Meet New Zealand/Hong Kong hottie Alana Tsui. Her journey through life so far has lead her from being a makeup artist to doing murals to writing and styling for Hypebeast and we’re excited to see what’s next to come!

Photography and interview by Lauren Engel

So you were born in New Zealand?
Born and raised, actually born at the very tip of the North island. I was the first Asian baby born there. I was actually in the newspaper and everything but my family lost the clipping.

What made your parents move there? Where were they originally from?
They’re from Hong Kong but then they moved to New Zealand. When I was young I was pretty ill with Jaundice and was almost going to die. I was under the lights intensively for ages and then nothing was working so I had to have an operation to change all the blood in my body, so I got some Maouri and white blood in me. I’m a little mixed from my dad’s side as well.

And what made them move there intially?
I think having kids in Hong Kong is a very tough environment, whereas in New Zealand it’s so free, people are running around with no shoes on. It’s just really safe and down to earth. When they decided to have a kid they went over there I arrived a year later.

Do they do creative stuff?
Surprisingly they do. My parents met in Japan while studying. My mom studied fashion design and my dad studied interior design.

Then it sounds like they would be open for you to do anything creative, right?
They’ve probably been the most supportive Asian parents. It’s been good growing up so free, doing whatever I want. Being a freelancer especially, because you know some Asian parents say you must have a really steady job.

What were you like growing up, what were you into?
I was always into fashion and arts. I wasn’t always the smartest kid in school (laughs) so I dropped out of maths and social studies as soon as I could and just took all other art subjects. I’ve been sewing since I was probably twelve. I took sewing classes and textiles all throughout high school and then in the last year of high school, my teacher entered me into Young Fashion Designer of the year. I got into the finals. They flew me down to Christchurch and I actually won the national young designer award of the year. That really helped because they gave me a scholarship for uni and a big boost (laughs)

What did you do after school on weekends where you grew up?
Omg, nothing! Believe it or not, everything closes at 5.30pm. You can’t go shopping, you can’t do anything. Except for Thursdays because that’s payday. I guess when you’re a little bit older you can go out drinking but honestly it’s just like two strips–Queen Street and Quay Road where you can go out. But bars and stuff is so limited.

Did you do nature stuff like hiking?
Oh! Ya beaches. I love beaches.

Do you go back often?
I actually haven’t been back since I moved here with Hypebeast two years ago. I just booked my ticket last week to go back at the end of the month.

Do you have siblings?
Ya I’ve got a little sister. She’s eleven years younger than me though.

Are you close to her?
Super close surprisingly. She’s a lot more mature than me. She’s more into graphic design.

After you won the competition, what was next?
I went on to do a Bachelor in Fashion Design. After that I knew that I was going to move to New York but I had half a year left before my visa went through. In the meantime I did a makeup course and got offered a job at Mac in New Zealand so my mom was like oh that’s so cool, you should stay! I was like no, I already made plans to go. I’ll go to New York and work for Mac there! So when I was in NYC I went to the Mac Store in Times Square- the biggest mac in the world, and gave them my CV, walked out, halfway down the block the guy chased me and was like oh! The manager wants to meet you! So I went back and got the job! That was my first job ever.

Was it difficult with Visa?
I was on a J1 visa. Once you finish a degree you have one year to go over to the States to work so I did that.

“I want to be remembered just as a person I am and however I’ve touched others in life in an appropriate way. Just fun and myself, open to anything. Not as a big artist or designer or anything.”

Was New York what you thought it would be like, dreaming growing up?
(Laughs) I had no expectations to be honest because I had only lived in New Zealand and been to Australia a couple of times and knew that I just wanted to live in a big city. I chose the biggest city in the world!

Was it overwhelming for you with so many people and so much going on?
Because I had no expectations, I just took everything in. I had the best time of my life there. That was when I started painting murals.

How did you started painting murals?
I moved into a loft in Soho. My room was a disgustingly dull grey, green wall paper. I asked my landlord if I could paint it all white. I painted three walls and when I came to the fourth one I ran out of paint so I just started doodling and a whole mural came out!

Before that did you do a lot of drawing stuff, where you always good at it?
Ya I took all the art classes and on the corner of my pages I was always doodling during class. I guess I just never had the freedom to do that at my parent’s house so when I had I got more paint and just painted around the walls whenever I was free and put a couple of photos up. And since then I’ve just been painting murals. People have been messaging me through social media. Actually the biggest job that I got in New York when I was there was the Thompson Hotel in TriBeCa.

How does it work for murals. Do they give you a moodboard and show you what they want?
I think because they come to me, they already know my style and they like my style. They say I can do whatever I want. With specific clients they might have a specific theme in mind or specific elements of what they want so I just try to incorporate that in my patterns. I mostly do patterns so it’s not too hard.

How long would you say it normally takes for you to finish one?
I actually paint really fast. I used to freehand a lot more but now with bigger clients even though they like my style they don’t want the risk of me not knowing what will come out there. I’m used to just turn up with a paintbrush and paint. They’re like, so what are you going to do? And my answer is that I don’t know! We’ll see in a few hours! But because they pay a deposit I like to give them a sketch first. Actually the sketching takes a little bit longer but the painting usually takes 3-7 hours for a wall so I can probably do it in a day.

Did you ever have a mentor or someone that you looked up to who does similar stuff?
No (laughs)

Where do you get your inspiration from?
Everywhere, I feel like it’s influenced a lot depending a lot on where I am living. When I was living in New Zealand I did a lot of patterns that people related them back to Maori patterns like tribal stuff and now that I’ve been in Hong Kong I’am doing a lot of fish and lotus’ so now people describe my artwork more like Chinese caligraphy. But you can still tell it’s all from the same person.

After New York what did you do?
I went back to New Zealand because I was actually trying to go back to New York. I tried to go to New Zealand and get a new visa but it didn’t really work out at the time so I ended up staying in New Zealand for a year. I was so lucky getting a job as National Makeup artist for Chanel and promotional consultant. But then I realized that I didn’t really want to progress further in makeup. I came to Hong Kong and started working for Ralph Lauren creative team doing visual merchandising. Then I went back to New Zealand and then worked for Hypebeast. That’s a funny story because at the time they didn’t know that I was in New Zealand. The managers asked me to come in for an interview so I flew in later that week on a Thursday, 6am, had the interview at 5.30pm. Got called back on Friday to start work on Monday (laughs). I got very lucky with that and been here ever since.

You did writing for them then styling right?
Ya I started off as an editor which I probably shouldn’t have (laugh) But I do have like a hundred articles I wrote online which I’m very proud of (laughs) and then I think that me and the manager figured out that that’s not my strongest point. I went on a couple of shoots with the photographers and really saw myself moving to styling more and so did the manager at the time and he really pushed me with a stylist role and it all progressed from there.

Future plans?
Actually I’ve only been doing styling for half a year full time. Once you get into the right circle you make the right connections, jobs really come to you if you put yourself out there a little bit. I’m just going to give myself at least a year here, give myself a little bit of time and see what happens.

What’s your perspective on the fashion scene here as an outsider? Since I grew up here it is interesting to hear that…
It’s very fashion forward if you get into the fashion circle. But also if you look on the streets you have some weirdos around but that’s really cool because that’s what makes us unique. I really like it. Maybe one day you feel like dressing down, and another day you want to go out all dressed up, people don’t really give you weird looks because there’s always someone more weird than you on the street. (Laughs)

Were you always into fitness?
I was when I was growing up. When I was going through puberty I was so into going to the gym. I think I went there every single day, sometimes even twice a day. I always only did group classes. That’s what build my body to being the shape that it is now and it kind of stayed because I haven’t been to the gym all the time and only started working out a few months ago with XYZ. Before that I haven’t stepped into the gym for like five years. A friend just recommended me this one and I became really close to one of the trainers and now I go there two to three times a week. Actually I’m going there after this!

Last question, what do you want to be remembered for?
Just me as a person, however I’ve touched them in life in an appropriate way (laughs) Just fun and myself, open to anything. Not as a big artist or designer or anything.

Lingerie set: Kat The Label