Fashionable Macau

It’s my third visit to Macau, which alongwith Hong Kong comes under the special administrative regions of China. I came here earlier to shoot for our show “The Big Fat Indian wedding” and then again for a holiday! My third visit is dedicated to discovering the latest in fashion and real estate trends, in what is Asia's Las Vegas.

I love the people in Macau. They are warm, friendly kind and helpful. Since my last visit 3-4 years ago it’s become super cosmopolitan, in terms of the architecture and the number of Europeans who work here. This former Portugese colony was one of the last remaining European colony. It ceased to be a colony as late as 1999. The strong Portugese influence can still be seen in the place and its people.

It just so happens that my trainer at the gym I DONT KNOW THE NAME was from Portugal and he moved to Macau, as his partner was raised in this country. Her parents worked for the Macau government for years. She went to a university in Portugal and that’s where she met XX (trainer’s name) and fell in love, enough reason for XX to later move to Macau. I later discovered, during my current visit that XX is not alone, there are more such love stories to be found in Macau.

In Macau, there is no dearth of options for my favourite occupation – shopping. Here’s what topped my list this time.

Shangai Tang store - in the Four Seasons Hotel shopping area. It has some great clothes at value for money prices. I loved a lot of things about the brand, from the T-shirts for both men and women with a mandarin collar, to the fabulous range of sweaters and jackets. The beauty of it all, is the fact that the prices are already duty free, so there is no tax fund required.

What I found unbelievable thanks to the portuguese architecture and the small sizes of the stores was our next stop, which I feel is a must visit for any virgin Macau tourist. The area is called SAO LAZARO, the street we went to was CALCADA DA IGREJA DE SAO LAZARO, where there are some quirky shops clothes, accessories and a fashion museum. It makes for a great walk.

Here we shot at a fashion store called LINES LAB. We met the founder and the creative director - Clara Brito. Her clothes and accessories aim to reflect a piece of Macau. For instance, the ties are made of a fabric that was used to line the traditional cupboards in the city. Coincidently, this Portuguese designer moved here too as her partner’s parents were based in Macau!

During our shoot, we stayed at the newly opened Sheraton Macau which has over 3600 rooms and is now the largest Sheraton in the world and Macau’s largest hotel too. Most hotels in Macau are large format hotels with a shopping complex and a casino and a food court . These large hotels in Macau aim to target not only the tourists and wedding clients but also MICE - an acronym for Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. For me and my crew the incentive of being in Macau was enough to try our luck in some gambling. What is a trip to Macau without that? And we were not disappointed, our crew had a great time gambling on the slot machines and the Roulette tables to round off a perfect trip.