Creative and entrepreneurial, Antonia Li is no stranger to wearing many different hats. The daughter of Edmund Li and Sandra Wong, the scion of the Bank of East Asia dynasty struck out on her own when she decided to pursue a MBA—focusing on entrepreneurship and marketing—from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and start digital creative and branding agency INDICUBE. She is also an avid wakesurfer, boxer and runner— and has worked with fashion brands in social media campaigns and is involved in charitable organisations such as the Changing Young Lives Foundation and the Hong Kong Ballet Guild. While Antonia might not have followed in her family’s footsteps, her driven, independent outlook is thanks in part to them. 

“I find inspiration from the quotidian to the exceptional,” she explains. “While it is easy to be wowed by the phenomenal and unique, if one keeps an open mind and looks at things with a fresh eye, one will be amazed by how something seemingly mundane can be reinterpreted in new and exciting ways.”

Fragrance brand KILIAN Paris is the perfect companion through Antonia’s hectic days, both as a shield and as a way to boost her confidence, as her days are filled with business meetings, gym sessions and drinks with friends, whether at Caprice at the Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong for fine wine or at innovative cocktail bar The Old Man. With a similar background to Antonia, KILIAN Paris founder Kilian Hennessy, an heir to the fine cognac empire, decided to strike out on his own when he decided to write a thesis on the semantics of scent, in search of a ‘language’ common to gods and mortals. Remembering the "angels’ share" as part of his heritage, he was led into the world of perfumery. Much like Antonia, Hennessy thinks out of the box when he is creating his fragrances and gets inspiration from various sources—including art, travel, fine liquor and human emotions.