Hong Hye Jin is one of a growing number of fashion designers who are coming into the industry following a career elsewhere, in a usually related industry. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA, Jin was well-known previously for her work as an artist and sculptor, working with furniture, jewellery and welded metal sculptures. However, Jin found that she craved a new challenge, and whilst not turning her back on art and sculpture entirely, she decided to engage with the world of fashion, and it is for this reason that she set up the Seoul based label Studio K.
As an artist, Jin was very used to working with the abstract, and for her first runway collection, she focussed her attentions on the multiple design possibilities of the cube. Her entire collection was in some way related to how the cube could be used, with bold prints accessorised by blue wood cube necklaces, voluminous clutch purses pressed neatly against the models bodies in the shape of a perfect square. Despite its focussing on the concepts and uses of the cube, Hong Hye Jin thinks that her collections, although all based around a concept of some sort, have more to do with what is inside her than the concept itself. “It is funny though. I think the look of the collection had more to do with something within me, maybe that I don’t understand quite yet, than with my concept. The last collection that I did was entirely based on notions of drapery and fluidity. Yet it looked almost exactly the same.”
Aiming for modern career women who know their own mind and have a clear vision of the look that they want to achieve, Hong Hye Jin’s fledgling Studio K looks certain to be a brand that is going to take off and fly.
Website: www.thestudiok.com
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