Kit Wan Studios

Known for crafting otherworldly garments using traditional techniques, the Hong Kong designer discusses how design can be rebellious and limitless

- Cherry Mui

“People may know me because I make costumes, but I have done a lot of arts and installations,” says Kit Wan. Indeed, if you had browsed the designer’s social media pages in 2016 when he founded his eponymous brand, you would have only seen high-tech mechanical installations and head pieces which would look more at home in a sci-fi movie than on the runway.

Tatler visited Kit Wan Studios in Kwun Tong in March this year, two weeks after the opening of Canto-pop legend Aaron Kwok’s world tour, for which Wan worked as one of the costume designers. Located in an industrial area of Hong Kong, the studio houses working tables, sewing machines and all kinds of collectibles of Astro Boy, his favourite Japanese anime character. Littered throughout the space is his archival work—from a cape reminiscent of both the galaxy and, thanks to its shredded details, melting glaciers to some metal sculptures.

Wan graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a fashion design degree, specialising in knitwear, but his path has not been a traditional fashion one. He went on to study for a master’s degree at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and took a lot of non-fashion-related courses, including ceramics, furniture design, opera and performing arts. “It was when I studied fine arts that I realised there isn’t just one methodology of approaching fashion,” he says. “I went to Norway because I was frustrated with fashion design. It felt to me as though if you didn’t work within the established approach, it would be difficult for you to succeed.”