Our fashion production team
Rob Watt, Founder & Director
I’ve always loved fashion. The ingenuity. The fluidity. The constantly evolving trends and ideas.
Most of all, I enjoy cultivating close personal working relationships with designers, both new and established, and bringing their fashion ideas to life. In creating these strong connections, I develop a deeper understanding of their vision and what is needed to deliver on their expectations.
My career began in South Australia in 1996, as a fabric manager with fashion icons George Gross and Harry Watt (founders of the George Gross and Harry Who labels). Four years later I was promoted to their Operations Manager, Australia, overseeing the manufacture of their designs in production houses across Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne.
I took my first fabric buying trip to Hong Kong in 1998 and over the next 3-4 years developed George and Harry’s offshore business, founding a solid manufacturing presence in India, Vietnam, Indonesia and China. This provided me with the opportunity to build an extensive network with fabric manufacturers, pattern developers and sewing contractors across Asia.
WnG Designs – bridging the cultural divide
In 2007, I launched WnG Designs with my wife Natalie, a fashion designer in her own right (Basal the Label) . By this time we had permanently relocated to Hong Kong, where we grew WnG Designs from just us and our suitcases, to a team of 8 merchandisers supported by accounting and administration staff, as well as our own in-house quality control team.
We regularly travel to Europe and Australia to connect with our clientele, showcase new fabric samples from our textile mills in Asia and Europe, and discuss ideas and advancements in garment development.