March 19, 2024 |
Korean-born, Texas-raised, UK-educated designer Rok Hwang – the founder and creative director of emerging brand Rokh – is a true master when it comes to taking archetypal garments and giving them an unexpected twist. He often injects traditional silhouettes with sharp cutouts, hidden layers and fresh fabrications, resulting in the kind of stuff good fashion enthusiasts dream about getting their hands on. But dream no more, because it’s just been announced that Hwang is H&M’s next collaborator!
Like clockwork, the high street giant has released one or two fashion designer collaborations a year since 2004. This means Hwang is following in the footsteps of some of fashion’s biggest hitters, from Karl Lagerfeld, Martin Margiela, Rei Kawakubo and Jeremy Scott at Moschino to Simone Rocha and Casey Cadwaller’s Mugler last year.
Hwang founded his namesake label back in 2016 after graduating from Central Saint Martins and undertaking atelier stints at Céline, Chloé and Louis Vuitton. He shot to prominence when he was awarded the LVMH Special Prize just two years after his brand’s debut, and he began to present his work at Paris Fashion Week just a year later.
Expanding upon his subversive opus with H&M, by dipping into his own archive and adapting it to the high street consumer, the upcoming collection features an array of elevated menswear, womenswear and accessory staples. Think deconstructed workwear icons like trench coats, wool overcoats and two-piece suits that are spliced and diced at the shoulder or the hip and layered beneath even more tailoring. There’s also adaptable designs such as dresses with eyelet closures you can open and close as you please or big belt buckles that can hang open for a more relaxed look and subversive reimaginations of 1980s office power-dressing aesthetics made modern with all over stud embellishments and buttons at the back instead of the front. Personal expression is at the centre of the offering, encouraging punters to wear the pieces however they want. Dubbed the Texas collection after Hwang’s stomping grounds, it’s everything we want from an H&M designer collab and more! Here, we speak to both Hwang and Ann-Sofie Johansson, head of design womenswear and creative advisor at H&M, about the link-up.
H&M x Rokh drops online and in select stores on April 18, and it’s set to sell out in minutes, if not seconds. So don’t walk, don’t even run; sprint! You don’t want to miss it.
1. How did the partnership with H&M come about, and what was your initial reaction to the proposal, Rok?
Hwang: “H&M first approached us last year, and my reaction was quite shocked – but in a very positive way! They’ve collaborated with so many amazing designers in the past, so for us, it’s a real milestone. We had a conversation over Zoom initially, and I felt really happy about the collaboration idea from the first moment, mainly because H&M wanted the central focus to be really true to who I am as a designer. They gave me freedom to explore my ideas and deliver Rokh to the world. It’s been such a great process.”
Johansson: “We have been keeping an eye on Rokh for a few years now. Designer Rok Hwang caught our eye because he has such an interesting way of working with tailoring. It’s deconstructed and quite conceptual in some ways, but also very versatile and easy to wear, which is a balance our customers love. In terms of our collaboration strategy at H&M, we always like to have a mix of big fashion houses and more emerging brands – we like to mix it up. It’s very important to us to lend our platform and support to young talents; we’ve collaborated in the past with the independent Irish designer Simone Rocha, and the Colombian designer Johanna Ortiz, for example. We reached out to the Rokh team last year and had an introductory meeting over Zoom to discuss how we could share his aesthetic with more people. We were very happy when he accepted our proposal.”
2. What about 1980s office power-dressing inspired you to subvert its tropes for H&M?
Hwang: “My inspiration at Rokh is always coming from real-life situations, and I feel particularly inspired by the figure of the working woman, which has been a continual reference for me. Whether it’s the women working around me in my studio, or the women I have worked with throughout my career – from my mother to Phoebe Philo, who I worked for when she was at Céline – I’m always taking inspiration from working women. Workplaces and workwear were a big inspiration for this H&M collaboration, down to the beige colour palette and the accessories which were inspired by office briefcases and files. At the same time, I wanted the collection to be really timeless and versatile, translating our codes for the H&M customer.”
3. What are some of the key pieces of the collection?
Hwang: “The double-layer trench for women and the button-trench for men are both house icons which I’m really excited to present to different audiences all over the world. I love the studded blazer with the matching pleated skirt, the full look is really powerful but you can also easily wear them separately and get the same effect. The accessories were also really fun to develop, inspired by office accessories – my personal order was the file bags which I’ll be filing away collection notes in!”
Johansson: “I think the trench coats are really exciting, iconic pieces for Rokh that are also so versatile and useful – wardrobe classics with a twist. There’s lots of great tailoring, and the belts are fantastic, they’re another signature piece and they’re so easy to wear, adding edge to a look instantly. The mix of gold and silver jewellery is something I love personally, I can’t wait to wear the earrings.”
4. What are some of the new, modular techniques you employed and how do they work?
Hwang: “My pieces are actually really timeless. I always focus on the idea that, if you have this item, you will wear it for a long time. My pieces are also easily integrable with any other styles. I know that most people will be wearing them with pieces from other brands, and that they will want to adapt them to express their own personal style. In this collection I’ve been experimenting with hemlines that can be adjusted, so for example, the hem of the black bustier dress can be unhooked completely, or a section unhooked to change the silhouette. And the multi-button trench coats also have buttoned sections that can be removed or worn in a totally different way – I’ve seen customers wearing them upside down, inside out – not something I ever intended, but it made me really happy to see that!”
5. How does your design process differ when working in tandem with another brand versus your namesake brand?
Hwang: “Obviously there is a lot more communication required with a collaboration. We flew to Stockholm to meet the H&M team and work in the atelier quite a few times as this collection was coming together, I feel very lucky to get to know them. I designed the collection in different cities, then communicated with them, we would speak about the details, then I would go to the Stockholm atelier to engage with the fittings personally and be hands-on, with the team. I worked really closely with the pattern cutters, accessories and design teams to make sure each piece was perfect. They also really engaged me on the 360-degree elements, how we would present the collection in stores, down to the packaging and what hangers we would use for the racks. Even the minor details to me are really important so I was happy they felt the same. And during the process, it was almost self-realisation, decoding what I had done in the past. I was looking into my own archive and falling in love again with the details I had created in the past.”
6. How has the collaborative creation experience been?
Hwang: “This collaboration was rather special because the central focus was very true to who I am as a designer. The fundamental message was to deliver Rokh to the world. I really enjoyed working with the team in Stockholm, they have such a depth of knowledge when it comes to collaborations so it was great to learn from them. Every piece we worked on, we spent a long time on, but in an optimistic way. The whole process felt natural and I’m very happy with the final result. I can’t wait to present it to the world.”
Johansson: “From our side, it’s been a real pleasure to work with Rok and his team. He’s a very humble guy, very keen to collaborate and share knowledge while bringing his attention to detail and signature eye to every single piece. He was also very generous in sharing some of his most recognizable designs with us. It’s been a joy to get to know him better, and I think the collection is really strong, full of directional but easy to wear pieces that our customers will love.”
Photography courtesy of H&M.
