You'll no doubt know of Nicolas Ghesquière, the creative director of Louis Vuitton, Clare Waight Keller of Givenchy, and Karl Lagerfeld. Well, know that they're watching Rok Hwang, the man behind womenswear label ROKH, having awarded him this year's LVMH Prize Special Prize.
Coming in second to Japanese designer Masayuki Ino, creative director of streetwear brand, Doublet, Hwang still comes away with a hefty €150,000 (that's half of the winner's €300,000) and the promise of mentoring with a group of industry experts.
Ahead of travelling to Paris, where Hwang, Ino and the other finalists presented their work to Lagerfeld and co, and LVMH Prize ambassadors Emma Stone and Jaden Smith, ELLE met with the London-based designer to find out what makes his pieces so covetable.
‘You’d never guess it was this big from the outside.’ says ROKH designer, Rok Hwang, of his North London studio. In the same way that you wouldn’t guess his insouciant wardrobe staples are so cleverly constructed, concealing design elements that make his pieces fit just so.
It’s an impressive space for such a new brand, functioning as an atelier with separate teams working across production, fabric development and print. A window at the back wall looks out onto a white-walled space (like a record producer looks over a band recording) showing an all female team of all ages: pattern-cutters and machinists, draping and stitching new season samples.
The Korean born designer behind the brand came to fashion through music, moving to the UK from Austin, Texas, where he grew up in a caravan with his economist father. ‘It was exactly like you’d picture in an American movie.' So the split-studio set-up is a fitting home for the label he launched in 2016, with ‘re-editions of the classics’ - double placket shirts with trailing sleeves and popper-fasten tailoring.
‘We might have to move already. Things are growing fast,’ says Rok when we meet just weeks after a stint in Paris, meeting the star designers on the LVMH Prize panel. Familiar faces, having spent three years working with Phoebe Philo at Céline, joining Philo for her first collection in 2010, before leaving to work for Chloe and Louis Vuitton.
Given his experience, it’s no wonder that Rok found himself on the LVMH Prize shortlist - or that it was LVMH that approached him. ‘We’ve been trying to build the brand slowly, so it wasn’t our intention to end up on the shortlist,’ he laughs. ‘But it’s been really rewarding, spending time in the showroom, and having designers like Nicolas Ghesquiere compliment your work.’
Rok’s easy-to-wear tailoring hints at his menswear background, having studied BA Menswear before specialising in womenswear on the MA course at Central Saint Martins, and at Céline. ‘I learnt a lot from Phoebe Philo,’ he says of his time there. She tried everything on, and that’s important.’ So his all-female team are always trying things on, walking the length of the studio to get a real sense of movement. ‘It’s important for me to listen to them and ask if they’d actually wear something, and how they’d style it. We’re always having those conversations.’
You see that in the pieces. There’s something intuitive in the fluidity of ROKH’s style, with choice built into the garments. You can button those trailing sleeves, remove a notched collar, fasten a double-placket shirt to fit tightly or fall loosely around the body to suit multiple moods. ‘You can compliment a woman, even in oversized pieces, when you think about designing for how she feels.’
‘It’s about feeling and function,’ Rok adds. Extending to the practical outerwear, now signature pieces buyers are responding well to, including a woven silk double-breasted car coat, and a gabardine trench. There are bags too, produced in the same factory as Loewe, with functional pouches that can be mixed and matched, just big enough to fit an iPad. He’s got it all wrapped up with something for every category. Just don’t call ROKH androgynous, he says. ‘I’m over that. This is tailoring. And women wear trousers. In every sense,’ he laughs.
This piece originally appeared in ELLE's July 2018 issue, available now.
