Roy Luo will be showing their latest collection on the runway at Vancouver Fashion Week SS27 on Saturday, Oct. 17th. Tix purchase HERE!
Bio -
Roy Luo is a Canadian designer, based in New York, that views design as a tool to challenge gendered bodies and material culture. Their work is situated in the queer canon, toying with garments at the threshold between art objects and wearables. Their career spans technical design, patternmaking, and material exploration, punctuated by their role as a commercial knitwear designer. They hold an MFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology, along with a Bachelor of Design from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Interview -
Please share a bit about your journey to embrace fashion design as a career.
I've always sort of known I was going to end up in the fashion world! I started sewing as a kid by making doll clothes, and eventually started making my own clothes in high school. I enrolled in fashion school, but the pandemic hit us pretty hard towards the end of my studies and I never felt completely satisifed with my work. Afterward, I worked as a technical designer for a few years. I knew that eventually I wanted to work on my own practice so moving to New York was a big step toward that goal, as was pursuing my MFA.
How did you learn your skills?
I was first self-taught via YouTube, but my undergraduate studies established many of the technical skills I use today. It was also sort of night and day as my Master's degree did not challenge me at all technically, but was rather a good exercise in creative storytelling and branding, a large part of fashion that does beyond the hard skills.
Who are you as a designer? Aesthetic? Customer? Brand?
I like to think of my work as intuitively playful! I usually don’t design around a season or gender in mind, rather story-tell through a funhouse lens. I think kitsch is so crucial to my work and that’s kind of why I think of John Waters as my ideal customer. I like to keep things fun!
What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?
Having too many ideas at once is always seems problem; I tend to find inspiration everywhere I go, especially in the way I process and build a line through color. The real challenge is always editing and finding what details work well together and what needs to be left out. There's so many good ideas each collection that are better left out just so things can breathe.
Readers would love to know more about the collection you will be showing at Vancouver Fashion Week SS27.
“Toy Garden” is my sophomore collection where I’m tending to all my creative ideas through play. I thought a lot about the relationship between play and labour, I often treat my creative process as a garden of ideas to be nurtured. It takes a lot of real labour to be a practicing designer, but it never feels like work when it’s framed as a form of play. I also had a lot of deadstock materials left from previous collections that I wanted to interpret in a new way. I see this collection as a regrowth.
Where can readers purchase your designs?
Some of the three-fingered gloves from both this collection and my previous collection are available on my site (royluoart.com) in limited quantities! Only because I make them myself, I'd love to release more but I wanted to test the demand first.
What's next for you as a designer and your brand?
I'd love to figure out a way to scale! Whether that means producing more collections or finding the right supply chains to get more of my work available to wider audiences.
In closing is there anything else you'd like to share with readers?
I’m just extremely ecstatic to share my work this season! I haven’t been on a Canadian runway since 2024, so it will be a nice homecoming.
Links -
I like to think of my work as intuitively playful! I usually don’t design around a season or gender in mind, rather story-tell through a funhouse lens. I think kitsch is so crucial to my work and that’s kind of why I think of John Waters as my ideal customer. I like to keep things fun!
What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?
Having too many ideas at once is always seems problem; I tend to find inspiration everywhere I go, especially in the way I process and build a line through color. The real challenge is always editing and finding what details work well together and what needs to be left out. There's so many good ideas each collection that are better left out just so things can breathe.
Where do you find inspiration for new collections? How important is colour to your design process?
I usually find inspiration through nostalgia and the mundane, this collection sort of shot off of the bouquet bag I had created in my thesis. I like replicating real objects in these unreal ways, and it was nice to build off the thematic element of roses.
I usually find inspiration through nostalgia and the mundane, this collection sort of shot off of the bouquet bag I had created in my thesis. I like replicating real objects in these unreal ways, and it was nice to build off the thematic element of roses.
Some Assembly Required
Readers would love to know more about the collection you will be showing at Vancouver Fashion Week SS27.
“Toy Garden” is my sophomore collection where I’m tending to all my creative ideas through play. I thought a lot about the relationship between play and labour, I often treat my creative process as a garden of ideas to be nurtured. It takes a lot of real labour to be a practicing designer, but it never feels like work when it’s framed as a form of play. I also had a lot of deadstock materials left from previous collections that I wanted to interpret in a new way. I see this collection as a regrowth.
Do you have a favorite look in this collection?
One of my favourite looks is the opening look. Mainly because of the fabric, it took hours to diecut the houndstooth by hand. I also love that it's a backless jacket, especially one that shows off a detail like the spade accessory, which also repeats later on in this collection.
One of my favourite looks is the opening look. Mainly because of the fabric, it took hours to diecut the houndstooth by hand. I also love that it's a backless jacket, especially one that shows off a detail like the spade accessory, which also repeats later on in this collection.
Where can readers purchase your designs?
Some of the three-fingered gloves from both this collection and my previous collection are available on my site (royluoart.com) in limited quantities! Only because I make them myself, I'd love to release more but I wanted to test the demand first.
What's next for you as a designer and your brand?
I'd love to figure out a way to scale! Whether that means producing more collections or finding the right supply chains to get more of my work available to wider audiences.
In closing is there anything else you'd like to share with readers?
I’m just extremely ecstatic to share my work this season! I haven’t been on a Canadian runway since 2024, so it will be a nice homecoming.
Links -
- Website - www.royluoart.com
- Instagram - @royluoart
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