Robert Wun, the first Hong Kong designer to show at Paris Haute Couture Week, on the Met Gala, Wong Kar-wai and staying true to himself

Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster is his favourite Hong Kong film—it was released in 2013, around the time he was beginning to build his brand, and reflects some of what the designer aims to convey in his work.

“What I’ve always felt watching [Wong’s] films is this powerful way of portraying femininity—through our own gaze, our own culture, our own sense of romance— without submitting to the western framework of what is considered beautiful,” he says. “The language, the visuals, even the way a single sentence is constructed is so poetic that you really need to come from that culture, to speak that language, to fully understand it. It came out at a time when I was searching for that language myself.”

Read more: A guide to the iconic looks of Wong Kar-wai’s movies

Wun’s rise has been gradual but certain. He graduated from London College of Fashion in 2012, and Hong Kong retailer Joyce Boutique approached him to buy his graduate collection. Lady Gaga—now a longtime supporter—bought two pairs of his shoes and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2 costume team commissioned him to design a look for the 2015 release. But it was in 2021 that his career truly took off.

His autumn-winter 2021 collection was deeply personal. Titled “Armour”—a word that projects the strength and resilience he believes women possess—it is an ode to his grandmother, who died in October 2020. Armour-like elements run throughout: headgear reminiscent of a knight’s helmet, medieval-style boots, sharply structured shoulders.

Each is a deliberate counterpoint to the collection’s quieter femininity seen in components inspired by his grandmother’s favourite bird, the swallow, with pleats cut to echo the shape of its tail. Every look from the collection is anchored in a strong colour palette and pays tribute to a different woman Wun has encountered in his life.

“Armour” marked a turning point for Wun—not just creatively, but in how he was received. “It was the key moment where I really felt the industry around me was starting to be more willing to come into my world,” he says, “instead of the other way around.” He debuted his first haute couture collection at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week in 2023, then returned to Hong Kong in September 2024 for his “Homecoming” show at the Hong Kong Palace Museum—staged with Tatler Asia and Centrestage—marking a decade since the launch of his eponymous label.

In January, Wun presented “Valour”, his spring- summer 2026 collection, at Paris Haute Couture Week; it is his definition of what it means to be a designer today. “People love to comment, and that’s part of the idea of fashion becoming more democratic,” he says. “But it also has made designers feel that their own voice is no longer the most important one in the room—we need to follow where the trends go, or what the public wants.”

The three-chapter collection opens with “Library”, where pieces in black and white—a “pure and innocent” combination, as Wun puts it—represent that first spark of creativity; the moment a designer puts pencil to paper.

“Luxury” follows, with models dressed in sculptural velvet silhouettes, diamond tiaras and one in a mask adorned with Swarovski ruby crystals; the pieces are a meditation on clothing’s value versus human desire. “Does this look expensive? Will people want to buy it? Does it speak to the kind of desire that functions in a capitalist world?” Wun asks. “Finding the balance between all of that—and still pushing forward, still staying true to yourself without compromise— takes courage.”

The final chapter is also called “Valour”, and saw models emerging like warriors marching off the battlefield. “That is the spirit I wanted to capture,” Wun says, “[a reflection of ] what it truly looks like to create today.”

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After five shows in Paris, Wun is finding his stride. He says that preparing for a show “has become easier in the sense that I have more experience now in dealing with challenges and problems as they come. We’re able to handle them with a certain ease, without the kind of stress that is unnecessary and, frankly, not helpful.”

That growing sense of comfort has also emboldened him to test his own boundaries. His work has long carried a distinct dark, otherworldly and even unsettling quality—he describes it as having “a horror film or a nightmare running through it”. He intends to push beyond that in his upcoming autumn-winter 2026 show in July. “I want to expand that universe a bit further,” he says, “and show people there’s a different way my design language can be expressed.”

Early this month, Wun reached another milestone: his work has been included in this year’s spring fashion exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, the show that dictates the Met Gala each year. At the time of our interview, he was unable to reveal the specifics of his involvement, yet his excitement was palpable. “It’s the first time we’re part of the exhibit, the first time we’ve been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum—and we’re very heavily involved in the night itself.”

The exhibition, Costume Art, pairs nearly 400 garments with paintings, sculptures and other works from across 5,000 years of art history, and invites us to view clothing in the same way as we see art: layered with meaning, intention and history. It is a proposition Wun has been building towards all along, and one that his champions understand instinctively.

After all, the audience he has cultivated was never going to be conventional—they’re drawn not merely by the fashion, but by the world he invites them into. “They simply want to be part of the Robert Wun world—and they go out there and embrace that, even if it doesn’t fit what the rest of the world might expect of them,” he says. “That’s something I feel quite proud of.”

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Media credits

Content Director: Tara Sobti
Editor: Cathy Huang
Creative Direction: Zoe Yau
Photographer: Hungmc
Stylist: Anthony Tong
Hair: Sheila Ko
Makeup: Jovy Chai
Photo Assistants: Derek Chan, Steven Lam
Videographers: Siven Ho, Sai Man Leung
Video Editor: Pun Ka Chun
Colourist: SaiSai Man