The fashion industry can quite rightly be sometimes accused of being rather shallow, focussing on the obvious, the colours, the designs and forgetting the human aspect of the industry. This is an accusation one certainly couldn’t male against Choi Boko, who is often described as a designer who doesn’t just dress the body, but dresses the soul.
Choi Boko takes his inspiration from the world around him, always considering the social role and the social importance that fashion has. With a particular interest in individuality and its place in larger social structures, Choi Boko takes a mix of cultural traditions and mixes them up to create a unique identity that has a modern and cross-cultural ethos whilst still maintaining a strong heritage and links to its origins.
An academic as well as a designer, Boko has held professorships at Gyung-il University and Daegu Marae College and was also director of the Korean Fashion Association in 2011. But it is his designs that he is best known for, and he has been the recipient of a number of awards that reflect this. 1998 saw him win the Korea Textile Grand Prize, in 1999 he won the Korean Ministry of Industry Fashion Prize and in 2003 he won the Golden Fingertip Prize.
Considered one of the elder statesmen of Korean fashion, he remains one of the most dynamic, creative and innovative designers not just of his generation, but of the current generation as well. His designs continue to inspire and influence, and there is no sign of this changing in the near future, and he continues to showcase his collections at fashion weeks around the world, including London, Paris, New York and Tokyo.
Website: www.choiboko.com
0