Carina Lau stars in Self-Portrait’s Lunar New Year campaign

HONG Kong-based actress and singer Carina Lau is the star of Self-Portrait’s newly debuted Lunar New Year campaign, which revisits and celebrates the imagination and collective stories of Hong Kong’s famous TV dramas. 

Christmas is not yet over, nor have we started popping Champagne ready for New Year, but Self-Portrait is serving a sparkling reminder that Chinese New Year is just around the corner, and that the upcoming Year of the Snake is set to be an exciting – and well-dressed – one. 

Carina Lau for Self-Portrait Lunar New Year

Malaysian-born Han Chong, Founder and Creative Director of Self-Portrait, explains that “Lunar New Year is a time to honour the traditions that shaped my upbringing, while embracing the future with positivity, hope, joy.”

Fierce, joyful, and cinematic, the new Self-Portrait campaign homages the creative lineage of Hong Kong-produced TV dramas with lead actress Carina Lau in line with this special annual celebration.

Capturing the drama, the campaign titled ‘Acts behind the silver screen’ is performed via two acts: Act I where celebrations of Lunar New Year are underway at the famed Yat Lok restaurant, followed by Act II at the Island Shangri-La hotel, where the personal and private lives of the starring actors star to blur amongst the whirling vibrance of the city. 

Carina Lau for Self-Portrait Lunar New Year

Joining actress Carina Lau, who has graced the screens of many Hong Kong TV dramas including one of Hong Kong’s most-watched series ever Looking Back in Anger, are Bowie Wu Fung who rose to fame with Men’s Hearts, and infamous art director and producer William Chang, completing the classic and cinematic lineup. 

From the warming, collective memories that come through food and holidays of Act I to the dramatic twists and turns of Act II, each shot around Hong Kong by Feng-Li, Self-Portrait beautifully dresses the character of both cinema and the city. 

Carina Lau for Self-Portrait Lunar New Year

Carina Lau for Self-Portrait Lunar New Year

‘Acts behind the silver screen’ teases the launch of Self-Portrait’s coinciding capsule collection that will drop over the course of the next month, featuring many of the brand’s house codes from mini sequin-clad dresses with beaded necklines, ultra-feminine two-piece skirt suits, and a stand-out candyfloss pink fur coat. 

Carina Lau for Self-Portrait Lunar New Year

Like campaign star Carina Lau eloquently explains, “Hong Kong is more than just a backdrop, it’s a living, breathing character in our stories, a place where tradition meets modernity and imagination thrives” and Self-Portrait’s modern and playful clothing is showing us how to ring in the new year in style. 

by Ella Mansell