Rokh triumphs with delicate deconstruction

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Oct 1, 2021

The problem with deconstruction, a huge movement in fashion, is that while it looks great on runways, it tends to frighten consumers on a clothes rack. Not at Rokh, especially this season, which staged a great collection Thursday evening in the Petit Palais.
 

Ultimately a comment on how much talent has Rokh’s designer, Korean-born Rok Hwang, who displaced, distanced and above all disassembled garments with grace and a touch of genius this season. The key thing was that his idea of deconstruction looked delicate and not dangerous, as often happens using this technique.
 
Cropped tuxedos that fall off the shoulders just so, worn with upside down jackets made into flared skirts. The torsos of trenches reinvented as minis or askew cummerbunds. A classy blouse that descends into a corset to finish in a trench coat. A brilliantly cut trench/dress dissected by multiple military belts. A crème caramel jumpsuit combining bustier and fatigue pants.

All pretty complicated but never confused or confusing. The sort of stylish, assured and visually striking show and collection that one only ever really sees in Paris. Albeit, by a London-based house.
 
For this graduate of Central Saint Martins, alumni of Phoebe Philo’s Celine and 2018 LVMH special prize winner, this felt like a break-out collection.
 
Even if it was not a show without its flaws – there was an awkward evening wear malfunction with a clinging gold column that keep revealing too much on one model, and a final feathered bubble skirt look that really didn’t work. Plus, why put on your soundtrack The Damned’s gruff and grotty version of 'White Rabbit', when you can play Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane?
 
But these are small quibbles after a memorable display by a designer very much on his A game. Rokh has arrived.