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Rickyy Wong
Fashion designer
With his eponymous fashion brand, which he founded in 2019, Rickyy Wong hopes to promote local culture and ethical manufacturing practices. “We work with a social-enterprise factory in Hong Kong,” he says, “and are hoping to build a benign creative ecology.”
Wong graduated from Bunka Gakuen University in Tokyo and ENSAD in Paris and, soon after its launch, his label was picked up by the local non-profit organisation Fashion Farm Foundation. Ever since, Rickyy Wong collections have strutted the runways at Paris Fashion Week, rightfully garnering attention from the young and fashionable, and praise from the international press.
“My inspiration is the city itself,” Wong explains. “There’s a lot of hidden and forgotten detail that you might have missed, due to its incredibly fast pace” – and his collections do carry an enticingly specific mixture of cyber-noir and sensual tailoring. Take spring/summer 2023, for example, which was presented at Centrestage last year. Languid matching sets with Victorian-style fern prints in green, corset tops and bustiers, sleeveless blazers and subtle historic combat-gear elements constitute a smorgasbord of the trends that attract young style mavens. The term eclectic doesn’t even begin
to describe it.
On the other hand, Wong’s menswear-centred autumn/winter 2023 collection, Nighthawks, could be interpreted as a love letter to Hong Kong, as it “expresses curiosity towards interpersonal relationships and opens a discussion about human connections”. It features the designer’s beloved oversized suits, panelled sets that echoed traditional Chinese dress in their construction and the sui generis ambience of darkness and longing.
“Wearing tomorrow today,” is Wong’s guiding motto. And no, it doesn’t translate into the all-too-familiar space-suit-adjacent pieces, but rather the philosophies ignited through wearable garments, in which craftsmanship and design innovation predominate. There’s no doubt a Rickyy Wong boutique will soon adorn one of Hong Kong’s most coveted corners – it’s only a matter of time.
