Wardrobe Insider: Kay Wong

With a star turn as the designer of Daydream Nation, Kay Wong saw her brand sold to 80 shops around the world; dressed international celebrities such as Ke$ha and Juliette Binoche; was recognised with awards such as Vogue Italia’s ‘Vogue Talent 2010’ and even caught the eye of Chanel, with her pieces inspiring Karl Lagerfeld’s work.

After winning the Young Design Talent Award she spent a year in Copenhagen immersed in a much more sustainable way of working. She began to question her fashion journey and realised that the fashion industry was “sick”. Making it her mission to change design in order to design change, she co-founded Fashion Clinic to close the loop of the consumption cycle and show people the true cost of over consumption. By resuscitating dead stock and pre-loved clothing she’s now allowing people to live in style and re-discover things they once loved, without adding to the world’s landfills.

Here, Kay talks to PAKT about her favourite fashion projects, dream collaborator and why nothing is on her current fashion wish list.

Photos L-R: Kay Wong at a PAKT breakfast held at The Upper House, Kay and colleagues at the Young Design Talent Awards 2023

1) Describe your style in 3 words.

Simple, quirky, comfy.

2) Earliest fashion memory.

So-En, the Japanese fashion magazine and Rei Kawakubo.

Photos L-R: So-En magazine – first fashion magazine in Japan; Rei Kawakubo, Eiichiro Sakata; Rei’s Comme des Garcon: Art of the in-between exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

3) What’s the most precious/meaningful item in your wardrobe?

My late grandmother’s light self-made printed cheongsam top.

Kay Wong wearing her late grandmother’s self-made cheongsam

4) What’s on your current fashion wish list?

I think my wish list is not not wish for more, but rather how to keep my favourite pieces in great condition for longer.

5) Favourite item in your wardrobe that you will wear/keep forever?

A Comme Des Garcon shirt passed on from my good friend’s husband.

Kay Wong wearing a passed on Comme Des Garcon shirt from her good friend’s husband

6) What is the best fashion advice you have received?

“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself” — Coco Chanel

7) Who are your style icons?

Diana Vreeland and Li Edelkoort.

Photos L-R: Diana Vreeland, DuJour; Diana Vreeland, Jonathan Becker; Li Edelkoort, Michiel Hendryckx for Vogue Italia

8) A recent shopping find is

A second hand oversized pink Cuban Guayabera shirt

9) If you could have anyone’s wardrobe whose would it be and why?

I love the Ghibli’s animation world, everything the characters wear I would love to wear! IF they had a wardrobe, that’s what I want.

Characters from Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki

10) If a museum asked you to donate one item from your wardrobe that represented you what would it be?

A reconstructed piece that combined my dad’s shirt and a t-shirt I wore as a child, it was made as a love letter to my late father after I grew up.

A reconstructed shirt made up of one of Kay’s father’s shirt and one of her childhood t-shirts

11) What will we never find in your wardrobe?

Sequins…. as much as I like to shine, this is something I can’t handle….

12) What is your favourite fashion project that you’ve worked on?

The bigger answer would be Daydream Nation, fashion arts house I created together with my brother Jing. That was the crazy times when we were in our twenties, bringing together fashion and theatre, telling a story each season through theatrical presentations, and bringing together lots of creative people in Hong Kong as well as internationally.

During that time, we created a jewellery collection for Peter Jensen in 2010, finally shot by Laurie Simmons, loved that.

Interview on Kay Wong’s project Dream Nation in Vogue China

Since the transformation, and shift to working only the upcycle way, my recent favourite project would be the upcycle project we’ve done for Calvin Klein, transforming 3000+ inventory into a capsule collection, window display and in store customer engagement.