TALL and tan, with an easy-going manner, impeccable dress sense and movie star looks, Lionel Leo projects the well-practised cool of someone who is comfortable at red carpet events and being at the centre of all the attention.

It's one of life's small ironies that as an accomplished amateur photographer, he prefers to be behind the camera. He's not likely to be at a loss when it comes to potential subject matter - not when he's married to one of the most beautiful women in town.

Just about the only thing that Leo, 52, might lack is anonymity. As the CEO of Fashionation, the fashion company he runs together with wife Tina Tan, he's accustomed to being in the media spotlight. Once upon a time, he was an architect in Hong Kong, but his main preoccupation these days is with design of a different kind.

Leo has had a front row view of the industry for close to 20 years. He was running his own architecture business until his wife asked him to take a more active role in the business, and together they created their own fashion brand alldressedup.

'We had over a hundred names to choose from, but nothing sounded right,' says Leo of the casual clothing line for women that features the work of talented young designers. 'We were looking for a name that really means something, and one question I asked Tina was, when did she start getting into fashion? She replied that she was all dressed up at six - and we knew that was the name.'

Leo is happy to defer to his wife as the face of the business. 'There's only one star in the family - she's the creative soul of the business. I look after the business and strategy side, so we complement each other.'

He is also quick to point out that he is his own man when it comes to what he wears. 'My wife never dresses me, although she did tell me a few years ago that there was no need to dress so classic anymore - since I was getting older, perhaps I should dress a bit younger.'

On most Sunday mornings, Leo dons a leather jacket and gets on his customised Harley Davidson motorbike - a 1996 Heritage Softail model with a distinctive silhouette that sits impossibly low to the road - and heads to various parts of Singapore or breakfast with one or two other biker friends.

His machine is easily identifiable as a hand-crafted Harley, complete with individual chrome parts and low-key matte finish. When he was younger, he owned a Harley that was slightly less discreet - fire-engine red with orange and yellow flames painted on. 'Now, it's not about speed or hardcore riding for me - it's just about getting together with my friends.'

Leo used to own a boat in Hong Kong and even signed up for flying lessons, but his sporting activities are now confined to motorbike rides, weekend golf games and boxing sessions at the gym with his three sons. He was also adept at martial arts. 'I was approached many times by movie guys - including Jackie Chan's manager - but in those days, the roles were limited and I turned them down,' he says.

For someone with an active lifestyle and a wide variety of interests, Leo says that the most extreme fashion statement he can recall making was in college in the US, when he dressed up in full drag to go to a party. 'That's the wildest thing I've done - and that's not a picture I would like to show anybody,' he says.

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This article was first published in The Business Times