IT WOULD HAVE been a far-fetched fantasy for cutting-edge designers such as Miuccia Prada, Jil Sander and Ann Demeulemeester to consider making a successful break into men's fashion 20 years ago. While the idea of men creating women's clothing is old news in the industry, the thought of having women helm menswear labels was still regarded as relatively novel - until the past decade.
The roster of women designers creating menswear is ever-expanding. Designers such as Veronique Branquinho, Sophia Kokosolaki and Martine Sitbon have recently unveiled their menswear collections, and Hong Kong-based duo Carol Wong and Hilda Yim are the latest crop of cool chicks who have hopped on the menswear bandwagon.
'It's fun to dress a guy,' says Wong when asked about the birth of new menswear label, Schiele. 'I think women have a different perspective towards men's fashion. Male designers are often too direct and to-the-point with their designs, probably because they wear the clothes. Women can add a touch of finesse, a feminine side, to designs and I think that's something that male designers can't often do.'
Asked what the collection - which for spring/summer comprises quirky, hand-embroidered tees, vintage-inspired washed shirts and city boy blazers - has in common with the erotic nudes of its namesake, turn-of-the-century Austrian painter Egon Schiele, Wong explains that the connection is more conceptual than literal.
'We were looking at old art books and we really wanted to bring in the name Schiele,' explains Wong. 'We wanted something artistic and creative and we wanted to capture the aesthetics of his strong images but not so much his borderline pornographic obsessions.'
Educated at Parsons School of Design and New York University respectively, Yim and Wong first met when the latter worked as a fashion buyer at SoHo style mecca Steven Alan and the former designed a T-shirt line called Shopaholic, which is sold in Hong Kong, the United States and Japan.