In the world of fashion, it is unlikely there are many designers with a more unusual back story as Hyden Yoo.
Originally born in Texas, Yoo studied at the University of Chicago and graduated with degrees in East Asian Studies and and Biology. Yoo worked many different jobs upon graduation, including tennis coach, mathematics teacher, a Banana Republic salesperson and eventually management consultancy in Chicago. It was then however, that Yoo descided to do something that could change his life forever. He entered the game show, Fear Factor. He won.
Throughout all the jobs Yoo had since college, there was one career that fired his imagination, that of a fashion designer. Using the prize money from the Fear Factor gameshow, he moved to New York City and immersed himself in the city’s fashion culture, teaching himself the skills he would need to launch his own label. He took internships at a number of the city’s leading fashion houses, including Ralph Lauren and Prada, and also visited local fabric factories in the New York area to gain valuable insights into the manufacturing processes of clothing. During this time, he also had time to work on his first product, a dress shirt that was an inch or two shorter than the traditional dress shirt, which meant it could be worn untucked for an evening look, or could just as easily be tucked-in for the day at the office.
Since these early days, Yoo’s career has been metoeric. Both his men’s and women’s collections have been heavily featured in major publications such as Glamour, Elle and GQ, and he won the Gen Art ‘Fresh Faces Award’ and was recognised as one if his generation’s ‘Rising Stars’ by the prestigious Fashion Group International. His designs can be found in boutiques and department stores around the world, and effortlessly combine the worlds of the uptown banker and the downtown hipster.
Website: www.hydenyoo.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hyden.yoo1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hydenyoo
0