Modern Life Ltd. carries furniture brands of extreme prestige

High-fashion European designer furniture and lighting make any home picture perfect yet comfortable.

Modern Life Managing Directors Winnie Ma and her husband Philip run three branches of modern furniture and lighting stores in Central that feature only the creations of inspired designers and brands acclaimed worldwide.

On Ice House Street is Déntro, the first store, a shop of mixed brands such as Seven, Arflex, Ingo Maurer and Emeco, offering the sleekest and most up-to-date living room and dining suites along with great ideas for bedrooms. The company also carries brands such as Fiam, Linteloo, and Droog from the Netherlands. Déntro means “the inside philosophy”, perfect for a home furnishing store.

Nearby on Wyndham Street, they have a monobrand store, Maxalto from Italy that is renowned for precious materials, passion for detail and sophisticated selection of textiles, and a lighting store, Flos, that features modern fixtures and designer lighting.

“Modern Life” seems the perfect name for a company that combines good taste with contemporary sensibilities that suit the Hong Kong lifestyle. Mrs. Ma was in the fashion business before moving into home décor, and it shows in her exquisite choices of furniture, fabrics and accessories. The showrooms fairly bristle with modern art and sculpture that accompany the sofas, beds and tables and the lighting that creates the ambiance and atmosphere. When she married 15 years ago and was looking for furniture for her new home, she noticed a lack of world renowned brands in the city, so she decided to open her own shop.

As a pioneer, she brought in European, primarily Italian, brands and she had the first showroom in Wan Chai that caught the imagination of Hong Kong’s rich and famous. That 10,000 sq. ft. showroom started the industry buzz about the company and soon she began attracted not only clients but interior designers who look to her for inspiration. The media soon caught up with her and she was featured in several magazines. 

“Many interior designers would come in and comment that the showroom was more like a gallery, so even architects and developers of luxury flats, clubhouses, dining facilities and amenities started to drop by, looking for tasteful yet exclusive furnishings and design ideas. I like contemporary art so I scour the galleries for pieces and ideas, both in Hong Kong and China, that compliment the furnishings.

“Now”, she says, “there is much more competition out there and some of the brands and furniture designers have moved on. But I keep sourcing new brands at the trade fairs, especially in Milan, and I like to showcase younger designers to keep up with the trends overseas. We enjoy working with good partners and now many are good friends as well. We can promise them a good volume of sales”.

Modern Life mostly deals with European companies that manufacture in their own countries. “Many modern furniture stores in Hong Kong feature items that are made in China”, she said, “but I prefer the higher, hand- ade quality from Europe. When people buy from us, some items, such as an expensive sofa, can be sold after 10 or 15 years nearly for the purchase price. I have had customers for whom I helped design homes and they tell me that when they sold their flat, the buyer wanted to buy the furnishings too. That is very flattering”. Each piece featured on the Déntro Web site gives the name of the designer, especially the Arflex chairs and sofas. There are 20 pages of well-designed, colourful pieces to choose from. Although mostly Italian or Northern European, the buyer will find American and Japanese designers’ works too. World-famous Philippe Starck and Antonio Citterio design lighting fixtures for Flos, among others.

“My brands are aggressive”, Ma said, “so we cooperate together well. Since we have our own home designers in house, we can help our clients, whether commercial or residential, get the best use of space with the right furniture and lighting to give each of the rooms a sophisticated, modern look. We also spend a lot of time training staff to share our passion with them. With the luxury flat developments, we work with the architects and property developers to help with their branding consistency and to create a theme throughout the establishment. We also help design show flats for developers to show clients what can be made of each space”.

Ma sees a trend now of mixing antiques, especially Chinese, with modern furniture. “For example, you may see the famous Ming Dynasty wooden horseshoe chairs that are very ergonomic in design mix well with new pieces. The old Chinese ceramic stools are now being copied in wood, showing the cross-cultural influences in the industry. Hong Kong is an international city so both styles mix and match naturally. It’s a metropolitan style you can find in New York, London or Paris. “Hong Kong people’s lives are changing and they work hard to attain a higher standard of living. There is a higher level of education and income so that creates more demand for sophisticated furnishings. Because Hong Kong is also a trading and financial hub, we get many different nationalities coming in so these influence each other. About 35 percent of our business is from individual families whom we help when they remodel their flats or when they buy a new home”, she said.

Mr and Mrs. Ma also pay close attention to how people’s way of life is changing because of the creation of new technologies, such as a compact home entertainment system or an intelligent home security networking system. The challenge is to hide all the equipment yet make it very functional.

Philip Ma said, “Home design makes a lot of difference to people but evolves over time. You can tell era by era the time of each new innovation or technological advance. We keep up with these trends, helping people integrate the new technology into their home design. It’s all about space utilization”.

Mr. Ma continued, “We provide a total solution, including technology and lighting. We have good connections with our suppliers and we cooperate with international designers while looking for upcoming designers in Asia for the future. We wish to improve the lifestyle, let people appreciate their home environments through good design”.