From fashion buyer to gallerist: how one Sydneysider made a creative change
(Featured on Vogue.com.au 31st Mar 2017)
After leaving her career in fashion buying for Gucci behind, Kitty Wong went back to what she felt was missing from her life: creative freedom.
Wong, now the gallery director for Saint Cloche in Sydney’s Paddington, champions emerging and established artists in the dreamy space. Wong spoke to Vogue about what it really means to be a gallerist in Sydney and why it’s always more important to buy art for the heart rather than the home.
Why opt for a career as a gallerist? Talk me through your journey.
“I started out as an artist, painting my way through high school then the first couple of years of university. I was also very interested in fashion, exciting things were happening in the late noughties, which then lead me to fashion design in the early years of my career. I loved the designing process and putting collections together. This path in fashion eventually lead me to every fashionista’s dream job at Gucci, where I was a buyer for almost a decade. Being a buyer for one of the world’s most desirable brands was hard work and exhilarating at the same time. I loved every minute of it but after a while, I realised something was missing, and that was the creative freedom I craved from being an artist at heart. Curating is far more creatively satisfying than buying and I’ve always been interested in the art of curation, behind every great artist is a great curator. I needed a new challenge and wanted to apply my skills as a seasoned luxury buyer to the arts.”
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