Chow Tai Fook celebrated its 95th anniversary with a show-stopping event at Rosewood Beijing, which proved how the brand is revitalising ancient Chinese culture and artistry for 21st-century consumers

Oct 31 , 2024

Models wearing pieces from Chow Tai Fook’s Palace Museum collection walk down the runway at the brand’s 95th anniversary presentation at Rosewood Beijing. Photos: Handout

Chow Tai Fook

The Guangzhou-founded, Hong Kong-based jewellery brand is honouring the traditions and craftsmanship of Chinese culture, while infusing them with design sensibilities resonating with modern consumers

It’s hard to remember a time when China wasn’t the world’s largest luxury-goods market. The phenomenon may be relatively new – the country experienced rapid growth in recent years only and major international luxury behemoths didn’t arrive on the mainland until the 1990s – but Chinese consumers’ appetite for luxury goods dates back centuries. An affection for gold in particular, which the Chinese associate with wealth, weddings and good fortune, is deeply rooted in their historic love affair with luxury, something that continues to inspire Guangzhou-born, Hong Kong-based jewellery juggernaut Chow Tai Fook to this day.

Dancers put on an elaborate show at the recent Chow Tai Fook anniversary event at Rosewood Beijing

To mark the magnificent milestone of its 95th anniversary, the brand held a banquet and jewellery presentation in Beijing this month. In celebration of its remarkable achievements down the decades, the event leaned heavily into the cultural references that have made Chow Tai Fook a household name in the region.

A model wears several stand-out pieces from Chow Tai Fook’s new Palace Museum Collection

For the celebrations, the Rosewood Beijing hotel – also owned and operated by Chow Tai Fook’s parent company – was swathed in the brand’s signature red and transformed into an imperial palace for a night, complete with a dinner of prized delicacies punctuated by traditional drum and dance performances.

The evening also featured two jewellery presentations featuring pieces from some of the brand’s stand-out collections. The first was a dazzling display of Chow Tai Fook’s most opulent gold pieces, including several from its collaboration with the Palace Museum in Beijing, which looked as regal on the catwalk as they did in the Rosewood gallery. The second high-jewellery showcase was devoted to the brand’s diamond range.

Chow Tai Fook held a gala banquet at Rosewood Beijing to celebrate its 95th anniversary

The celebration of Chinese culture was a powerful show of confidence for a long-standing brand that’s in the midst of a long-awaited revamp, and a sure-fire sign that its efforts towards modernisation – which started this year with the unveiling of contemporary lines such as the Rouge Collection – are heading in the right direction for ensuring the brand’s success in the coming 95 years.

Bracelets from Chow Tai Fook’s Rouge Collection, released this year as part of the brand’s rejuvenation efforts before its 95th anniversary.

Long-time Chow Tai Fook craftsmen were on hand to demonstrate the goldsmith’s techniques that have always been esteemed by the brand, such as gold wiring, where hair-thin strands of gold are hand-pulled, rolled and twisted with the utmost precision before being welded. The amazing skill of weaving threads of gold into the most meticulous of patterns resulted in pieces so intricate and delicate they seemed like embroidery to the naked eye.