Cover George Lam, Sonia Cheng and
Sally Yeh (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)
George Lam, Sonia Cheng and Sally Yeh (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)
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From a 56.74-carat Melo pearl to hand-drawn 22K gold filigree, Chow Tai Fook's most ambitious High Jewellery collection to date transforms the poetry of Chinese dress into wearable masterpieces — and the launch party was every bit as spectacular.
Against the glittering lights of the Huangpu River, Chow Tai Fook unveiled its Chinese Couture High Jewellery Collection in Shanghai on 24th June 2026, marking a defining moment for the house's near-century-long mission to bring the beauty of China to the global stage. Following last year's critically lauded Timeless Harmony, the house's inaugural foray into culturally rooted High Jewellery, Chinese Couture sets its sights on something altogether more intimate: the artistry held in every thread, fastening, and contour of traditional Chinese dress. It is a collection that speaks in the quiet language of craft, and does so with extraordinary conviction.
Above Sonia Cheng and Yang Yang (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)
Sonia Cheng and Yang Yang (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)
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The evening unfolded across an immersive exhibition conceived as a journey through the defining details of Chinese attire across the centuries. Silk cord, ribbons, button knots, cloud collars, and the luminous spiritual depth of jadeite each found their own dedicated space, where layered light installations, woven wall structures, and suspended sculptural forms transformed sartorial heritage into a living, breathing narrative. Guests moved through each zone in sequence, discovering how ancient craft traditions could be distilled, without sentimentality, into the precise and quietly radical language of High Jewellery.
Above Yang Yang (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)
Yang Yang (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)
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The collection is the work of Nicholas Lieou, creative director of High Jewellery, whose guiding philosophy of "simplicity in complexity" shaped every piece. Highlights included a breathtaking Cord necklace centred on one of the world's rarest undrilled 56.74-carat natural Melo pearls, prized for its porcelain-like glow and distinctive flame pattern, and the Ribbon series, crafted in hand-drawn 22K gold filigree that evokes the weightless softness of ancient Chinese silk gauze. Each piece is designed not merely to be admired, but to be worn, collected, and passed down.
A necklace from the Jade Ombre chapter (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)
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The gala dinner that followed drew a glittering guest list befitting the occasion. Sonia Cheng, vice chairman of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, and Kent Wong, managing director, raised a toast alongside Global Brand Ambassador Yang Yang and beloved cultural icons George Lam and Sally Yeh, whose presence lent the evening a warmth as enduring as the jewels themselves. The night opened with a dance performance inspired by thread, as performers moved through light and shadow to evoke the gathering of silk strands into something powerful, ordered, and unmistakably Chinese.
Chow Tai Fook Chinese couture high jewellery collection (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)
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A High Jewellery runway presentation followed, featuring pieces from the collection worn alongside creations by emerging Chinese designer Chen Yayi of YAYI, whose East-meets-West sensibility found a natural kinship with the house's own aesthetic vision. Earlier in the evening, a cross-disciplinary forum titled The Art of Chinese Couture, The Pursuit of Excellence brought together architects, photographers, and fashion designers in conversation with Lieou, each affirming a shared conviction: that Eastern identity is best expressed not through borrowed symbols, but through narrative, material, and emotional resonance.
