2009 TVB Anniversary Awards: Fashion Flair or Fashion Faux Pas?

I do apologize for my lack of updates. What's worse is that when I actually do get around to updating, they aren't even timely. This is a fashion post on who I thought the winners and losers were when it came to fashion on the red carpet TVB Anniversary Awards night. I know it's been way too long ago to even be still thinking about it now but I've had this post under drafts for so long that I thought it was high time that I completed and published it. So, here we go...

Fashion Flair or Fashion Faux Pas?

Here in this fashion feature, we have five categories. The Honourable Mentions who all came out in their A-game, ready to razzle and dazzle up the Awards with their clever fashion choices. Then we have the Neither Here Nor Theres who aimed high but ended up falling somewhere in the middle of the crowd, vowing to do must better next year. Then, coming in after that part of the pack, are the The I'm-Not-Gonna-Win-So-This-Is-Really-Boring group. They didn't think they'd get any recognition this year but as to not offend TVB, attendance was compulsary. Hence, they just threw on something they had and showed up. Next, there's the OTT Award winners; they just don't seem to get that less is more. And last but not least, we have the very special Heidi Montag award. Heidi Montag, for those of you who aren't familiar with the name, is an American reality TV star who seemingly does a lot for attention. You get my drift.

The Honorable Mentions:

Tavia Yeung

My favourite dress of the night has to be what Tavia wore. The design and fit is absolutely perfect. The various shades of lovely blue in layers of chiffon gracefully panned out around her when she walked. I adore the tube bodice with the embedded silver bits, just to throw in a little more glamour to the otherwise ethereal Grecian-like dress. The dress (coupled with the elation she was undoubtedly feeling that night) made her look so radiant. I would love to own something like this. A brilliant fashion choice.

Sheren Tang

This dress is truly something different and I'm a fan. Showing off a single bare shoulder with a toga-inspired dress makes things slightly flirty. The silver adornment on her right shoulder and the silver neckline balances out the fun and playful tuile A-line bottom with a bit of glamour. I like how the black sash and the black peeptoe heels complete the whole look. Nice play with the three colours and a well-deserved win!

Nancy Wu

Ooh, I love the vintage feel of this gorgeous chiffon-looking dress (I wish I could reach out and touch that material) and the way it tapers inwards, giving her a bit of an ethereal mermaid look. She's got the whole classy vintage thing going on; from the side-sweep of that hair-do to the fire engine red lipstick. May not be a favourite, but I think it's lovely. A more mature look as compared to last year's Most Improved Actress winning dress.

Derek Kwok

Not an honourable mention but since he's here... I love Derek, but ugh. Is that velvet he's donning? At least his bow matches her lips.

Kara Hui

First up, let me just say that I think Kara's extremely gorgeous and classy. This dress is sleek and simple, and age-appropriate for her. I think the chandelier earrings and bangle match it perfectly. Can't quite figure out if the ruby adornment on the front of her dress is a brooch or part of the dress, but either way, it kinda works. This dress looks awfully familiar. Has someone else worn it to any other event before this?



Myolie Wu

There's something about Myolie that doesn't quite conform when it comes to fancy evening galas. She's not your average girly girl and I respect that. She's had some pretty questionable outfits before but this time I'm gonna come right out and say that I love it. It's fun, flirty and fresh. The only alarm bell sounded when I realized the shoes were also leopard print. And then, I cringed. Other than that, I think she looks great.

Koni Lui

Ooh la la, Koni. There's something about Koni I like. She's healthy looking, seems to have a fun-loving personality. Girl's got curves and flaunts it very well in this daring evening dress. The champagne tones of the dress are rare on the TVB carpet and it complements her very nicely. For some reason or other, it looks like something Bernice would don and also very reminiscient of what Tavia wore last year. My only grouse is that I would've downplayed the jewellery a little.

Joe Ma

Again, not part of the honourable mentions, but just cause he's in the picture. Heh. Next to Koni, Joe's attempt to be hip or cool just pathetically fizzles and dies off. Sigh. I'm awfully attracted to him on screen but off-screen he just doesn't do it AT ALL. Maybe he should've hired Born Rich's stylist to put him in one of those awesome tailored suits he was born to wear for this awards show.

Queenie Chu

This last pick rounds up my Honourable Mentions list, which I'm sure, may cause a few eyebrows to be raised. This may not be a very popular opinion, but I actually really adore this piece. It's edgy and kitschy and yet manages to be cute and flirty at the same time. The ruched bust area with the scattering of sequins softens the wild black and silver mod bottom which is complemented very nicely with a peek of an underlying layer of something (Lace? Tuille? Can't really tell). She's chosen a perfect frock that accentuates her waist and shows off her mile long legs (Speaking off, I love those black peep toes as well). The whole glam rock music box ballerina look is topped off with her long hair tumbling free. Beautiful.

The Ones That Are Neither Here Nor There:

Sharon Chan

In what should've been the best night of her career, I presume Sharon went all out to find a dress that would wow everyone. Unfortunately she didn't walk away with her deserved Most Improved Actress and sadly to say, I wasn't wowed by this dress either. It's the snake-like glittery print that doesn't do it for me. She's also got a fabulous body that wasn't at all flattered by the cut of this dress - the "cut-in sleeves" have always been very hard to pull off because they tend to make your shoulders a little manly. Showing back instead of baring front is always a welcome change in my book, but I don't fancy the bondage like twists. Perhaps if it were a different colour or made out of a different fabric, I may like the design better.

Joel Chan

Joel exudes retro to me. I like the pinstriped suit where the stripes are slightly wider than usual; it's a little daring but it works for him. What's a no-no is stripes with a polka-dot bow tie.

Charmaine Sheh

Don't get me wrong. I was up on the fence with this one, nearly putting it in Honourable Mentions but something just doesn't do it for me. I love lace and I don't think people wear it enough but I don't fancy it with the black bust and the black flap down the side. Also, if the cut had been more flattering, Charmaine would've looked a lot better in it. The whole bodice just looks very "straight down".

The I'm-Not-Gonna-Win-So-This-Is-Really-Boring:

Aimee Chan

I'm going to bet that if Aimee Chan knew that she was going to take home the Most Improved Actress award, she would've put a little more effort into her dressing that night. Her makeup looked a little bland for an event of this stature. Her dress was plainly boring and looked like it was made for maternity wear. Very bad effort.

Ron Ng

Ron's looking good. Not sure what that jacket is made out of, but on a whole, he's looking better compared to some of those poor fashion choices he's made in his younger lifetime.

Kevin Cheng

Kevin... just looks stoned. He looked stoned during the Anniversary Gala during the 'My Girl' performance and throughout the Awards Ceremony, continued to look pretty stoned. Especially in his disheveled white suit and unshaven face. I think he looks pretty strange, especially with that... carrot as a brooch? What on earth is that... thing?

Maggie Siu & Kenny Wong

I think Maggie might be the only TVB (whether this is contractually correct, I have no clue) artist who pulls off a 'fro. Love the colour of her dress, but the fit is horrible. Kenny doesn't look too bad. Still staying within my acceptable boundaries of male evening wear.

Fala Chen

I think Fala is exceptionally beautiful. But she always ends up in very sub-par dresses. (The only that I liked recently was the one she appeared during that duet with Steven Ma during the Anniversary Gala in a nice shade of canary yellow.) This one is no exception. The brown is especially unflattering and unforgiving to her body. The material catches light in all the wrong places, even making her look like she has a little bulge. The cream halter-like straps look strangely out of place. The only thing I like is her hairdo and the understated jewellery. An evening out on the red carpet does not mean you need to wear a jewellery shop.

Edit: TkN, mango/taecnyy (Did I get the spelling right? :-S) & Rachel kindly pointed out to me in the comments that Fala initially showed up in the same gorgeous blue dress that Tavia did. The brown dress she's wearing which I don't like is actually a back-up dress that TVB had. I had no idea. I personally think that's very commendable and a very classy selfless move on her part (smart on TVB's part too, but horrible taste) So I applaud Fala, for being so beautiful both in and out. I do apologize if I've hurt any of Fala's fans; sorry for being so outdated with TVB news. :)

Michael Tse

Or should I say Laughing Gor, formerly known as Michael Tse? Heh. Okay, he doesn't really belong in this category since he was pretty much a shoo-in for his award. But he partnered Fala, which is how he ended up in his division. Michael has always had a rather campy style, being rather metrosexual himself. But honestly, what is with the plunging neckline? Plunging necklines (Bosco, you may need to pay attention here too) are only for ladies in my book. Michael may beg to differ albeit this being a terrible look for him. The dress pants look like he stole them from Jay-Z's closet. I know harem pants are in, but again they're for ladies (And neither am I a fan of them).

Christine Ng

Surely it must be illegal to be that age and still look ten years younger? Christine Ng seems to pull off every pretty evening gown she dons. This one is no exception. The horizontal gathers along the length of the dress are difficult to pull off because lines of that nature make you seem wider than you actually are. However, besides wearing it well, nothing's very special about the dress. Very Barbie and very plain.

The OTT Awards:

Mary Hon Ma Lei

Sigh Mary, I love you so. I really do. But why did you have to wear Michelle Yim's wig from Moonlight Resonance and give it a perm?

Roger Kwok

Dapper as always. But, this is not about him.

Liza Wang

Gosh. It's painful to look at this one. I cringed when she stood up to do a twirl during the Awards. It looks like she cut out holes in a drinks carton, splashed some metallic pink paint over it and then got someone to draw a peacock on. She is fast becoming the Asian version of Bjork.

Michelle Yim

Michelle! Why'd you have to do this to me? You always look so amazing in all your choices of evening gowns. This one, however, is just really OTT. Very much so like how her Beyond's Chung Siu Ha is. Purple's my favourite colour but this shade is painful on the eyes. To top things off, those dirty yellow lace-trimmings completely clash with the purple.

Ram Tseung

On another note, Ram Tseung looks very nice. Don't think I've ever seen him at one of these awards!

Louise Lee

I've never once liked what Louise Lee wore to an awards ceremony and surprise surprise, this year isn't any different. Overly glitzy. I know it's not easy finding something that fits your age once you're above a certain number, but I'm sure something's out there.

Susanna Kwan

I love Susanna's spiky do. She pulls off spiky way better than the up and coming male stars and looks hotter to boot. Heh. The red is nice but the dress a little boring, I guess. She belongs in the Neither Here nor There category but the fur just pushes her over the edge into OTT-land.

The Heidi-Montag Award:

Linda Chung

Why a treasured TVB fadan would come dressed to the most important event of the year dressed like a Z-list "celebrity" is really beyond me. The coiffed do, the alienesque wings, and a pole dancer's sequinned corset? I mean, really? Someone fire whoever it was that thought the entire getup was a good idea.

Oh, and poor Kenneth. Those shoulder pads must've hit him quite a few times.

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Liked the same ones I did or complete disagreed with my fashion choices? Feel free to compliment, comment, vent or rant at all their fashion flairs & faux pas-es. :)

Miss Hong Kong 2007

So, with much hype and news coverage, the new Ms. Hong Kong has finally been crowned, taking over the crown from the beautiful Ms. Hong Kong 2006, Aimee Chan. There has a lot of talk about Ms. HK over the past month or so, and I'll admit, I did go have a look at the contestant profiles, and tried predicting who would place based on their official pictures alone, and I failed miserably. I predicted #7 Lorretta Chow to win, #12 Nicole Lee, and probably #2 Lily Ho since she got so much publicity in the run-up to the finals. But as we all know, pageants, very much like the TVB Anniversary awards, love to throw us off guard, and do something completely shocking and unexpected.

Miss Hong Kong 2007 1st Runner-up #9 Grace Wong Kwan-Hing, Miss Hong Kong 2007, #3 Kayi Cheung, Miss Hong Kong 2007 2nd Runner-up, #7 Lorretta Chow Mei-Yun.

#3 Kayi Cheung
23 yrs, 5'4", 111 lbs, 33-24-34
Occupation: Student
Education: University

Hobbies: Traveling, snowboarding.

Note: Kayi is one of the overseas delegates hailing from Vancouver, and won the pre-competition title of Miss Vitality Ambassador.
Comments: Well, this one came as a bit of a shocker to me. The official MHK profile pic of her in the top left hand corner is not flattering at all, but her other photos don't wow me either. 5'4" is a tad short for a beauty queen too. I suppose she did really well with her interview sessions and/or catwalk to win. You guys who watched the pageant, do you think she deserved to win? Canada seems to be a lucky charm in pageants though; contestants from Vancouver and Toronto always seem to place in MHK. Aimee Chan and last year's 1st runner-up Janet Chow are both from Toronto, while the winners of '97, '98, '99 and '00 hail from Vancouver. And that's not counting the runner-ups, and finalists. Let's not forget the MCI pageants too, where Ms. Vancouver always takes the crown. Kayi apparently was a contestant in the Miss Chinese (Vancouver) International Pageant in 2005; winning the Vivacious Beauty Award. Maybe her experience in pageants gave her an edge in this year's MHK, then. She's also had experience presenting for Fairchild Television, and with that, I'm pretty sure we'll see her hosting in TVB soon.

#9 Grace Wong Kwan-Hing
21 yrs, 5'6", 116lbs, 33-24-35
Occupation: Student
Education: University
Hobbies: Dancing, Singing, Reading, Acting.

Note: Grace also won Miss Photogenic and Miss International Goodwill yesterday night during the finals.
Comments: She doesn't look that good in her official photo, but from the other photos in the collage above, it does appear that the camera loves her. She looks a whole lot better with her hair down than up, though. Miss HK Beauties reports that she's from New York, USA, but I don't think she's one of the official overseas delegates, is she? Fala Chen also hails from New York, and also got 1st Runner-up for the year she took part in MCI. Fala is outperforming that year's MCI winner, Leanne Li, in terms of acting roles and popularity, and I could see Grace shadowing that feat.

#7 Lorretta Chow Mei-Yun
19 yrs, 5'9", 124 lbs, 33-24-34
Occupation: Student
Education: University
Hobbies: Singing, Arts and crafts

Note: Lorretta won the unofficial pre-pageant award of Most Attractive Legs, and was also labelled by the press as the 'Flora Chan Lookalike' of this year's finalists.
Comments: I don't know why the press like to have their 'lookalikes' every single time, but after a look, she does resemble Flora Chan a little. Based on her pictures and her height, she seemed like a strong contender for the title. However, I'm only just realising that she's only 19, although she looks older than she really is in her pictures. The age might have deterred her claim for the crown though, I don't remember MHKs being so young.


The other two finalists were:

#14 Candice Chiu Ga-Dik (above) & #4 Mandy Wong Chi-Man, both 24 years of age.

Comments: Candice looks extremely youthful despite her age. She reminds me a little of one of the female cadets in The Academy. TVB's always favoured girl-next-door looks like hers, I wonder if they'll sign her. Mandy's make-up is way too heavy in her official picture, and she just doesn't look very good there. Nothing special, IMO.


The rest of the Top 8 Finalists:

#1 Joey Mak Ho-Yee

Comments: Again, nothing special. Sweet-looking, girl-next-doorish. We have plenty of those already.

#5 Destiny Cheng Ying-Ying

Comments: Okay. She kind looks like your average university student. But I just simply cannot take someone named Destiny seriously.

#6 Anita Wong Wai-Lam

Comments: She needs to find a hairstyle that suits her. What were the stylists thinking?

The hot favourite that failed:

#2 Lily Ho Ngo-Yee

Comments: I'm extremely surprised she didn't even make it into the top 8, considering the amount of press coverage she got before the competition. She even won Miss Tourism Ambassador, and was labelled 'Gigi Lai Lookalike' and everything.

Note: Beauty pageant winners have to be complete all-rounders; firstly being physically attractive, intelligent, graceful, talented, worldly, and they have to excel in all the different segments of the pageant. However, my comments are based mainly on the pictures alone and nothing else, since I have not watched the pageant. This is where you guys who have watched the pageant come in - do let me know if there were any outstanding girls in the interview sessions, catwalk, etc.

Pageant contestants aside, it looked like a rather fun night as the previous MHK winners/TVB artists came out to play.

Raymond Lam & MHK 2004, Kate Tsui performing on the night. Hope this comes up on Youtube soon.

I also found pictures of hosts Eric Tsang and Nat Chan doing a little dance segment with the previous MHK winners and runner-ups. Would love to watch this as well, because they all look like they're having so much fun. Especially the two men, of course. I find it hilarious how all the MHKs tower over the guys, heh.

MHK 1998 Anne Heung, MHK 1999 Sonija Kwok, MHK 2003 Mandy Cho & MHK 2004, Kate Tsui. They all look so gorgeous. Kate looks extraordinarily good in her beauty-queen getup compared to how she usually looks in series and her tomboyish image.

I'm not entirely sure on the first three pictures, but I think they're MHK 2005 Tracy Ip, MHK 2005 1st Runner-up Sharon Luk and MHK 2005 2nd Runner-up Carrie Lam. I always tend to mix up Tracy and Carrie. I thought 'Cho Pang' in HOG was Tracy for ages before Tracy's character actually turned up, lol. And of course the last picture is none other than MHK 2006, Aimee Chan.

Such pretty dresses.

More ex pageant contestants. Shirley looks so pretty. I've never been a fan of Mandy's but she looks really good here too, very elegant. Last year's 1st runner-up, Janet Chow was looking very beautiful and radiant in all the pictures I saw. Suki Chui, one of last year's finalists also attended. And Moses, I know he's not a contestant, but I put him here, just because. (Oh, and also because he looks awesome in a suit.) Lol. I think he was one of the judges?

Aimee Chan bids being the reigning MHK goodbye.


What do you guys think of the results? Do you agree?

Pictures thanks to Sina, Miss HK Beauties, and Amelie's TVB Blog.


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