Profile: Dee Poon

Dee Poon is the closest thing to fashion royalty in Hong Kong - her father Dickson Poon is the owner of luxury department store Harvey Nichols while her mother Marjorie Yang, runs Esquel, one of the world's largest manufacturers.

So when the time came for her to enter the fashion business, she knew she wanted to create a brand that was relevant and would last generations. The answer came in the form of men's shirting brand PYE which recently opened its first store in Hong Kong at Pacific Place.

"Men's dress shirts are an interesting business. Women's is more about fashion, but men's is about style and functionality. Plus men's is less about me - it's not the Dee Poon story. I am not a designer, I'm more like the conductor, so it makes it all the more fun.

"I saw an opening in the market, especially in China, between the high end and super mass. The Chinese consumer is maturing - more people want clothes that are about quality and lifestyle. I want people to know that what they are getting from us is a great shirt that is modern and stylish and that will work for their lives," says Poon.

While it may surprise some that a 30-year-old fashionista would gravitate towards such a seemingly unadventurous item of men's clothing, shirts have played a large part in Poon's fashion education. Three years ago she joined her mother's company, one of the largest producers of premium cotton shirts in the world. During that time she learned every facet of the business and developed a solid foundation from which to grow her own brand.

"We start from cotton farming and research, all the way to making our own product. It's a vertical model which is why we are so good at it. We have a lot of information to work from, especially in Asia. We know how to fit the Asian body well," she says.