Hong Kong gave me a lot to take in at once.

Density.

Texture.

Motion.

History pressed into walls and streets.

It was my first time in Hong Kong, but I was not moving through it alone. Ivy Liu was central to how this collaboration came to life. She did not just step in front of the camera. She brought a deep understanding of the city that shaped the way I saw it, through her presence and the ease with which she connected to the spaces around us.

Hong Kong resists being simplified. Its walls carry age. Its streets hold tension. Its textures feel earned. When I photographed Ivy there, wearing a look by Sarangi, I did not want to make the city cleaner or make the story easier. I wanted to stay with that friction. Because Ivy herself is not simple either. That was clear almost immediately.

Ivy lives in multiple worlds at once. Many people in Hong Kong know her as a program presenter on TVB’s Scoop. At the same time, much of her life happens away from the camera, in back offices and strategy rooms, where she works as a chief marketing officer for automotive brands across Hong Kong and Zhuhai. She is also a trilingual writer, a master of ceremonies, and someone deeply aware of how image, language, and meaning shape the way people are understood. That depth shaped the shoot. You could feel it in the confidence, clarity, and intention she brought to every moment.

Presence and Intention

What stayed with me was not just Ivy’s confidence, but the thinking behind it.

She told me that both television and modelling begin with the same thing, presence. The camera is an observer, and her job is not simply to be seen, but to project intention. That idea shaped the entire editorial for me. Ivy was never just posing in these photographs. She was directing energy. Holding tension. Giving the image a point of view. There was a clarity in the way she moved that came from someone used to carrying meaning under pressure.

That was part of what made this collaboration feel so memorable to me. As someone discovering Hong Kong for the first time, I was responding to everything with fresh eyes. Ivy brought something deeper. Familiarity. Precision. Understanding. She helped bridge the distance between my first impression of the city and the more lived reality inside it.

Rebellion, Truth, and Texture

This was a story built around rebellion, truth, and texture, and Ivy gave each of those themes real substance. Rebellion here was not loud for the sake of being loud. It was more intelligent than that. Ivy is drawn to struggle and contrast in images, to the kind of internal tension that makes a picture feel lived in rather than decorative. You can see that in the photographs. The poses are sharp, but they never feel empty. The gaze is direct, but not flat. There is always something happening beneath the surface.

Truth mattered to her too, and that shaped the way I approached the series.

She spoke about how, in both branding and personal image, values and visuals have to align. That idea stayed with me. Too often, fashion images look finished but feel hollow. Ivy has no interest in that. She is drawn to texture and truth, to photographs where the internal dialogue of the person is visible. That is exactly what I wanted to protect in this shoot. Not just the strength of the styling, but the person inside it.

Sarangi in the Streets of Hong Kong

Sarangi’s design gave us a strong way into that conversation. The look felt sculptural and alive, a cropped white top, an asymmetric dark drape, and a vivid red skirt that seemed to catch both movement and light. Against the worn columns, peeling paint, and faded signage of Hong Kong, the outfit never felt placed on top of the street. It felt in dialogue with it. The red echoed the hand painted characters around her. The draped fabric introduced imbalance and motion. The white boots cut through the grit with precision.

What made the styling and setting meaningful was Ivy.

She understood instinctively that fashion has to do more than look beautiful. It has to say something. Her experience in brand marketing has taught her to find the essence of a message. Her work in television has taught her how to hold a viewer’s attention. Her writing, and even the way she speaks about language itself, show someone trying to bring different parts of her life into one coherent voice. She told me that cohesion feels most important to her right now. I think that is part of what makes these images resonate. They do not feel like fragments. They feel like a person bringing her different selves into one story.

There is also something grounded about Ivy that I kept thinking about after the shoot. She spoke about staying close to real work, cooking for family, managing daily life, building something trustworthy, and not needing a camera to make life feel valid. I believe that grounding is part of why the images hold. Even at their most stylized, they do not drift into fantasy. They stay connected to reality.

That is what I wanted this Hong Kong editorial to feel like. Not polished emptiness. Not surface without substance. A story where fashion, city, and person all carry weight. A story where Ivy Liu does not disappear into the image, but deepens it.

Credits

• Model: Ivy Liu
• Fashion Designer: Sarangi
• Photographer: Paul Tocatlian

The Interview

How would you describe yourself to someone meeting you for the first time?

I am both a strategic brand marketer and a TV news personality. The general public would recognize me as a program presenter on TVB’s most popular show, Scoop. But in reality, most of the time, I work behind the scenes as the CMO of a few well known automotive brands across Hong Kong and Zhuhai.

How do different parts of your life shape one another?

They provide a necessary reality check for each other. My business ventures have cultivated the skill of delivering complex messages under pressure, while my work hosting on TV gives me first hand insight into topics that affect people. My work on Scoop is not just about being on camera. It is about information, which is exactly what a CMO has to manage every day.

Which role felt most natural to you, and which challenged you the most?

I have always had a knack for identifying the crux of a complex issue. That is why brand marketing felt natural to me, reducing consumer problems to their essence and then marketing the solution. Facing the camera, on the other hand, has always challenged me, because that environment often cares about crafting surface level perception, which did not come naturally to me. Even something as simple as learning how to dress or do makeup was a cultivated skill.

As a news personality, how has being in front of the camera influenced the way you approach modeling?

In both, the camera is the observer. Being on TV taught me the art of creating presence, how to own the space and look like I have something to say. When I model, I am not just posing. I am trying to project an intention, the same intention I use when delivering a script.

How has brand marketing changed the way you think about personal image and storytelling?

The number one rule in brand marketing is that your values must align with your visuals. Once you achieve that, your target audience, whose values match your brand, will naturally gravitate toward you. The same thing applies in personal branding.

When you step in front of the camera, what are you hoping to express beyond just the clothes?

I am looking for the struggle or the contrast. These elements create tension that builds a story through imagery. I want the image to feel lived in. I am trying to express a sense of place and a sense of presence through movement or facial expression.

What makes an image feel powerful or memorable to you?

Texture and truth. I am drawn to images where the color grading feels intentional, like a deep, lush burgundy that suggests rebellion is not an afterthought. A powerful image is one where you can see the person’s internal dialogue, not just their face.

What kind of stories or ideas are you most drawn to helping bring to life?

I am drawn to stories about independence, particularly women’s economic and social rights. But I am also drawn to economic trends, especially the evolution of how we move between Hong Kong and the Mainland. I like stories that bridge gaps, whether those gaps are cultural, political, or personal.

What are some misconceptions about your industries you would love to correct?

That modeling is empty, or that news work is just reading. In both, if you are not thinking, it shows. In marketing, the biggest misconception is that it is all about making things look pretty. Good marketing is actually about solving problems and managing expectations, sometimes in very blunt and unglamorous ways.

How do you stay grounded?

By staying close to the real work. Cooking a multi course meal for my family or staying on top of my finances, those are the things that actually matter. In industries built on perception, you stay grounded by having a life that does not require a camera to feel valid.

What skills from one part of your career have unexpectedly helped in another?

My Food & Beverage experience. Working in food service teaches you how to handle people and crises in real time. That service mentality, knowing how to read a room and pivot, is exactly what I use when an interview goes off script on TV or when a marketing campaign hits a technical snag.

What feels most important to you creatively and professionally right now?

Cohesion. I want the different facets of my life, the TV host, the CMO, the writer, to feel like one person. To make things more complicated, it is not limited to my identities. It is also a linguistic problem. Professionally, it is about building my business ventures into a brand that people actually trust. Linguistically, it is about reconciling the discursive clash between Cantonese and English. Creatively, it is about telling stories that connect, even when they are being told through a lens or through a TV screen.

For brands, designers, models, and other creatives looking to create inspiring imagery, let’s connect. From fashion editorials to runway coverage to publishing your work, let’s explore how fashion and storytelling intersect, and where your next project might lead.

© Paul Tocatlian. All Rights Reserved.

Fashion & Editorial Photography