Coco Chan: a Fashion Stylist who Goes Beyond the Pretty

Donning baby bangs, rimless glasses and a loosely tied top bun, Coco Chan would tell you she's a flexitarian – as meat could sometimes block her creative juices – and has a habit of traveling an hour from her home to meditate on a tourist-packed hiking trail. She'd also tell you she's an empath and has a long-standing obsession with Bleach – a Japanese anime about a soul reaper in high school.

All that information would be bequeathed in a single sentence. Don't know what an empath is? She'll invite you to look it up.

A 33-year-old graduate of fashion image styling at the Hong Kong Design Institute, Coco is a fashion stylist whose work could be seen across a number of esteemed magazines in the city, albeit she, personally, is notoriously low-key: she updates her professional Instagram account perhaps once a quarter, if that. Two years ago, she was the show consultant for the PolyU Fashion Show 2023, adorning the designs of 20 graduating students with a captivating narrative. In the year subsequent, she put together the show's lookbook in China, coordinating the visuals of more than 200 pieces with the right accessories, models, makeup and hair. She's even styled a subscriber of a matchmaking service – a 26-year-old insurance agent – switching out his dull wardrobe with pieces spilling with "old money vibes" and relaying tips on skincare and even the right lymphatic massages to reduce his facial water retention.

Amongst the myriad jobs she's undertaken, she has a tickling edge: she crafts sensationally sculpted, press-on nails, and as of last year, structural garments because she "no longer wanted to be dependent on borrowing clothes from brands."

"My nail designs possess the models with a different energy and a different identity," says Coco.

Often made with plastic, silicon or 3D-printed materials, Coco's nail designs nod to nature and constellations that are translucent and almost other-worldly. For a while, she called both her styling work and nail designs "New Chinese" – an oft misunderstood concept that she defines as a movement away from stereotypical subjects like jade and qipao. Taking their place, instead, are subtle elements like the sleek side part prominent in early 1900s China during the country's reformation from dynastical rule to a republic nation. Though captivating, Coco's nail designs only complement and never steal the spotlight.

She chooses press-on nails so they can be applied to anyone, anywhere with or without her presence. They can also be reused.

"I'm an eco-warrior, you know," she laughs.

"As a stylist, I tend to stay away from branded garments that have been rotated, borrowed and featured too many times. My joy lies in the treasure hunt of amazing finds. With these nails, nobody expects their shapes and colours: they invite questions."

Officially, Coco isn't a nail technician, and her current studio is her family living room that she shares with her parents; but since she started the nail-design branch of her styling consultancy at the beginning of the pandemic, her work has been featured across the same magazine spreads as high-street labels like Loewe, Cartier and Bottega Veneta, to name but a few.

"I love experimenting and making things that are one-of-a-kind. So why not try making something that's unexpected with my own hands?" she says.

Such originality used to be Coco's bedrock, so much that she almost never does reference research for inspiration. Anything inorganic, she thinks, is a copy. In late 2024 – after much encouragement-cum-criticism from both friends and clients – she broke out of what she calls her "stubborn shell" to explore themes beyond her comfort zone.

"And also because 'New Chinese' was getting dated," she adds. "I was stuck in a dilemma of being obsessed with a theme that was going out of trend; so obviously, something needed to change."

The turning point, however, came during a shoot in Shanghai, where the photographer had hoped to explore themes of technology, humanity and AI, incorporating 3D printed garments from another up-and-coming design graduate, Natalie Jim. Coco, however, forwent some of Natalie's tops and made her own out of archery bows and silicone hangers she had fished out of her own closet. Such conceptual strokes laid the groundwork for her next style du jour: fantasy.

"I still retain the 'New Chinese' DNA, but it now features garments with more distinguished cuts and sci-fi tones. Models I now select bear more seductive and bewitching looks; whereas ones I chose for my previous style would fall into the stereotypical expectations of an Asian model," she says.

More importantly, she's since taken on a sense of humility in her creative limitations.

"This sounds funny, but learning how to be inspired was a big lesson for me, and adopting a sense of humility – not so much in thinking that my work is the absolute greatest, but realizing that there is a limit to my ability to produce new, organic work without any outside influence," she says.

Coco's ultimate goal, still, is to spark curiosity and dialogue around her work. This means crafting looks and images that go beyond aesthetics and ease on the eyes.

"Some creators don't want or can't bear questions around their work: I want my viewers to wonder about the creative process – the how, what and why," she says.

While commercial work is also Coco's forte, she admits she tries to wiggle in her "weird, playful characteristics" into even the "most conventional brands with straight-forward project briefs". Looking ahead, she dreams of more international commissions like overseas fashion shoots and catwalks with her styling and homemade pieces but admits that she loves her work regardless of acknowledgement or pay.

"I often ponder whether I'll still be doing my job if nobody likes my work: and the answer is yes. My purpose and joy in life is to make things that nourish other people's eyeballs, that's my contribution to the world," she laughs.