One year on from winning Hong Kong's Young Designer Competition (YDC) in 2017, and the week before her collection launches in Joyce boutique, Pacific Place, on August 30, Arto Wong Hiu To sits in Aberdeen Street Social quaffing a detox beetroot cocktail and assessing her lot. Which sounds considerable; having won the competition (she was also the winner of a best New Talent award on the same night) and committed to the collaboration with Joyce, Wong stepped out of her design job and decided to launch ARTO., her eponymous label, which wears a full-stop for emphasis.

The 'on-point' Wong - off-duty when we meet in the pouring rain and dressed in jeans, Docs and t-shirt - aims to empower independent, confident and intelligent women, who want to make a difference and appreciate the inspirations behind her brand. Combining the art world, social movements, culture and nature's inherent beauty, Wong's specialism is knitwear allied to a contemporary, innovative sensibility that presages power, energy and ingenuity.

The Joyce collection, which will also launch in Shanghai's Plaza66, is inspired by the idea of molecular transformations and their infinite potential to combine. Wong used that power to give her Zero to Unlimited collection a sense of grandeur. Structural ruffles and an eye-catching explosion of dots featuring electric blue and shocking orange accentuated the vivid motif. Wong used Japanese polyester to achieve a weightless yet voluminous silhouette, and the collection carries the tagline, "no matter how small you are, you can create unlimited possibilities."

How much is the molecule a metaphor for Hong Kong's young fashion designers trying to stamp their singular styles on a global, regional, or even local stage. "It’s something I’m having to consider," says Wong.  "Being a Hong Kong designer is about creating something unique that other people can’t find in other markets. It must be distinct." Such counter-trend thinking - which was little in evidence among her many peers who showed at last year's competition, and indeed this year's Hong Kong PolyU BA catwalk show in May - distinguishes Wong's work. Where other Hong Kong designers point-and-shoot all too explicitly, and often unsuccessfully, for the lucrative trend-driven accessory market, Wong aspires towards head-to-toe balance and sense, delineated by playful experimentation . "In my design process I don't think about what others want. I do what I want and what I like."

That sense of challenge also manifests on September 4 at PMQ's Smart Fashion Runway, 'Canvas of the Night Sky', sponsored by CreateHK, in which 10 fashion designers are paired with visual designers in a cross-disciplinary collaboration which sees them present a mini story on stage. In Wong's case, she's partnered with 3JBK, and has created a woven outfit (right) rather than knitwear. "The outfit is designed with a gradual colour effect by layering mesh and reflective fabric. It's my first time handling this kind of material," says Wong. "The idea is that I expect the outfit's appearance will change under various different visual installations and create a new chemistry." Whatever the result, the creations will be exhibited for five days to the public.

How much did Joyce attempt to change the chemistry of her YDC designs for their collection? "Joyce was light, and pretty open," she enthuses before unravelling the particulars. "They wanted me to downsize some aspects of the looks; also to modify my winning collection, so it was not so bulky, or so layered." The trophy piece, or at least the most expensive, retails north of HK$5,000. "It's made from Japanese polyester – that’s why the cost is a bit higher. Having that Japanese association might be expensive, but is better for my branding," notes Wong.

Wong will hope to sell her collection to buyers around the world, given she faces the financial brick wall of establishing a physical retail space in Hong Kong. "I don't imagine when to have a bricks-and-mortar store, because of rent, logistics, etc... It's most efficient to be in showrooms in different places at the outset."

Part of last year's victory was the chance to visit G.V.G.V in Tokyo, and spend time with VIP judge and designer, MUG. Wong will visit in October, and she's busy preparing some pieces from her spring/summer 2019 collection to take along, or even wear. "It's about emotion. The inspiration this time is flowers," she says. "You know how they form and then the motion of them opening and closing. It means something new is coming, something living, too. So that's my theme. It echoes closely my molecule idea, too."

It will be a small collection, around 10 to 15 different pieces, and between beetroot infusions, Wong admits she's still weighing up the portfolio's balance. "I'm considering whether I should design a total look, or just pieces, separates, like just a top. Because, the total look can also be somewhat boring. So I'm still wondering about this idea."

How do seasons affect her design process in terms of autumn/winter or spring/summer? "More and more I’ve been questioning why we must always conform to those timings as designers. Making spring/summer collections in September/October and making winter collections in March. I question this timeline more now. Maybe in the future, someday, maybe I can control that process better, more like Alexander Wang who does that. Or Martin Margiela, too. He always showed when he felt ready to show. Maybe there can be a sort of Arto Wong, ad hoc idea. I love the ad hoc approach to projects and collections. But yes, commercial weight will always direct timelines."

Nothing was quite so ad hoc as the shoes Wong designed for her winning collection last year (left). Looking part-Elizabethan, or Regency, and part like they belonged to London's Victoria & Albert or the Kyoto Costume Institute, they had topical unisexuality and tomorrow's chic about them. Did the Chinese/English press go crazy for her retro-Regency novelty and experimentation? "No", she sighs. "Not at all. In either the English or Chinese press, no-one picked up on that. I had decided the shoes should be all about ruffles, because I wanted a linkage between the molecules and this idea, like the idea of layering, so I wanted that ruffled effect."  Wong isn't making shoes for either her Joyce collection or her spring/summer 2019, but we urge her to. "A complete brand should include everything and most important of all, handbags," she says, laughing. "But I want to focus on the look first - then at some point, I may create handbags and shoes but not now."

Menswear is something she might even do sooner. "There's a challenge in the men's market and I want to do men's fashion. There can be more innovative things," she says, without going into details."You need to create something new in that sector. So I like the idea of that challenge - not a large collection, but a few pieces I may well do soon." 

As the rain pelts down and Wong's mind races, what's the most surprising aspect of her character that people wouldn't ordinarily know? "I like to capture emotion, and one thing I love concerns smell. I'm very sensitive to a sense of smell. Books and magazines have smells, and I love those smells. And when you open new things they have smells." Favourite smell? "In my house, where my mother does the housework. [Laughter]. She loves to clean, so it always smells fresh, and clean. So sometimes when I'm outside and smell something fresh I feel like I'm at home."  

Does any romance or sentimentality influence her design aesthetic? "No. I don't think too much about  romanticism. I don't fantasise that way. I'm more functional and playful. I want more exciting things and I wouldn't think of romance for that. I like to find places that have a lot of narrative or story, like PMQ, or Tai Kwun, here in Hong Kong. That way you're shopping at places that have a provenance and a history." Sounds a lot like somewhere else we know. "Just like Joyce, of course!". 

Images and design: Courtesy of Arto Wong