Robert Wun, known for his high-glam, film-inspired couture designs, has always strived to be the best in his field, not merely the best among his Asian peers — this mindset, in hindsight, may be the most Hong Kong trait of all.
“People in London didn’t really know who he was, even after he had lived there for many years. Then, two years later, his name was everywhere,” said WWD’s London and China market editor Tianwei Zhang — and a longtime friend of Wun’s — in introducing the designer.
That rapid ascent culminated in Wun becoming the first Hong Kong designer to present a collection at Paris Haute Couture Week in 2023.
During the final session of the WWD x SJ Global Fashion and Business Conference, Zhang recalled how, shortly after receiving the Special Prize at the 2022 ANDAM Fashion Award, Wun let him in on a big secret — he was about to halt his wholesale business.
Wun, who founded his eponymous fashion label in London in 2014, had decided to pivot to couture at the urging of Bruno Pavlovsky, the president of Chanel fashion and Chanel SAS who was also a mentor for ANDAM winners. With the help of Pavlovsky and the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, French fashion’s organizing body, Wun quickly secured a slot on the spring 2023 edition of Paris Couture Fashion Week. His debut collection, which found beauty in fearful emotions, was put together in less than three months.
During the panel, Wun recalled moments of fear and anxiety in the lead-up to the show.
“As a newcomer, you need to be able to offer something different — what’s the point of having another brand joining couture week that is doing the most beautiful flower embroidery and telling you how many hours it has taken? So I really led with emotion, how that anxiety and the anticipation turn into fear. I was imagining what’s the worst thing that can happen to the most well-crafted, expensive garment, which was a wine stain on top, then we turned those elements into craftsmanship itself,” explained Wun.
Robert Wun Couture, spring 2023
Aitor Rosas Suñe/WWD
Cinematic drama has become another key element in Wun’s design and runway shows — he still dreams of becoming a movie director. “You’re creating a world; there’s no higher form of craftsmanship and imagination in the creative field,” said Wun.
Expect more dark fantasies, not chick-flick drama, from Wun, as he believes the former is what touches people on a deeper level. “I’m going to always focus on something that’s a bit more scary or horror-oriented,” said Wun. “I’m not gonna lie, I don’t think art itself roots from happiness.”
Inspiration aside, Wun is now running a thriving couture brand, which is still a highly exclusive business that usually functions as an image-making exercise for legacy Parisian maisons.
Robert Wun, fall 2025 couture
Courtesy of Robert Wun
For Wun, couture represents creative freedom — a release from marketing pressures that, in many cases, have dwarfed the importance of true creativity.
“Do we need a designer if they don’t even know how to make clothes anymore? Do we need a designer if the brand marketing lead is stronger than the creative lead itself? Somehow what I’m doing shows people that actually creating something that is so personal and unique can inspire people. That’s what fashion used to be — where we wanted to inspire people not based on a popular color, or what’s the right outfit for a specific occasion, but rather client-oriented and inspiration-oriented,” said Wun.
Discussing the transient nature of the industry’s shortening attention span, Wun said it’s key to “stay in your lane” and “define your own voice.”
“One thing about social media nowadays is that we are constantly being put into a comparison landscape, both internally and externally,” said Wun. “It’s always, ‘Oh, why don’t you consider this business model? Take a look at this person, or this way of doing a show.’ It’s important to know what’s going on out there, but don’t lose yourself through those noises.”
A runway show last year at Hong Kong Palace Museum marked a homecoming moment for Wun — its star-studded front row included Asian celebrities such as Fan Bingbing, Kelly Chen, Josie Ho, Stephy Tang, and more. Reflecting on the spectacle, Wun said that one lesson he learned from the Asian hub was to “be the best at what you do, not just to be the best Asian in the field,” he said.
“The way that we did that Hong Kong show was to precisely do things that actually made sense — not only for the people locally, not only for me as a designer of Chinese heritage, but also for a global audience,” said Wun.
“You don’t need to always put yourself in this box and say, ‘I’m an Asian designer here doing Asian stuff.’ There’s this huge sense of rejection for me with this narrative,” Wun added.
