David Ho chats with the minds behind Ponder.er, a Hong Kong-based label going against the grain with their gender fluid designs

Ponder.er, the brainchild of creative duo Alex Po and Derek Cheng, challenges gender stereotypes and deconstructs social norms. For their new spring/summer 2026 collection, Garden of Fragments, the label decided to turn their lens on Hong Kong for their striking gender fluid designs. We find the ‘fragments’ of Hong Kong’s urban playground, such as bamboo scaffoldings, street objects and raw surfaces, weaved into the textured designs and interesting silhouettes from this collection.

Founded in 2019, the label has collaborated with the Hong Kong Ballet and seen their designs worn by celebrities worldwide. They’ve also scooped up awards along the way, including being the Yu Prize 2022 Grand Prize winner and being named ‘One of 10 Asian Designers To Watch’ by the Fashion Asia Hong Kong programme. More recently, Ponder.er was shortlisted as a semi-finalist for the 2024 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers.

The duo behind the label tell #legend about their design mission, new collection, and exciting upcoming collaborations with Disney.

How would you describe your brand to someone new to your brand and ethos?

We are all about elevating and liquifying your everyday wardrobe and encouraging our community to explore themselves through fashion.

Who are the people that you see wearing Ponder.er?

Anyone who is curious and eager to express themselves through not only what they wear, but also how they think and live. We don’t want to set boundaries in terms of what age groups, gender or characters we are targeting.

Gender fluidity is central to your fashion. Why did you find that such a compelling thing to explore and play around with in your designs?

It probably started with both of us being not very masculine boys (in the sterotypical social standards) growing up, and through fashion, we were able to discover more possibilities and we hope we can use fashion as a medium to break through some of these boundaries and labels.

You work as a duo. How would you describe what each of you brings to the creative process?

We discuss almost everything and make decisions together, but Alex brings more of his technical background to our products, giving them not just the experimental edge but also the details and finishings needed to look expensive. Derek is more into managing the brand image, the marketing side of the brand.

Tell us about your new collection – Garden of Fragments. Hong Kong is the inspiration for many of your designs this round. How do you find it as a market for fashion labels on the rise like yours?

Hong Kong has always been labelled as a financial hub, and sometimes a cultural desert, which we strongly disagree. We think there are a lot of creative talents here, and with the rich history of manufacturing, art, films etc there is a lot of potential for Hong Kong to be a place for emerging talents, despite the obvious challenges such as rent and lack of technical support for production and sampling.

A city like Hong Kong can still be very traditional at times. In your years running Ponder.er, what kinds of shift in mindsets and trends have you seen? Why do you think that is? 

It is still somehow quite a conservative city, for example gender issues are often neglected and seen as something not as important as other social issues. It’s quite evident with recently lawmakers recently voting down a proposal for recognising same sex marriage registered overseas. I believe however from what we have observed, the younger generations in Hong Kong are more open-minded in embracing diversity and different voices in the society.

On that note, what unique role do you think Ponder.er serves in the local fashion ecosystem?

Through Ponder.er, we never just wanted to build a clothing brand. We wanted to build a platform that promotes our values and allows people to voice their opinions.

I understand you’ve collaborated with the Hong Kong Ballet among others. What have been some of your most memorable partnerships?

Hong Kong Ballet was probably our very first collaboration ever, which was an interesting one because it’s not just about designing for the visual impact, but also to take into consideration the practicality and the movements of the dancers, it’s really cool we got the chance to work with the dancers and choreographers closely to make everything as seamless as possible.

We have recently partnered up with Disney to come up with a capsule collection to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Toy Story, which was a super exciting opportunity to turn our favourite cartoon to a full collection in the Ponder.er universe. We are launching a small commercial range soon!

What would be a dream collaboration for you? 

We think collaborations with artists from other disciplines such as furniture, interior or ceramic (and many more) would be really fun for us to explore the possibilities of bringing our unique aesthetic to other areas of art and design.

Looking forward, what’s next for Ponder.er?

We really want to and are already planning to do more to engage our customers and community directly, such as pop-ups in different cities and special projects that highlight different voices in our community. We hope we can build our brand as a platform for people to communicate and to exchange ideas and opinions.

Also see: The ongoing fashion upheaval of 2025