Design & Innovation

A sales girl of the theme shop ‘ The Palace, Prince, Princess' greets the customers in her princess outfit. Dannie Zheng

Fashion for a princess fantasy

By Dannie Zheng

Born with beauty and intelligence, being a princess is a most every girl's dream.

While being a real princess is still far from reality, it is possible to dress up like a princess and feel like one.

Some companies in Hong Kong sell princess-related products. By providing accessories other than luxurious gowns, they help girls to make their dreams come true.

“Be my princess” is the tagline of the Collection de Royal Crown by Pinkbox, a local jewelry company. Designers there use crowns as symbols of longevity, victory, honor, dignity and integrity to design a set of jewelry.

Wing, the marketing manager of Pinkbox, said, “Bijouterie is always the most important possession of a princess. The royalty owns it.

“We were the first among jewelry companies to bring the elements of a crown into our designs in 2000, when the princess style was in fashion in Europe but not in Hong Kong yet.

In fact, what Pinkbox is selling is more than the products. It sells the dream of being a princess, which is indicated by the crown. Furthermore, customers often relate princess dressing to weddings, which are the very important moments for almost every woman. So Wing believed that the crown would never be out of date.

All the products of Collection de Royal Crown are locally designed. Despite the changing trend between seasons, crown is always the theme of the designs.

Pinkbox markets itself with romanticism. It shows that rings can carry more than the message of “be my wife”.

The Palace, Prince, Princess is a theme shop located in Times Square , Causeway Bay . It is full of products in princess design. Whoever steps into the shop will be attracted by its pink elegance.

Customers are encouraged to dress up like a princess there. They can first put on a crown, earrings, a necklace and rings, followed by a pink dress and white cloak with a pair of pink high heels. Customers are then ready to be photographed with more pinks and crowns.

The inspiration of this store comes from the legendary story of Princess Diana of Wales and a dream of being a princess. Joko, the boss and also one of the designers of the shop, greatly admired Diana's charisma.

“I do believe that inside the customers' hearts, there must be some dreams of being a princess”, Joko said.

“I do not think princess has a fixed image with keywords like pink, silver, or crown. New elements can be added into the design. Our designers combine functions with fantasy. By the way, they are all local people. ”

The Palace, Prince, Princess first introduced the princess fashion three years ago. Crowns were in fashion during winter 2003, they were designed for Christmas parties.

But the situation in Hong Kong is “terrible”, according to Joko, because many shops are selling princess products without copyrights.

The shop extends the iconography of princess to the two sales girls who are also the eye-catchers. They dress up like two princesses with crowns, white cloaks, white socks, white shoes and, of course, sweet smiles.