Fashion TV recently acquired a large cruise ship that they’ve re-christened the ‘F. Diamond‘. It’s been converted into a nautical event space, traveling from country to country with models living on board. Docked in Hong Kong for a week, they held two parties in collaboration with local clubs. The first one was with Dragon-i and it began at 2:30 am on a Sunday morning. The second one was held at a more reasonable hour with Prive, another local nightspot. The event was on a Thursday night, Friday being a public holiday in Hong Kong. How was the turnout?

To get to the ship which was docked in the middle of the harbor, they organized a shuttle across from the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay. The actual name for this area is the Noon Day Gun. To get there you take a stairwell into a parking garage and then enter a cool industrial tunnel that passes underneath the highway.

After taking a small ferry from the pick up point, the boat docked against the larger ship, transferring its passengers. Climbing aboard the vessel, guests walked up a staircase and then down a passageway to the ship’s main deck where the party took place. The event was held on three floors overlooking an inlaid swimming pool. By ten o’clock the Privé crowd had already arrived in large numbers.

Despite the good turnout and the interesting location, the event was marred by the incompetence of the Fashion TV hosts. You’d think that a company built around filming fashion events would have some idea on how to organize one. The fashion show was scheduled to start at midnight, but for over an hour before the show, the M.C. began to make trite announcements, which caused the sound man to continually turn down the music, killing the mood. Guests were milling around for over an hour waiting for the show to start. Not until 1 am did the fashion segment begin. To make matters worse, the show was haphazard because Fashion TV had failed to provide music for their own show! It was difficult to tell exactly what was going on during the event, but it ended with a bikini fashion show and a token award being presented.

Though it was still fun to explore the ship and the crowd, what could have been one of the best parties of the year was hindered by Fashion TV’s own staff and lack of planning.