In Conversation with Shek Leung
[UNPUBLISHED:] There’s something very grounded yet exciting about your work, how would you describe your brand in its essence?
[SHEK:] First of all, my work has a very cinematic and poetic approach, which was influenced by my family having a background in the movie industry, when I was younger my dad worked as a director so I grew up spending a lot of time on film sets which made me refer to film and cinematography a lot in the development of my work. When I first started studying at Central Saint Martins I was doing womenswear, and now I actually focus on menswear, or borderline unisex with a focus on menswear, Film didn’t always play a big role in my practice, in the beginning, I didn’t really think to link it to film, I just wanted to learn how to make clothes. I was struggling to communicate my conceptual ideas, and that’s when film came in and I started doing these research videos that then translated into my collections.
So I often describe my work as “absolutely tactile”, it’s honest, grounded, and heavily inspired by emotion and intuition. It’s not supposed to be extravagant or very Instragam-able, it’s about creating real clothes. I often associate my work with sensuality or quietness because that’s what I found interesting in terms of menswear, which is always so stagnant, it’s always denim, or leather, or these very well-made heavy wool blazers, and I wanted to portray menswear as something softer.
[UNPUBLISHED:] You often describe it as a quiet masculinity, can you tell us more about that?
[SHEK:] Yeah so, it actually all started with my cultural background, I’m originally from Hong Kong. Growing up in Asian culture, I was surrounded by men who were often to themselves, very quiet, and didn’t share a lot with other people, even if society tends to be more collective in Asia. Stereotypically Asian men are portrayed in mass media as the weaker version of the white masculinity and because they’re often more quiet they’re very much a more introverted people. When I first came to London, I was trying to meet a lot of people, be friends with everyone, but culturally speaking there’s that part of me that is very much introverted, and it’s sometimes seen as negative or a weakness, but in fact, the quiet people are often the crazier ones. *Laughs* But quiet masculinity, although it stems for me from this quiet masculinity found in Asian culture, it’s actually for everyone. It’s inviting to anyone who wants to partake in it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] We already talked a bit about the materials you use, and obviously this is a super important part of your process and the ethos of your brand. You often mention that you invented your own fabric weaving technique, how did this develop?
[SHEK:] It all started during my masters, I’ve always had this guiding principle which is that I want to bring my research films to life. Every time I do a collection I will do a minute-long research film. Doesn’t matter if it’s abstract or conceptional, whenever I design I want to portray it and bring it to life. In a time where everyone is talking about going digital with NFTs and the Metaverse I feel like it doesn’t matter how that develops, physical and tactile sensation is still very important and will still be here at the end of the day. So going back to the research films, I often shoot them very poorly, so I end up with grainy texture which I love a lot. When I was a kid living in Hong Kong I was professionally trained in oil painting so I learned a lot about mixing colors and I took this knowledge together with the film grains from the research films in order to recreate that color and texture and converted it into this cover-stitch material. Which is a stitching that you usually find for example on your t-shirt, it’s a finishing technique that uses 5 threads at the same time to stitch one row. I basically ended up playing with the layering and the colors to see how they would appear on the fabric and ended up creating fabric from scratch.
[UNPUBLISHED:] So you really play with these multidisciplinary skills that you’ve gathered from your background in fashion mixed with film and classical oil painting and it all culminates in your garments?
[SHEK:] Absolutely. The funny thing is this, the fabric is so diverse that I could stitch it onto dissolvable fabric, and you’re just left with the stitches after you wash it, it creates this kind of jersey fabric, which you can then even stitch onto a cotton fabric, and it becomes this soft wool. If I stitch it onto plastic on the other hand, and I make it into a coat, it’s almost like a Macintosh coat with its stiffness. It’s very diverse. Because the threads I use are polyester, which I often source from other colleagues and students who don’t need them anymore, I can basically print anything on it, any graphic you print on it becomes kind of grainy and pixelated.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Sustainability is obviously a big topic right now, how does that fit into your brand?
[SHEK:] In terms of sustainability, I feel personally that it’s more about how a brand is run, it’s not about up-cycling, and buying second-hand clothes and making them into a new piece of garment, because ultimately if you’re in this industry already you’re not making anything sustainable, it’s a delusion. You’re just taking waste to make more waste, as ugly as it sounds. I think it’s about how you build your brand and your working approach. You can choose to use off-cut or sustainable materials, which I think helps, but it’s not a 100 percent sustainable in hindsight. What I do other than using dead-stock fabric and recuperating the threads etc. is to focus more on my business model. For example, the packaging used for my order, I also limit my production. I actually do it in 2 business models, the first one being when it’s made to order which you can find on my own shop or APOC store. If I get an order I work according to it so I don’t have any excess fabric and waste. Alternatively, as a brand I would like to grow into almost a wholesale business because in the long run, you can’t really do made-to-order, people just can’t wait for that long sometimes.
One of the stores I work with in Australia recently stocked my last collection, I made sure in the process that they meet the minimum quantity of items in order for it to be less wasteful, if they order a lot of items, I produce them, if they want to replenish their stock, for example by ordering just 2 shirts, that won’t work, because I need to order a certain amount of fabric from the mills. There’s a limited quantity that I need to produce with the factory, and with just two shirts, I don’t meet the minimum requirements. If I need to produce two shirts I need four meters of fabric, but the minimum order is 10 meters, so that would be 6 meters of waste. I need to ensure that in this wholesale business model that the people who order from me, they have to meet the minimum requirement for the fabric not to be wasteful and for me to be able to produce. That was it doesn’t matter if they order more, I won’t have any product leftover.
[UNPUBLISHED:] A lot of people push for sustainability, and some big designers are using second-hand garments to produce theirs, for example, it’s quite an interesting insight to see you tackling it in a different way than the norm.
[SHEK:] When I tell people that I don’t believe in 100-percent sustainability because we’re in this industry, which is the second most polluting industry in the world, I get a lot of angry responses and disagreement. Which is fine, but I do still think that it’s true, the moment you step into this industry, you put on a light, you turn on your computer, you print a photo or you buy some fabrics, even if you use second-hand clothing the waste is still there. Because of this, I don’t believe in 100-percent sustainability. I think really it’s about how people brand themselves in order to reduce the unnecessary.
[UNPUBLISHED:] We’ve talked about how film influenced your work heavily, personally when I look at it I see a lot of architectural elements, for example, your framed socks and stapled shirts. Is this something you take into account when you design?
[SHEK:] Absolutely not. *Laughs.* I think all my research has been very much abstract, I don't reference sculpture or architecture at all. I reference a lot of landscape paintings, for example in my masters' collection it was about exploring the state of feeling overwhelmed, the state of anxiety from the eyes of a painter. I was comparing my culture with western culture. In western culture you have the likes of Van Gogh and Matisse, they paint themselves and their faces as self-portraiture, where in Asian and Chinese history we use landscape painting to create a metaphor of ourselves. You might paint yourself as a waterfall, a hill, a rock, or even a pebble. Back then I used a lot of landscape and incorporated a lot of things I saw on the street, like a piece of crumpled paper on the sidewalk which I thought looked good and I liked the mood of. I could reference people's behavior and real clothes, it’s more an observation of their behavior, the way they walk, the way their clothes drape. One of my shirts is completely crinkled and stapled, and it’s messy but it’s still this beautiful shirt.
I create this narrative around a feeling I want to portray. This often comes from daily conversation with friends and social surroundings. I think a lot about people because at the end of the day I want to make clothes for real people. But in all honesty, the latest collection I created was more artistic than real clothes. I’m currently working on a new collection which will be way more sensitive, softer, and fragile, which is where I want the brand to go, and in general, would like to see the future of menswear go too.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have any designers that influence your work?
[SHEK:] Yeah absolutely, my favorite designer is Jil Sander, the garments are beautiful, they’re overpriced and I can’t afford them, but they’re so minimal and so real. I feel like there’s no bullshit around it, I love it. Part of the reason why I like making fabrics is because I was really inspired by Issey Miyake, I don't directly look at the outcome, and all the pleats, I am more into the prints he did and the textures he came up with. I remember reading one of his books, it was called “Making Things,” and It was just a series of fabrics being twisted or manipulated in a way that it created texture, it encourages me to create textures and fabrics like that.
I’m a very tactile person I care so much about touch and I want people to feel good in it as well. Anyone can make a crinkle fabric, but how do I make that me? What I found that subconsciously on a regular basis when I was still studying I tried to squeeze in processes where I made fabric from scratch. I really got where I am today where I make my own fabrics for my garments. Although it’s way harder today, you don’t really think about commerciality when you’re studying. Today I realize how difficult it is to transmit my message and to sell this, It’s really labor-intensive but I’m still trying to stick by it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Talking about the future, what are your future prospects for your brand? What are you up to now?
[SHEK:] Right now I’m juggling a bit of everything, I’m doing private tutoring on the side for people who want to be educated in fashion and apply for university, I help them build portfolios and educate them in fashion, I take on a lot of freelance jobs, I design for some people, some brands in China, but also freelance here for Burberry for example. I split my time between those jobs and my own thing right now. In terms of the prospects for my future. I want to grow as a brand as well, but as a young designer who just graduated two years ago, financing is a big deal, so I’m still trying to work around this new model where I only create a new collection every year and do capsule collections or projects with other craftsmen and creatives that share the same values as I do. Instead of doing the classic two big collections or more a year, which I think is very unsustainable. When I talk about side projects and collaborations it’s not necessarily about producing small products to sell or to reach a wider audience, it’s more about building a community that shares the same values, the same appreciating of sensible things like my fabrics. I also would really like to work with film more.
