The businesswoman, entrepreneur and style icon adds author to her list of titles.
Following the success of Bonnae Gokson’s first book, its sequel, Weddings, Butterflies & The Sweetest Dreams, is out this month at all leading stockists. Gokson, the mastermind behind Sevva, C’est La B cafés, and Ms B’s Cakery, is renowned for her exquisite taste — so the book is, unsurprisingly, stunning. The new tome is a visual feast, depicting exquisite weddings around the world, complemented by bespoke cakes selected and designed by Gokson for each occasion.
We sat down with the always glamorous Gokson at her impeccable and iconic restaurant Sevva to go over this new chapter in her life.
As a renowned entrepreneur and successful businesswoman, a book seems like an unlikely place to turn a big profit, so, why? Nobody makes money on a book, nobody. But basically, it is a sense of pride. I have my passion in there. When you go to different cities, like Taiwan or Thailand, Beijing, or even Italy, they were selling the book. I have a worldwide audience, which is fantastic.
How would you define then, a book’s success – if you’re not worried about the numbers and point of sales? I wouldn’t say I don’t care about not selling, but I have some of the greatest people – from Oprah to Elton John – reading my book. This book has gone to a lot of places with important people. Success is defined in many ways. Out of 100,000 books… they choose you and give you the top award in a book festival? That is great pride! That is already success, serious success.
Tell us a little bit about what inspired you to write the book? I attended a beautiful wedding in Italy, but when it came to the cake, it was awful! I thought to myself, “Jeez, how can that be?” I started to think, I want to pair my cakes and my creations with the event. That’s how it started. I wanted to write a celebration book because it’s one of the major celebrations in life! I wanted to show more than just women in white gowns. It’s a book about the journey of how I think, which leads to how I end up designing. Basically, it’s a very luscious book and a journey of thoughts.
Bonnae Gokson’s second book focuses on weddings from different cultures, and celebrates beauty, creativity and individuality.
What would you never include? I love quality things. I don’t think you’d find anything tacky in my book. This book doesn’t have a lot of words, but they tell stories. My entire life has been about fashion, so I have a lot of elements that tie back to fashion. Everything is rooted from fashion. Second to the gown, the cake is the most important component at the wedding! It’s how you tie up the whole event. By the way, we speak about the groom as well, not everything is about the bride. In the book, there is a page of what I’m dreaming up for my own wedding, which is fun. I don’t think I have a distinct look like a lot of cake designers, I do several styles to cater to the couple.
In this book, you have some exotic spots featured too. The wedding book is a book of inspiration, so I have a multicultural scene in there. [For example] how does a Japanese Shinto bride look different from a Nigerian bride? I do believe that this would be an all-around book, that means [it covers] all seasons. You want to see artistry and beauty from all corners.
How has the book-writing process? It’s been two years since my last book and I’ve already spent a lot of time, passion, and money into my book. I think I was very blessed to have made friends with the right people. I have a lot of friends in fashion and couture. I only work with the best people.
Lest we forget, you also have contributions by Vera Wang and Iris Apfel – how did that come about? Vera is the reigning queen of wedding gowns and couture and I’ve known her for a very long time. I met her when I was a young girl. We are really great friends. Not everyone knows that other than wedding gowns, she is a prime name in America who has so many other products including jewellery and bridal accessories too.
For Iris, I met her here in Hong Kong when she was in Landmark for an event and we hit it off. When I asked her to write something for me, she did it immediately. Ever since she left Hong Kong, we call each other probably every five days. I spoke to her yesterday and she took me out just before I left New York. She came in a taxi, she’s close to 100 years old – but what a spirit! She teaches university students each year and takes them all around. She arranges for designers and shows them the true business of fashion. I admire her a lot – as a human being, as a woman, and for all she has done. When you click with someone, you just click.
You’re planning a grand event in Manila and New York to launch your books. What are you planning for Hong Kong? I’m still deciding. I’m opening a new shop in Wan Chai. I think the store is a little bit too small, and there are spaces I wanted nearby, but I wanted to do it in my own proximity. [As for] an event in Hong Kong – I’m still thinking about it.
I’ve always wanted to ask, why is there not a Sevva part two? Another branch even if it’s another country? I guess you’ve never run a restaurant, right? It’s because I’m smart! I know not to make it a chain and lose my sleep and mind over it! I love my life, what I do, [and] travelling, so how can I work it all out if I’m managing restaurants everywhere! My plans are to have a major renovation next year, so that will be my part two! It’s such a huge headache to drill all the walls and do everything in the kitchen. I don’t care if I have one thousand restaurants… when I want to do that, I will. I love having my freedom.
For someone who likes such gorgeous, decadent cakes, you’re very slim! Do you actually eat the cake or have just a spoonful?! I actually just finished a big piece. It’s probably my metabolism, but I eat a very balanced meal, and lead a very balanced life.
- Brad Ludden, Founder of First Descents and Top Ten CNN heroes of 2016:
“ Filled with all of the insights, information and inspiration to reclaim your life, this book is a beautiful guide book to help navigate the rapids of cancer with confidence.”
- Elmer Huerta, oncologist, founder, and current director at the Cancer Preventorium of MedStar Washington Hospital Center. U.S.A
“An agile, didactic book; one that inspires hope and, above all, much optimism. With each and every story and testimony compiled many will say ‘I, too, can do it, I will keep going’.”
Years ago Bonnae Gokson was looking at photos of a celebrity wedding — “I guess I should not mention names because I’ll be in trouble” — and while the dress, the decor and the florals were lovely, “I just thought the cake was so awful,” she says.
So began the spark for her latest book, “Weddings, Butterflies and the Sweetest Dreams,” out now. The book takes inspiration from weddings that Gokson attended and observed from afar, and pairs them with a signature cake of her design that she feels most fitting — all rooted back to the idea of a butterfly.
“[When] I started my cake business [Ms. B’s Cakery], I chose very common, very commercial [designs], which is a butterfly to represent us. Because it really is what stands for our business,” she says. “We never put any preservatives in our cakes, and butterflies have a very short life. You can Google any butterfly, or rare butterflies, and you’ll be amazed at how many beautiful butterflies there are. So for me it is never-ending, creating beautiful things.”
The weddings in her book range from more public weddings she’s admired, like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s, to those of her close friends — either those getting married, like Margherita Missoni, or those behind the dress, like Vera Wang.
“[Angela Missoni] asked me, ‘why don’t you take some of these pictures?’ Because Angela is good friends with my family. And I love the way how she does all this gypsy style, but in very posh way,” Gokson says. “So I created a naked cake for her. Just to blend in.”
Though she toasted the book during bridal week in October with Vera Wang, she sees the book as having universal appeal beyond just brides.
“It’s incredibly interesting. That’s why I say whether you’re getting married or not — like, I’m not getting married — it’s nice to see just, you know? It’s nice to see.”
Together with her sister Joyce Ma, the two ran Joyce Boutique, which became one of Asia’s most prominent fashion groups. “I can only tell you the few that we did not have: Ralph Lauren, Hermès, Chanel,” she says. “All the rest, we were the ones to start [carrying], where our group was probably just a little bit bigger than Bergdorf’s and Barneys. So we started Armani, Prada, Gucci, just oh so many.”
She worked in the fashion industry for many years, most recently as the regional director for Chanel Asia-Pacific. “After that, no more fashion. Oh my god. It’s serious hard work, you know?” she says.
She embarked on a years-long sabbatical after leaving Chanel and then opened a restaurant and a cake shop. Her cakes, naturally, take heavy inspiration from her fashion background when it comes to their design.
“We’ll always be connected with fashion,” she says of her and her sister. “I like to pick different fashion elements. I mean, you don’t have to be in big white gowns; some people get married very simply. It doesn’t have to be three or four or five tiered cakes. So [my book] gives you a variety of what is nice for the wedding, in terms of fashion.”
At its core, she hopes the book will be a source of escape for many.
“I just think with so many things happening in the world that’s not too nice, no one really wants to turn on the TV for news,” Gokson says. “I think to surround ourselves with beautiful images and that is also in the way of celebration, is wonderful.”
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Posted on September 22nd, 2018 by Hans Durrer
What first and foremost attracted me to this tome is the fact that since I visited Rajastan some years ago I’m carrying pictures in my head that deeply affect me. The places in India that I have been to (Delhi, Gurgaon, Agra, Jaipur) left me stunned – the masses of people, the traffic and noise, the colours and, especially, the women who I thought the most beautiful and dignified I’ve ever laid eyes on. What also made a mark on me was the observation by U.R. Ananthamurthy “that the Indian writer is luckier than his Western counterpart, for he lives simultaneously in the 12th and 21st centuries, and in every century in between” for it describes perfectly what I experienced when looking through my car window while my driver was busily navigating through traffic. “No rules,” he commented. “Do cars in other countries go all in one direction?” he wanted to know. “Generally speaking yes,” I answered, “they usually do not come from from left or right or towards you.”
A flooded street in Fathepur mirrors the traditional ochre walls of an abandoned haveli alongside acrylic paintings on a newly-renovated building.
David Zurick is an educator and a self-taught photographer who does in this cleverly done book (quite some pondering must have gone into arranging the photographs so felicitously) what I wish more photographers would do – he describes how, and into what mood, he was approaching what he came to photograph. The chapter “The Desert” starts like this: “The Bikaner Express left the Delhi railway station before dawn and arrived four hours later at Churu Junction. I barely had time to collect my luggage and hop off the carriage before the locomotive sped away again on its journey across Rajasthan …” In addition, he gives an account of the landscape (he’s an academically trained geographer, after all) – information that help one to imagine aspects that photographs alone cannot convey.
A Fantastic State of Ruin does not elaborate on what made David visit The Painted Towns of Rajasthan yet one might assume that he wanted to document what “might not be around for much longer.” Needless to say, the beautiful havelis (mansions), frescoes, and wall murals are reason enough although I keep on wondering how (India is a very vast country) he became aware of the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. Anyway, I’m glad he did and that the people at Goff Books decided to publish this superb book.
A Fantastic State of Ruin is divided into four sections (The Desert, The Towns, The Inhabitants, The Painted Walls), a well-thought out structure that lays out the stages of the photographer’s approach. Each section is introduced by a short text that complements the photographs. Apart from being highly informative, these texts make also clear why, occasionally, words do not stand in the way of seeing but make for richer seeing. “Traveling from one town to another on the tiny tarmac roads or along the rutted sandy tracks once favored by the camel caravans, I always remained in the vicinity of a water feature, ever mindful of the fact that without them there would have been no trade or human settlement in the Great Indian Desert – and no painted towns.”
Three generations of caretaker families live in the abandoned Seth Ram Gopal Poddar Haveli (ca. 1880), Ramgarh
What I like most about A Fantastic State of Ruin is the meditative calm it radiates. That has most probably also to do with the fact that quite some photographs were taken on misty winter mornings. Another contributing factor is the seeming unpretentiousness of the people portrayed – on pages 100/101, one sees a mural of a woman in a sari on the one page and a photograph of a somewhat similarly looking woman on the other page. I’m reading this as a document of timelessness – and that, to me, is meditation.
A Fantastic State of Ruin is at the same time a convincing document of the unique painted towns of Shekhawati and an invitation to visualise timelessness.
RGS entrance
(center-right in back) is Lord Selborne, 4th Earl of Selborne and past-President of the Royal Geographical Society
September 14, 2018 | BY Jeanna Lanting
After the beautiful coffee table book Butterflies and All Things Sweet: The Story of Ms B’s Cakes debuted to international praise in 2013, and received three top awards thereafter, many anticipated the next creation from its author, the international style guru Bonnae Gokson. The wait was all of five years, but well worth it. This month, the renowned cake stylist launches her second book, Weddings, Butterflies, & The Sweetest Dreams in Manila (26-27 September) and in New York (4 October) in an event hosted by Vera Wang. For the Hong Kong launch, Gokson would like to do it when she opens her third cake shop in this Asian capital she calls home.
“This wedding celebration book gives interesting images of details on special occasions across the world,” says Gokson. “Like, how most Javanese brides wear their hair, weddings held in bare nature in Colorado, night moods on food in Australia, and my crafted cakes paired with each scenario.”
The idea for the book came about when Gokson saw a photo of a high-profile couple’s wedding in Italy. “I thought the wedding cake was a letdown,” she says. “It looked roughly finished and just didn’t match the romantic setting.” She saw the need for a book that “shows multi-cultural celebrations in a more refined way of capturing images. And since I love to pair my cakes with beautiful settings and share them on Instagram, I thought... why not?”
For Gokson, Weddings, Butterflies, & The Sweetest Dreams is a labour of passion and love that took over two years to plan. She shares the complicated process. First, she only shoots her cakes on Sundays, as her two outlets in Hong Kong (the restaurant SEVVA and the cake shop Ms B’s Cakery) are so busy with work and deliveries all week long. Scheduling her photographer is also a challenge because he is constantly travelling. Then, her creative team is in Sydney and her publisher, ORO Editions + GOFF Books, is from the United States. “So could you imagine the time differences and challenges we go through just to get things right?” she remarks.
But the images, in the end, are spectacular. Gokson particularly cites a cake she designed with her signature topping of cotton candy and handpainted macaroons. This she paired with a Vera Wang couture gown. “I must say that this is unique as it takes great skills to just even style and twist the cotton candy,” she says.
Through the book, however, Gokson would like to impart “wishes and hopes.” She adds: “Since I have mentioned that this book has been purely a labour of love with my work and creativity, I just hope it brings much joy and inspiration to readers all around the globe.”
Highly-regarded for her impeccable sense of style, Gokson has made her creative imprints in varied luxury industries—from fashion to hotel and hospitality, food and entertaining, and coffee table publishing. After starting out as a visual mer chandiser and buyer in fashion for the JOYCE Group, founded and formerly owned by her sister Joyce Ma, she also served as the regional chief of Image & Communications for CHANEL Asia Pacific, designed interiors for all her establishments, and sits as the creative advisor to the Niccolo Hotels, including its newly opened Murray Hotel.
“Everything is inspiring to me—from nature to art, fashion, and the simplest every day sightings of life!” she says.
That her style is encompassing is attested to by the top designer Vera Wang and the fashion icon Iris Apfel in their respective forewords in Weddings, Butterflies, & The Sweetest Dreams. Both women, icons in their own right, heap praises on Gokson, honouring her for the tastemaker that she is. A further testament would be the three top international awards that her first book, Butterflies and All Things Sweet, has received: the Paris Book Awards, the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards, and the Sydney Design Awards.
Gokson, who calls herself “Creative-All Rounder” and “Creative Visionary,” has a beautiful way of describing what she does and who she is. “Creativity is intelligence having fun. Creativity is the gift that keeps on giving. And I am a person that is both of the above,” she says.
by Laura Schreffler
October 16, 2018
As the weather gets colder and the holidays approach, so does the need for holiday parties… and we could all benefit from learning how to throw a fabulous seasonal bash, no? Cue Bonnae Gokson, an international style icon and the founder of Ms. B’s Cakery, SEVVA—one of Hong Kong’s most recognized destination restaurants—and C’est La B Cakery in Hong Kong. This Asian socialite also has the additional pedigree of being part of the luxury fashion scene for a long time working at Chanel, Prada, and with her sister, Joyce Ma of Joyce Boutique.
This month, on October 24, Gokson is preparing to release her second coffee table book, entitled “Weddings, Butterflies & The Sweetest Dreams.” This couture-oriented publication will inspire brides-to-be, wedding professionals, and everyone interested in the intersection of fashion, beauty and design. The book will take readers on an emotional, multicultural journey of real weddings around the world, feeding their imagination through exquisite imagery, creative brilliance and a celebration of love in all its forms. Bonnae sets the scene for the most incredible wedding one can dream of, be it in a rustic barn, a palatial Indian nuptial celebration in vibrant colors worthy of a maharani, or a traditional Chinese ritual festooned in red, inspiring readers to embark on the most important day of their lives as they create memories that will last a lifetime. The book—which seamlessly blends art, parties and fashion—also includes a foreword written by Vera Wang and Iris Apfel, both dear friends of this international hostess with mostess.
Though her forte is weddings, Gokson is adept at throwing any and all types of fetes, which is why we simply had to get her tips on how to throw the ultimate holiday bash. Get ready: It’s time to take notes!
5. When picking the menu, I think it’s important to have the meal as balanced as possible. I change up my menu options for almost every party, but my favorites are:
6. A little something for guests to take home is always nice. I have given little containers of my homemade strawberry and rose petal jam or ginger marmalade in the past, or even tea leaves in nice packaging. I’ve even giving out a CD of a compilation of the music that was played during dinner, which I find my friends seem to love.
7. The flowers I pick for a dinner change seasonally, but my favorites are peonies, peacock tulips orchids, anemones, etc. Having an interesting selection of vases is important. If I use transparent glass vases, I add a drop of food coloring to compliment the flowers. By the time all the candles and votives are placed, the table is glowing and looks stunning.
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