The A-list actress has used her celebrity influence to invite Oscar-nominated costume designer William Chang Suk-ping and veteran producer Shi Nan-sun to join the TV project. A frequent collaborator with iconic director Wong Kar-wai, Chang Suk-ping is known for his aesthetics in capturing the beauty of women through colorful cheongsams in Chinese films.
Lau says the designer has traveled to foreign countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and India to buy fabric to make the cheongsams for Eighteen Springs that is set in 1930s' Shanghai.
She has already visited Beijing three times earlier just to try them on, she says.
"I have been on a diet through the entire shooting process," says Lau of her need to stay slim enough to wear them.
Eighteen Springs depicts the love story of a young engineer and a factory typist who are forced apart due to a string of misfortunes and misunderstandings spanning a decade.
