INTERVIEW << Le Mile>>

What do you think makes a fashion hero? Do you consider your work heroic? Why/not

Well. If you can inspire someone through design, isn't that at least a fashion hero?
I didn't work with the hero in mind. However, through this collection, I wanted to tell about how I viewed and interpreted design.
If my design inspired someone, I might have been someone's hero.

What is something that you were surprised to learn during the creation of your collection? What did it teach you?

I usually make a plan about how to make a collection and what patterns will be needed. And after deciding what the finished silhouette would look like, I made it according to those plan. However for this collection, I went out of my usual way. After thinking about what kind of “boundary” to play for each outfit, I designed it according to the concept.
As for the beige flat draping top and gray all-in-one suit, these two outfits are not the silhouettes I was expecting. In the process of making clothes, I wanted to destroy the stereotypes (the limit of thought) that exist in people's thoughts, and during the collection, I was able to see many unexpected shapes. It was a bit improvised and risky, but I realized that I could get some interesting results. There are many ways to design, but through this collection I was able to try a method that I do not prefer, and it was a new challenge for me.

What problem do you want your brand to solve?

I think, one of the constant questions asked in fashion is sustainability.
The issue of sustainability was not in this collection, and this seems to be the task that my brand has to solve. I think research and solutions for more sustainable designs or sustainable materials are needed.

Where do you see your brand in the new year? What’s the concept for your next collection/project?

The concept of my next personal project has not yet been determined, but like the previous projects, wearable clothes or products with an abstract and unclear concept will be introduced in Korea under the brand name of @ Neueneut.

What makes you open-minded personally and as a designer?

When observing object or space, I always try to look at it in a different way.
Rather than focusing on one form of an object, I focus on the new image that the details remind me of, or the details that come from the harmony of various objects and light spaces.
Also, I think of inspiration for the collection, when I collect unfamiliar objects without knowing its purpose and give them my own personal meaning and purpose.

For example, as a Korean in Germany, I live in Berlin with a different culture. In doing so, I naturally encounter unfamiliar spaces and objects frequently.
It may be something familiar in Germany, but it gives me a new inspiration and these perspectives influenced me when I was designing. How do you know if you’ve pushed the boundary too far?

How do you know if you haven’t pushed the boundary far enough?

The theme ,,Grenzenlose Grenze “means a boundary where the boundary has disappeared. Destroying, moving, ,extending the existing visual or internal boundary and creating an unexpected new boundary. And through these collections, the idea was to convey to the public that it is possible to look at the collections even with these thoughts.To do that, I think I needed my own standards as an abstract concept.

When I looked at the collections along with the subject description, I was constantly checking the intention of the work.

After deciding what boundary from the theme of each outfit that I wanted to talk about, I asked myself a question in this process.,, Does this detail sufficiently express the intended movement or extension of the boundary? ,, Is the intention of the boundary that I meant to be well reflected in the work? If not, why isn't it visually adequate?”

In this way, based on whether the intention of the work is well reflected in the outfit, it was checked whether the boundary was too crossed or not sufficient.

Your fourth outfit indicates the limit of stereotypes that exist in our minds. What is it specifically that some of the other outfits indicate about boundaries?

If we go on to more details to other outfits,...

1 Outfit/ The slanted yellow blazer and skirt are design that focuses on breaking and moving the boundaries of the body through clothes.

2 Outfit/ Trench coat and neon-colored skirt shoes are a design that focuses on the new boundary created through the extension of the outline of clothes.

3 Outfit/ The vertical stripe top uses an image that distorts the boundaries of the body as a pattern. And by extending the pattern of the top, the boundary of the body was moved to make the body look distorted.

5 Outfit /Light Green's bodysuit is designed to create the effect of looking bent on the back or distorted legs through the destruction and movement of clothes that cross the boundaries of the existing body.

6 Outfit / The printed top, pants and the beige leather cropped jacket are designed to expand or move the boundaries although standing straight. The shoulder that looks slanted to one side, the chest that looks bigger on one side, and the pants make the curvature of the legs look artificial.

7 Outfit / Gray all-in-one suit with cape is designed in the same way as outfit 4. The clothes that are all worn in the shape of a suit, and the back is the shape of a cape. It goes beyond the basic common sense (boundaries, limits) that exist in the way of wearing and making, and randomly placing sleeves, pants, and tops on a flat fabric. And the unnatural folds that appear while wearing and the shape of the back cape are designs that show the new boundaries obtained after destroying the existing boundaries (= stereotypes).