V for Vuitton Va Va Voom

THE girl in the mirror gave us a start.

GLAM SET: (From left) Susanna Kang in Pierre Balmain, Denise Keller (in black) with friends and top local model Sheila Sim. --TNP PICTURES: KUA CHEE SIONG

Whoa, Michael Jackson!

It was her outfit, right out of the King of Pop's closet.

'It's a Pierre Balmain,' said Susanna Kang, guest at the opening of the flagship Louis Vuitton in ION Orchard.

She'd bought it in London for 'a private party, there were celebrities, and Janet Jackson was there, and she came over and said how much she loved it.'

Susanna wore it again 'because a bit sad, we all grew up with Michael Jackson'.

Less dramatically dressed but no less celebrated, the likes of Zoe Tay and Qi Yuwu and Sheila Sim and guest of honour, Taiwanese actress Lin Chi-ling, joined the 300 A-listers invited to the ribbon-cutting open-for-business cocktail party for the most well-known brand in the world.

Louis Vuitton in ION, the head-turner new mall, is two circular floors of the best that money can buy in luxury leather and canvas and perspex and linen and silk, almost every item discreetly signatured with its graphic symbols.

If you'd peered closely, the paper and linen square napkins were also LV-eed, as were the waiters' aprons.

Mostly guests were peering at each other's dress as the invite card did say 'fabuleaux', though it would have been un peu gauche (a bit off) to show up togged from top to bottom in LV.

Unless of course you had to, like Lin Chi-ling, last seen towering imperiously over her co-stars in John Woo's epic Red Cliff. Her other claim to fame is being 'ex-girlfriend' of Jerry Yen.

Dating anyone?

She waved a pretty finger, 'Negative'.

The lovely girl, with a fine arts degree from Toronto, has completed filming Treasure Hunters in Hong Kong.

And you are the treasure hunted?

Oh, she gushed: 'No one has ever said it like that, I like it, but no, we are the hunters.'

A swarm of guests came hunting her out for picture-taking, plus there were extras like Qi Yuwu and Zoe Tay. What a field day for phone photos.

Zoe is 'having rest period, after Ultimatum'.

Her older boy Brayden is in kindergarten, and where's Philip (the hubby)?

She grinned. 'He was not invited.'

Ah, the tiers of the tai-tais, it does exist and you find out where you stand when you are not standing next to the familiar faces at the Louis Vuitton party.

I even heard this socialite is not on the 'first-tier' list but came on someone else's heels, LV or not, not sure.

Yuwu is working on 14 Plates.

Let me guess, a Royston Tan film. (Every one of his titles features a numeral.)

Yuwu said: 'No, no, it's a Singapore-Hong Kong-China production. I'm a bodyguard during the Ming Dynasty. It's an action movie.'

So no LV clothes then?

Defending his body, Yuwu said: 'Maybe one day LV will design a period wardrobe.'

OVERHEARD

'Store opening, no lah, I said (to wife Dr Georgia Lee) then she told me Lin Chi-ling will be there, so I'm here!'