Full house

I was born in 1966 in Hong Kong, the second of four kids – all boys aside from our sister, who is the youngest. We lived in the two-storey house on Kadoorie Avenue.

My grandparents were on one side of the first floor and the kids and my uncle were on the other side, and my parents were on the ground floor.

Making mum happy

When the whole family got together, there would be a couple of hundred of us and we’d take over two restaurants in Tsim Sha Tsui. Everyone would dress up.

You’d start mahjong at 4pm, have dinner at 7pm, the kids would leave mid-banquet and we’d fight over the longevity buns.

Growing up, my mum always looked very stylish and trendy. In the 1970s, she wore Biba-style outfits and neon-pink ping-pong balls for earrings. She threw the best birthday parties for us.

I always wanted to do fashion because I loved how my mum’s composure and mood changed when she dressed up – she’d be happy. I am a designer because I wanted her to be happy.

School daze

In 1980, I went Appleby College, a boys’ boarding school in Ontario (in Canada). We were by the lake. The kids were crazy. My dorm room was next to the fire exit, so I was the gatekeeper, letting the girls in from the school next door.

After two years of living it up in Appleby, I went to Grenville Christian College, which was a culture shock. It was dramatically different – it was coed, we had to do dishes and chores and it was a little monastic.

The headmaster was a priest and our newspaper was censored – they actually cut out articles deemed not suitable for high-school students.

Varying degrees

He didn’t want me to be in fashion. He said fashion was so micro and I should be thinking on a large scale – if I went into architecture, I could change a skyline.

My mum brought all her amazing dresses from Hong Kong to Canada, but she discovered chocolate and went from a size six to a size 12 and wasn’t fashionable any more. I would pick apart her dresses and see how they were made and then try to put them back together.

I got a scholarship to the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. It was a seven-year programme, which was a long time to do something I wasn’t really interested in.

I did it for a year – with a lot of partying – and then switched to do an English course and a business course.

Then I did a BA in fine arts (also at the University of Waterloo) though I didn’t go to my graduation ceremony as I was in Paris already.

By design

An uncle in Toronto was importing Japanese fashion and my dad suggested I intern with him. I went with my aunt to buying sessions, which was fun, but I wasn’t designing.

I started working full time in his company and continued doing that for almost three years, until I moved back to Hong Kong. But I did design a couple of dresses for them.

Fashion diva

She said I was good and encouraged me to do my own thing. So, a year later, in 1993, I applied to be in the Hong Kong Young Fashion Designers’ Contest. I submitted eight outfits and called it Diva Bride.

Why does evening wear always have to be Western? I wanted a Chinese-style hybrid, the best of both worlds. I used the Cantonese wedding qun kwa as inspiration. All the embroidery was on the inside, it was very gay and glam, quite drag queen-ish.

I wanted to show people how fabulous I was, so I went to London and got Manolo Blahnik to design shoes for me. I won the award for best non-knitwear.

My grandfather came to the competition and said I’d brought recognition to the Cheng name. With my grandfather’s blessing, my father allowed me to start my business and he bought me a top-floor studio on Wyndham Street [in Central district].

New revelations

My first client was my sister-in-law, I designed her wedding gown and dancing dress. My aunts saw it and liked it and then I designed one for Christine Liao, the wife of Donald Liao, the secretary for housing in Hong Kong.

I designed Lavender Patten’s outfit for the handover event. In the 1990s, every Tatler magazine would feature someone wearing a Barney Cheng dress.

I was partying and sometimes partying harder than working. I thought, “I’m a fashion designer, I’m gay, I’m supposed to live this promiscuous life.” I was totally OTT on parties and boyfriends and everything.

The therapist said that of our personalities, there was one which was completely different – it was me. Everyone else was a type A personality – a go-getter and aggressive – and I was the one who wanted peace, calm, cohesion and unity.

Humble brag

My family is religious, and it was only later that I realised my parents had prayer groups praying for me. About 10 years ago, I did find God.

I never thought there was anything wrong with my lifestyle, but as I went to church more it slowly changed. A lot of people tell me I’m a much better person since I found God.

Before I was self-centred and abrasive. Now I’m much humbler – I’m not as needy or as pushy as I used to be.

I don’t have many clients, but my clients have become my friends. I still have loyal customers who come to me and order extravagant clothing. They invite me to their chalet for skiing. It’s a great place to see how the rich and powerful live.

I have staunch supporters. They like me, I’m actually quite likeable. A lot of my clients you don’t see in the limelight because they hide from it, yet they are powerful and influential. I’m not the politest or most PC person, but my work speaks for itself.

In five years’ time, I likely won’t be in Hong Kong. I’d like to be in either Shanghai or Dubai. It will be good for me to try something new.

I’m grateful and thankful that I’m able to make women feel good about themselves, feel better, that’s my gift. I want them to come back and say, “I’ve never been given so many compliments in my life; I feel so pretty and special when I wear your dress.”