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1. Eddie Lau – fashion designer

As a graduate of the renowned fashion design institute Central Saint Martins in London and the first ever Hong Kong designer to take part in London Fashion Week in 1978, Lau became a stage costume designer and stylist for various pop stars in the 1980s.

Lau and Cheung collaborated on various concert and album costumes during Cheung’s career under the label Capital Artists from 1982 to 1987.

It was a breakthrough year for Cheung in 1985 – he garnered his first ever “10 Most Popular Songs Award” presented by Television Broadcasts Limited for the song “Monica”; released his first great hits album Fortunate to Have You; and held his debut solo concert in the Hong Kong Coliseum.

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After that, the duo further collaborated in 1986 for the album Who Feels The Same. Lau boldly chose red as the dominant colour to accentuate Cheung’s unique personal charm, while for his concert in the same year, Lau designed a military jacket and suit to create a more mature, self-assured and commanding look that was far different from the unrestrained and frivolous impression that Cheung had projected in the past.

2. Alan Chan – graphic designer

Veteran designer Alan Chan – one of the few Hong Kong-trained graphic designers who has achieved international recognition – collaborated with Cheung for the visual design of his albums from 1983 to 1989. That’s almost every album Cheung released during his career’s pinnacle in the 1980s.

These include Craziness in 1983, Leslie in 1984, For Your Heart Only in 1985, Stand Up in 1986, Summer Romance in 1987, Virgin Snow and Hot Summer in 1988, as well as Leslie ’89, Salute and Final Encounter in 1989.

“There wasn’t much budget for the album in the early 1980s,” Chan recalled in an interview, talking about the first album Craziness that they collaborated on in 1983. “I lent him the suit jacket, the waistcoat and the bow tie for the photo shoot of that album.” Chan also mentioned that he wanted to make the lyrics pages collectable, therefore he turned the them into twelve tearable bookmarks.

Another two albums that are especially worth mentioning are Stand Up and Hot Summer released in 1986 and 1988, respectively. To further boost sales, Chan said in an interview that he made the records in four different colours – green, yellow, purple and black. As a result, Cheung’s fans bought the records in all four colours for their collections.

In 1988, the album visuals for Hot Summer played with graphics and 3D effects. Perhaps fans can still remember the red and green paper 3D glasses that came with the album, which were undoubtedly the first of its kind in that era.

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3. William Chang – costume designer

The winner of the Technical Grand Prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for In The Mood for Love, Hong Kong film editor, costume designer, production designer and art director William Chang Suk-ping, was also the nominee for the best costume design Oscar in 2014 for The Grandmaster.

He created a variety of Cheung’s iconic looks in Wong Kar-wai’s films, such as the uninhibited Yuddy in Days of Being Wild (1990), the despicable Western Venom in Ashes of Time (1994) and loafer Ho Po-wing in Happy Together (1997).

Yet the collaboration between the two ran deeper than that. Fans must remember how Cheung opened a cafe in Causeway Bay in 1996 and Chang was responsible for its interior design, which was once a hot topic in town. But Cheung eventually retreated from the business in 2001 and the cafe was rebranded later on.

In 1997, Cheung took to the stage of the Hong Kong Coliseum, again with Chang as the costume designer. When the singer performed the hit song “Red”, he was wearing a shimmering black suit paired with red-sequinned high heels, which were originally a pair of white Manolo Blahnik T-strap pumps. The outfit was one of the most memorable ensembles among his concerts.

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4. Jean Paul Gaultier – fashion designer

In Cheung’s concert Passion Tour in 2000, he invited the sought-after French fashion master to design the costumes.

With gender-bending costumes, Gaultier transformed Cheung from angel to devil, challenging social norms and exploring his sexuality. Time magazine stated that the singer’s costumes were “in ascending order of outrageousness”, from a see-through top with skinny black, shiny trousers and a white tux with angel wings, to an Egyptian skirt as well as a red velvet tail coat with flyaway long hair.

5. Wing Shya – photographer

Famed for his work with director Wong Kar-wai in Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000) and 2046 (2004), Wing Shya is one of Hong Kong’s best-known photographers.

Although Wing had worked with Cheung on an album cover before, he said he didn’t really know the star until he was the still photographer for Happy Together.

“I made a mistake and forgot to bring the camera silencer at that time,” Wing revealed in an interview with the YouTube channel Yit, recalling that the shutter sound disturbed Cheung’s acting when they were shooting in Argentina. “He was angry with me, but not long after that, he asked me to be the photographer for his concert.”

Wing was also the photographer of Cheung’s last photo book published in Japan in 2001. The book recorded Cheung’s life during his final concert tour in different cities of mainland China between 2000 to 2001, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou and Chongqing.

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“In fact, I think he was more like the art director and I was just a photographer to help him realise his ideas,” Wing said in the interview with Yit.

The photographer added, “It was very relaxing, as I just need to record his daily life. I even didn’t use headlights. The photos were all like street shots and he showed the most natural and genuine side of himself. His character still affects me to this day.”