Comments:

From Kuks...
Absolutely horrendous!! I wonder if the designer herself would wear those gowns!
BRING OUT THE FASHION POLICE
I say time for a change, she's still living in the 60s...

From Chris...
We have all been totally fed up with the outfits designed for our Miss Hong Kong girls by TVB to compete overseas. Our girls used to wear decent gowns at international pageants, like the ones worn by Pauline Yeung in Miss World 87 and Miss Universe 88, and the one worn by Monica Chan in Miss Universe 1990. I don't know when the 'watershed' was, but we started to see disasters at least since 1993 (the gown worn by Emily Lo at Miss Universe 1993 came to mind, and her national costume is not any better). Then came Shirley Chow, Chillie Poon and Vivian Lee in Miss World 1995-97. Some other hair-raising ones are Sonija Kwok (Universe 00), Margaret Kan (World 00), Victoria Jolly (World 02), Fu Sze Sze (International 04), etc. I wonder what the designer (won't even bother to name her here) was thinking: does she dare to wear these dresses herself? Although we often say that beauty is a very subjective concept, I really have not heard anyone praising these dresses as beautiful. The most puzzling one is that TVB allows it to happen year after year. No one is perfect, and making mistakes is perfectly understandable, but making the same mistakes year after year is unforgivable, especially when the problem of all these designs is so obvious that even an ordinary person can notice it. All those furs, flowers and various stuff on the gown serve no purpose other than complicating the gown and ruining the wearers' chances at the pageants. I sometimes wonder if TVB actually wants its girls to fail at these international pageants (such that they can stay in HK and work for TVB) by designing garbage for them to wear. If this is the case (can't really think of any other reason, unless they really think that the dresses look pretty.......), why not simply withdraw the girls from the pageants altogether (like they do for Miss Universe since 2001)? These gowns are awful to the extent that it is insulting to wear them to attend a ball for clowns.

What would foreigners think when they see these gowns? That Hong Kong designers are all like that, only capable of producing these ridiculous stuff? We all know that this is by no means true, but sometimes one bad sheep is enough to do severe damage, especially with the advert of the internet that our delegates' pics can be seen by computer users all over the globe fairly easily.

Queenie Chu's gown is no doubt the epitome of fashion disaster. She has the decent looks, good height and communication skills, and pageant fans have been crossing their fingers that TVB would be more merciful this time by giving her a 'normal-looking' gown (our expectation has already been adjusted to a very very low level). It turned out they gave her something as dreadful as Fu Sze Sze's gown, and even with a hat that serves no purpose other than making her 2 inches taller, which is absolutely unnecessary for a 5'9" girl. With Queenie's quality, she is surely one of the best girls we have sent to an international pageant for quite a few years, and again TVB is ruining her chances. I just hope that Queenie is brave enough not to wear this monster on the stage. If she really has to wear it, at least don't wear the hat.

I seriously wonder what school/institute the designer of all these gowns graduated. Did she study fashion design at all in the past? Anyone who has taught her should feel extremely ashamed for the rest of their lives!

The problem is not confined to the dresses worn by Miss HK when they compete overseas. Even the dresses/costumes worn by the girls in Miss HK in recent years have become more and more laughable. In 2001, the swimsuits worn by the girls in the final were so painful to watch (and those hairstyles just made things worse). The gowns worn in Miss HK 2003 final were other huge jokes. Those are not really 'gowns'. They are just 'something' sewn with a few pieces of cloth (of weird and unmatching colours) together randomly.

I don't expect TVB to go back to the good old days of the 1980s, because the style of the dresses from those years may look quite 'out' nowadays, but at least they should use their brains: have they seen any local celebrities wear dresses similar to those awful gowns when they attend balls, charity functions, etc.? Never. This shows that TVB's designs have very serious problems, and it's very evident even to non-experts of fashion. That TVB continues to allow this to happen is really degrading to Hong Kong's reputation as an important fashion centre of Asia.

From :) ...
sigh. A beauty in a piece of rag.

From Carmen...
Every year pageant fans have their fingers crossed hoping that the contestants being sent to international pageants are given decent gowns. Every year seems to be a disappointment.

Hong Kong is the laughing stock for bad gowns, but I don't know if TVB knows this. How many times do I have to read pageant reviews from people around the world saying, "Hong Kong sent a good contestants, but too bad about the horrible gown."

To me, the down fall of all these gowns are obvious. Too much fake colored fur in all the wrong places, too many flowers that seems to of been attached to the dresses as an after thought, too much of everything. "Less is more", but I guess Karen Chan has never heard of that.

I took a look back at past Karen Chan gowns at international pageants. At least in the past, most of the time the gowns actually matched. This year, was just horrible. Usually I would name one or two things wrong with the gowns, but this year they've gone so overboard.

Fu Sze Sze's gown could of gone without the big purple fur, the gloves, the gold life saver on her hips which all hid Sze Sze's figure. The gold life saver was the worst, she's not going swimming, she doesn't need a floating devise!

Did they even try with Queenie's gown? It looks like they took 2 gowns and put them together. The top is rustic and animal print, the bottom is elegent purple. Usually I could think of things to take away to make the gown better, but I see nothing good about Queenie's gown. The hat is not needed. The top is a mix of colors that looks like someone threw up on it and the fabric on her left should just complicates the gpwn. The bottom is 2 toned, with a blue "belt" and a purple skirt. The frabic looks a bit cheap. Of course, what is a Karen Chan gown without the over-the-top flowers? The gown is brown, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and black.

TVB just seems like they're trying to make the girls fail at the international pageants. Perhaps they're afraid that if the girls win, they'll lose a TVB actress. Please stop torturing the girls, and just give up the franchise.