Tatler pays a visit to Kai-yin Lo, the art historian, curator and jewellery designer, at her home—where 18th-century Chinese furniture sits comfortably alongside contemporary design
Visiting Kai-yin Lo in her Hong Kong home feels like stepping back in time. The space, a reflection of her own life, features antiques and her own designs. From intricately carved Chinese antiques to bold, modern necklaces, every object whispers stories of heritage and creativity.
“Instead of [following] the more old-fashioned, traditional collectors, who would preserve their collections, I decided to make them part of my everyday life,” says the art historian, curator and jewellery designer, who is the founder of the eponymous jewellery brand. There are pieces steeped in history at every turn—and instead of being placed on shelves and out of reach, they are seamlessly woven into her surroundings.
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Lo with her autobiography on the late Danish architect Arne Jacobsen’s famed Grand Prix chair. The Chinese antique daybed, used as a coffee table, displays trinkets like a bamboo wristrest, a tobacco container used by Japanese fishermen and Lo’s own carvings with the endless knot motif (Photo: Zed Leets/Tatler Hong Kong)
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A table and cabinet made of longyanmu, a material that derives from the longan tree, trace their origins to Fujian and are estimated to have been created in the 18th or 19th century; they come into view as soon as you enter the home. A box-style daybed made of nanmu, a variety of cedar, in the 18th century in Jiangnan, which encompasses Shanghai and its surrounding regions, is used as a coffee table. Displayed on them are a variety of trinkets that either were designed by Lo or are antiques. A panel featuring a floral pattern, created in Suzhou circa the 17th or 18th century, features a cypress frame and lattice fashioned from walnut. At the time of their creation, panels of this kind were used as ornamental openings or as walls in garden walkways, and here, this piece hangs on a wall at the end of a hallway. Two wooden wardrobes Lo designed in the early 1990s bookend a display of prized items, including jade she sourced in the Middle East, a vase she designed that she says marries Chinese and modern aesthetics, and a Qing dynasty glass trinket.
