Ryan Lo
Known for his use of colour and a love of romance and the femme fatale, Hong Kong born designer Ryan Lo moved to London at 16 to pursue a career in fashion. Here the designer, and recent entry to the elite Fashion East gang tells us why his final university days were akin to a Britney Spears meltdown.
When did you first become aware of, and start to take an interest in, fashion? I can’t remember exactly. I always liked clothes and the idea of styling. I had some Barbies and Blythe dolls that I used to design clothes for but I started to take a proper interest when I hit my teenage years. I started collecting Hong Kong’s New Monday Magazines, and others like MILK, YES! and Idol just to look at the fashion pages. Before I developed my knowledge I pronounced Chanel as ‘Channel’ and thought Zara was couture! What inspired your creative side growing up in Hong Kong? Hong Kong is a city of mixed culture, so there are a lot of different things going on. I was inspired by Saniro, the Japanese cartoon mega figure company as I am a massive fan of Japanese anime. I also watched lots of Disney cartoons, Sleeping Beauty is my favourite, I was obsessed with her pink dress. My first Fashion East collection installation was partly inspired by Hong Kong’s red light district, the neon lights of the cheap Mong Kok nightclubs and prostitutes. You originally wanted to be an opera singer, what happened to stop you? Not exactly an opera singer, although I always had a thing for Phantom of the Opera. I wanted to be a singer, like Julie Andrews! I planned on following it as a career but my voice changed when I was 14 almost overnight. I remember I just stopped singing suddenly, I even started talking less and had to find a new dream. Why did you choose fashion as a backup option? Actually my mum choose it for me. When I finished my GCSEs at 16 in Hong Kong I wasn’t qualified to move on to do A-Levels, so my mum suggested that I do fashion design. I had a choice between Hong Kong and London, so I choose London. The decision was quick and within weeks, I moved to London and started learning pattern cutting from YouTube videos. And that was the start of my eight years in London as a lonely Chinese person! Why choose London College of Fashion? Did you consider any other colleges? I considered many other colleges, especially Central Saint Martins, but I was too young for their
foundation course. I started on LCF’s Fashion Portfolio course, even though I should have been 17 they let me in. A year later when I was 18, I applied for Central Saint Martin’s BA Womenswear, but they rejected me and LCF welcomed me, so I went with them. How different was London to Hong Kong—what did you miss, did you experience culture shock? I found everything in London quite slow compared to Asian cities. Hong Kong never sleeps, if I am hungry at 3am I can just go out on the street and find any number of restaurants open. Asian cities seem more ruthless and competitive, I am still having a really hard time understanding how most British people can be so laid back in comparison. You did an internship with Charles Anastace while studying—how did that help you and what did you learn? Honestly it showed me the ugly side of the industry. Behind the scenes of fashion is so unglamorous; it’s all coffee runs, late hours and sleepless nights. Fashion designers work really, really hard for very little pay. I think a lot of fashion students these days think it’s like The Devil Wears Prada but it honestly isn’t. Charles and I are still really good friends, though. Did you prefer learning on the job as opposed to in the classroom? Was it more fulfilling? At that time, learning on the job was much more fulfilling, fun and exciting. I think all interns have high hope when they do their first placement. But looking back now, I do think both classroom learning and working on the job are equally important. The classroom learning taught me technicalities but in the real business you have to adjust and even cut corners to meet deadlines. I think to be successful, you need both experiences. Your collection wasn’t shown in the LCF BA show, was that disappointing? Yes very disappointing! It was the darkest, saddest, loneliest, most cynical day of my career. I made a t-shirt saying ‘Fuck You All!’ and I wore it to college the next day. At that time, a very famous MA course rejected me too, so I shaved my head. I was just like Britney Spears when she had her meltdown!