its minimal use of diamonds – Lieou says it doesn’t suit the lifestyles of younger consumers

In more ways than one, the Rouge collection by Chow Tai Fook, the Hong Kong heritage brand celebrating its 95th anniversary this year, reflects the very best attributes of the city which the legacy jewellery company has called home all these years. At once cosmopolitan, contemporary, and effortlessly and timelessly stylish; and one could say the very same about Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group’s creative director of high jewellery, Nicholas Lieou, who brings a range of international experiences to the role.

Having studied in New York and London and worked for some of the biggest luxury names in the world, Lieou – like many of Hong Kong’s most successful tastemakers and entrepreneurs – says his home city has been a consistent source of inspiration, and that joining Chow Tai Fook is akin to bringing his jewellery journey full circle.

Nicholas Lieou, creative director of high jewellery at Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group

While the brand has long been loved by Asian audiences, Lieou’s first objective on board was to introduce Chow Tai Fook to other demographics as well. “Not just for Chinese people,” he adds. “I love to interpret Chinese culture and heritage for global audiences, and people who can appreciate the intricacy and timelessness of Chinese craftsmanship and gold craft.”

The Rouge collection does a fine job of reinventing that craftsmanship for younger, more international audiences by digging deep into the brand’s cultural core. The motif used across the collection translates the Chinese character for the word “fortune” – one-third of Chow Tai Fook’s name – into streamlined, asymmetrical shapes blending Chinese tradition with contemporary aesthetics.

In 1972, Chow Tai Fook launched its 999.9 standard gold products in the Hong Kong and Macau markets

The character is also a staple of Lunar New Year celebrations in many Hong Kong households, where its calligraphic presence on red paper strips is turned over during the holiday to symbolise the arrival or “pouring over” of good luck and blessings – this tradition also inspires the rotating movement on many of the collection’s brilliant gold baubles.

By squaring the traditional motif into something funky and fresh, infinite possibilities for the new collection were unlocked, Lieou says. “The graphic quality of the motif is also reminiscent of traditional Chinese window frames steeped in traditional culture. We used modern technology to create a ‘gold brick’ look and clean edges which are not normally associated with pure gold jewellery.”

Chow Tai Fook items feature clean lines not often seen in pure gold jewellery

Speaking of gold, it would be remiss not to mention Chow Tai Fook’s penchant for the nearly 100 per cent, pure 999.9 gold standard, a significant part of the brand’s history. Since 1972, when the brand first launched these gold products in the Hong Kong and Macau markets, it has set the industry standard – a rich legacy which the Rouge collection pays homage to in exciting and innovative new ways.