Vol.131_Songseoyoon
Interviewed by Kim Kieun
from Seoul, South Korea
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You work with the uncertain border between fashion and video art, and the result is a fresh, unexpected approach. Tell us more about your brand.
I think the uncertainty is a word that can represent my brand. When I received this question form other magazines, I considered it to be difficult. Firstly, because I don’t want to justify my brand. I would like to try many other platforms in my work, not to limit myself only to fashion and video. I am very interested in cultural media as a whole.
I sensed another uncertainty when you were using the word “fashion” as media, and not as industry. On the same side, the collection doesn’t seem to aim commercial sales.
I didn’t have any plan for the brand, as I started my first collection as the graduation project from university, definitely not considering the commercial purposes. I had meetings with few select shops and showrooms at the beginning, but it couldn’t reach the standard for the sales. When I returned to Korea from New York, I didn’t work with showrooms anymore. I’m more focused on producing content, not sales strategies. I’m more interested in the mood and visuality that fashion brings, rather than the clothing that touches your skin.
The objects from the collection “Intimates” have caught my eyes...
The “Intimates” collection is very complex, because I designed underwear, bedsheets and table lamps. It started from the idea that I couldn’t find the right bedsheets and underwear for my personal purchase, I simply felt that the range of the selection was pretty narrow.
In the same time, people are more focused on their clothing, and most of them don’t find their personal space as interesting, as they invest most in their clothing.
One day, I visited my friend’s house and I was enchanted by the sex toys in the very ordinary interior. I wanted to develop a sex toy brand, but there were lots of problems. So, I decided to produce a sex toy showcase box which also works as table lamp instead.. The lookbook was sponsored by Pleasure Lab, a sex toy select shop.
Your video works you produced are quite interesting. Can you talk more about it? Also develop how you got the inspiration for the collection.
Generally, the collections were developed out of an extemporaneous process. I think it comes from my life style, as I choose images daily and I save them and delete them from the folders.
The video work for AW2018 was a collaboration with a musician friend from New York. I had the idea to create the composition on blue or green screens, then exchange the outfit on the screen, and edit it as a video piece. My friend had a similar idea, so we selected a few songs from Annika Zee’s album and worked on the video together.
How do you feel about life in Seoul as a fashion designer.
I think New York is still one of the important cities in the world for fashion – the best editorials are written there, but I never felt that people are that sensitive while I was living in New York. You could see the fashion-people in parties, but not more than that. In Seoul, I could see many brand designers on the street and it was quite shocking to me at first. New Yok is slower than Seoul in spreading a trend to the public, so I could somehow remain behind, but in Seoul, it’s very easy to be shown and grow fast. It brings more excitement to my daily life, it helps me study more and determines me to make new and fresh designs.