If you live in Hong Kong, chances are you’ve walked past a branding campaign masterminded by Jerry Haha or have attended a party that he’s thrown. When it comes to the HK creative scene, it is at once fantastically sprawled and also shockingly intimate. It is a place that sometimes feels like a bustling metropolis with a thousand layers and at other times, a small municipality where everyone knows each other. In a city where tradition and modernity endlessly weave through one another, and where one invariantly colors the other, is where a creative experimenter like Jerry thrives.
It’s impossible to put Jerry in a single box. He founded his creative studio, Artificial Dust, several years ago and has since established a name for himself as someone who is willing to push artistic boundaries and defy cultural norms. He takes inspiration from various decades, cities and subcultures, blending them all seamlessly into a cohesive vision of youth unfiltered. As seen in his styling work (although Jerry is adamant in clarifying that he has never actually seen himself as a stylist) with close friend and rising artist, Gareth Tong, the 25-year-old creative is unafraid to raise some eyebrows. Whether dressing the singer in powder pink Chanel or a skirt layered over cargo pants, Jerry is putting the fun back in dressing up and is flipping the bird at convention while he’s at it.
Known for his androgynous looks (he ate and left no crumbs with this head-to-toe Miu Miu look), Jerry offers a refreshing perspective on traditional conversations around gender binaries and what should be categorized as menswear and what should be womenswear. Especially in a city like Hong Kong that is largely considered conservative compared to its western counterparts, it is bracing to have an unapologetic voice plainly declaring, “It doesn’t really matter if you want to wear menswear or womenswear. They’re just clothes to me.” Read our conversation with the creative producer below and explore our editorial on how to style heeled boots according to Jerry Haha.
You wear many hats. How would you describe what you do?
I’m a creative producer. I do production, creative direction and consultancy. And I’m also a DJ [laughs], I forgot.
You’re known for your androgynous looks. What is your philosophy when it comes to traditional definitions of menswear and womenswear?
I think nowadays, it’s getting blurry. It doesn’t really matter if you want to wear menswear or womenswear. They’re just clothes to me. If it’s good, it’s good. If it fits, it fits.
What was your thought process when it came to putting together these looks around heeled boots?
It’s about playing around with different textures. I feel like people often overlook textures as a styling element. I think that’s a big part of my styling philosophy. With the Margiela Tabis, it’s a classic silhouette and I wanted to do something funky with it. It’s not always just about putting a suit on and then having crazy shoes. I want to play with the whole silhouette and how I can enhance the shoe as its own. So you can see a lot of puffy silhouettes and really layered tops and also different textures and different forms. I love to play with these elements – and especially shoes, so I can just go crazy with that.
What is your styling advice for someone who has never worn a heeled shoe before?
Get the right socks [laughs] or don’t wear any socks. You just have to break it in. Most of the leather shoes, it’s just about putting the hours in and getting them beat up. I think people are sometimes too careful with shoes but for me, it tells a story when you beat them up.
I don’t think about whether it’s feminine or masculine. A shoe is just a shoe. I love to wear crazy-looking heel boots with everyday wear – one of my favorite things is pairing Pradas with Uniqlo. Stuff like that. Like I have these Margiela Tabis on, but I’m wearing Off-White x Nike running shorts. So the whole idea of high and low and the contrast is really important to me. Just don’t try too hard.
How did you develop your personal style? Does your personal style play a big part when you’re styling for a client?
To me, I don’t look at style or fashion as simply the way that people dress. I listen to music, look at art, I work with all sorts of clients and I love talking to people. And that’s where I get my style from – just from working with people. Music inspires me a lot and plays a big part of my style. I look a lot at the style of 90s bands, hardcore, punk. I use that sort of knowledge and incorporate it with my style, mix it between vintage and modern. I like to look at it as a sort of future vintage.
But I don’t really style people that much unless I know them personally. That’s really important. I wouldn’t call myself a stylist because I don’t do styling work at all – I just style my friends and if they need help, I’ll just tell them if that looks cool or not. That’s pretty much how I work, because styling is really personal. I don’t want it to be just them telling me what they want and then that’s what I give them – like it’s not just me pulling some clothes and throwing it on them and saying, “You should wear this.” They’ll only look cool in that moment but after they take it off, it’s a whole other person. I want to work with them on a long-term vision. I can help them develop their own thing and then they can just work on it on their own.
So it’s more about identity?
Yeah, 100 percent. Especially in the field that we work in, I think having a personality is so important.
What is the most unique aspect of working as a creative in the Hong Kong fashion and entertainment industries?
Hong Kong is not really identified as a fashion city. It’s very money-driven – all about banks and accounts and numbers. It almost creates an open door for us to do whatever we want and we can open people’s minds. When we travel we take these ideas and we take them back to Hong Kong and people will think, “Oh yeah, that’s fresh!” I feel like Hong Kong people have an open mind, but just don’t know that these things exist. Like the whole unisex thing and me wearing women’s clothes. They don’t understand until you show them and you can actually do this. And then that triggers an emotion. I want to trigger emotions with my work, no matter if it’s good or bad. I want people to think.
Which city inspires you the most when it comes to fashion?
Japan, for sure. There is this whole attention to detail and how they’re able to take something from a foreign place and incorporate it into their own identity. It’s them being able to take something and being able to reinterpret it and make it entirely their own. That’s incredible to me and that’s what creativity looks like.
If you could only wear one brand for the rest of your life, what brand would it be and why?
For now, it’s Our Legacy. They make the simplest garments but the cutting and silhouettes fit really well on a person. My favorite T-shirt is from Our Legacy and it’s just a blank, single stitch T-shirt, just a really thin T-shirt to be honest, but I love the silhouette. I think it all comes down to how something should sit on a person, how a shirt drapes or the perfect length on a pair of jeans. I love the attention to detail. It’s all about proportions.