It’s been an extremely diverse spring couture season, ranging from featherlight chiffon Chanel suits of perhaps a few ounces to Robert Wun’s bulging white bridal gown embroidered with roughly 3 million glass beads and weighing in at roughly 92 pounds.
Wun’s storytelling is also on the heavy side, in the register of dystopia and sci-fi futurism, his runway at the Lido cabaret backed by a wall of video monitors broadcasting boiling storm clouds and unrelenting forks of lightning.
The designer demonstrated a weakness for face-swallowing collars, crystal face masks, anatomically exaggerated breastplates, aerodynamic hats, pointy shoulders, trailing fishtail skirts and streamers – plus the occasional sword piercing the heart – adding up to a dramatic, sculptural couture that sometimes felt witchy, occasionally Western, and at other times warrior-like.
In photos, you might think his couture dresses were created with AI, given the otherworldly surface treatments – some looks resembled molten metal, others 3D-printed figurines – and such wacky accessories as cuff bracelets sprouting extra hands.
Before the show, the Hong Kong-born designer said he revisited his 2012 graduate collection from the London College of Fashion in 2012, when his imagination was “wilder” and his research far-ranging and freewheeling.
Hence, the show was also a commentary on the internal struggles designers grapple with, along with the difficulties of creating a viable business in a very stormy world.
“I feel like every creative nowadays, they are a warrior… they’re always battling within and externally as well,” he said. “Hopefully people can see why we need couture, where a designer can actually be themselves.”
Couture, fashion’s most rarified expression, is indeed only for the brave – and Wun is among the bravest.
