"This is a workout,” shouts a Valentino-clad Ivan Pun, his torso curled into a sit-up. Photographer Victoria Tang-Owen has ordered him to lie on a hand-sewn Burmese rug on the floor so she can shoot him from above. The shot, however, requires him to lift his head and shoulders off the ground and, after holding the pose for 10 minutes, Ivan’s “blue steel” is verging on plain blue. Ever the good sport, he persists through the pain with the help of Justin Bieber, whose beats, we have no shame in admitting, keep our crew chipper throughout the eight-hour shoot. We’ve decided to shoot in Ivan’s parents’ home in Aberdeen, a warm, spacious apartment with modernist furniture. This is where Ivan crashes when he’s in Hong Kong.

Photographed by Victoria Tang-Owen

Victoria and Ivan are a lively pair, slipping in and out of Cantonese and English as they experiment with various poses in different corners of the house. They’ve been friends for years and Victoria manages to get Ivan to do all manner of wild things — from flying through the air and landing on his bed, to crawling on his marble dining table. It was Ivan who introduced Victoria to the man who would become her husband, Christopher Owen, and the duo recently founded their own agency, Thirty30 Creative. Our cover shoot is one of their company’s first major editorial projects.

Victoria’s energy is contagious — she’s on a roll — so we subsist on epic choc-chip cookies (baked by Hong Kong Tatler’s director of photography, Gillian Nadel) until 3pm, when curry beef brisket calls.

Turn to page 210 of the April 2016 issue of Hong Kong Tatler for the full story.