From Kiln to Catwalk: The Craftsmanship Behind Rokh’s Fractured Motion

Korean designer Rok Hwang, the visionary behind Rokh, presented his A/W 2025 collection against the backdrop of a crumbling French mansion on Avenue Marceau. He was visually inspired by the history revealed through cracked walls and exposed plaster. The collection juxtaposed structure and fluidity, particularly in his signature trench coats, perfectly balanced between construction and deconstruction, like the art of sculpting itself.

Having relocated to America as a child, Rok began his fashion journey at Central Saint Martins in London in 2004, eventually winning first place in the school’s graduation collections competition. This launched his career after he caught the attention of Phoebe Philo, then creative director of Céline, who recruited him. He went on to work with Louis Vuitton and Chloé before founding Rokh in 2016.

His early years of reworking feminine silhouettes with sharp, structured patterns carrying traces of Philo’s influence remain embedded in the brand’s DNA. He continues to test timeless tailoring with unconventional approaches, a spirit clearly on display in the A/W 2025 collection.

The show was staged in an unfinished French house recognizable by its ornate Rococo-style plaster carvings. It boldly presented a transitional phase, finished detailing against raw plaster, past meeting present.

As the looks emerged, the set reinforced the central theme Fractured Motion, echoing deconstructed yet recognisable ceramic designs through precise tailoring and vision. The collection displayed his archetypal trench coats with unzipped sleeves peeled back to expose rawness beneath, alongside polka dots and romantic chiffon. It opened with a pea coat adorned with a billowing drape attached from shoulder to hem in a cyclic silhouette, balancing structure with unrestrained chiffon. Another standout was a floor-length dress with exaggerated bell sleeves, a workwear classic reimagined for an artist’s world.

The draped elements recalled sculptures such as Giovanni Battista Lombardi’s La Dama Velata (The Veiled Lady) or Antonio Corradini’s Vestal Virgin Tuccia, capturing the fluidity of fabric in marble. Models with short French bobs and neutral makeup resembled living statues, soft, natural, and sculptural.

A good collection leaves room for personal interpretation. One showstopper embodied a poetic cycle: humans once created sculptures to immortalize themselves, now fashion seeks to embody sculpture in living form. Rokh’s merging of sculpture and humanity fused permanence with change, plaster perfection with the evolving female body.

Perhaps it was also a critique of beauty standards, perfection exists only in marble or plaster, not in life. Sculpture is static art, placed in museums for admiration and judgment. Fashion, by contrast, moves, breathes, and transforms.

Rokh pushed fabric beyond its limits, wool manipulated into three-dimensional floral motifs, glossy textiles molded like clay. A draped black velvet dress with a lacquered sheen stood out as a highlight. Neutral shades, beige, grey, silver, brown, and layers of plaster white and black, anchored the collection to its references.

Amid the rise of neo-gothic aesthetics, Rokh’s vision offered a quieter but no less powerful meditation. His A/W 2025 show was not just a fashion moment but a reflection on imperfection, on form, on what it means to sculpt, to wear, and to live inside a fleeting, fractured moment.