Vintage aficionado, Jiyong Kim, uses nature as a design device

The South Korean-born designer’s obsession with vintage clothing began when he was a teenager, at which time he was deeply inspired by Japanese designers such as Takahiro Miyashita, Undercover and Issey Miyake. Determined to dress differently than his peers, Kim began his journey as a collector, accumulating a variety of vintage pieces, from 90s designers to World War II military garments, often doing his own design DIY on top of what he found. “My hobby has always been collecting vintage, so it was very natural for me to find a lot of interesting references within aged garments, focusing on faded pieces that people no longer considered valuable.”

“Upcycling can actually be really luxurious. It is a new way of luxury.”

During his internship at Maison Mihara Yasuhiro, Kim observed how the house worked with vintage garments and fabrics as a starting point from which to create one-of-a-kind pieces. “It was there that I learnt that upcycling can actually be really luxurious. It is a new way of luxury.” The designer felt encouraged to integrate this methodology into his own practice, experimenting with the ways in which fabric can be reused and reimagined to create unique, one-off garments.

“I hate the way people consume fashion. The issue of sustainability needs to be carefully explained to consumers so that it can be properly understood by them.”

The designer’s final collection pushes against contemporary society’s toxic culture of disposability, urging consumers to consider their accountability in perpetuating the short life cycles of garments. He says, “I hate the way people consume fashion. The issue of sustainability needs to be carefully explained to consumers so that it can be properly understood by them. Designers have a responsibility to show consumers the right way; we must study sustainability and share and practice it wherever possible.”

Thus, Kim’s graduate collection is his very own call to arms; a proposition that we reshape our perception of and reverence for aged garments, shifting the ways in which we wear and consume accordingly. He elicits, “I think everyone has some faded garments in their closet, but they don’t consider these beautiful. They throw them away or re-dye them because they look old. I wanted to change the perception of value around faded garments, to encourage people to view them as precious.”

Digging into this concept, Kim researched how people in hot climates avoid getting sunburnt and the kinds of clothing that they wear to do so. He looked to India, exploring the natural silhouettes created by the fabric that its people drape over their bodies, drawing inspiration from these relaxed, fluid shapes and examining the changing appearance of these textiles over time due to sun exposure.

Jiyong Kim’s quest to transform our feelings towards aged fabrics meant that the textile was naturally at the heart of his final collection. The development and construction process took two different forms. In the first instance, the designer worked with already old and weathered fabrics such as vintage curtains, embracing pre-existing natural flaws within these materials and integrating such details into the construction of his final pieces.

In the second instance, Kim wanted to use the sun as a device to fade his pieces, thus simulating a printed outcome without using any of the dye. So, the designer left the garments out the back of his parents’ home in Korea for months at a time whilst he continued his final year studies from London. Kim’s mum cared for the collection, regularly sending pictures so that he could check on the weathering progress. Each piece was left exposed to the elements for varying periods of time depending on how successfully it was responding. Some garments took only a month to fade, whilst it was 3-6 months before others saw any results. Once the designer was satisfied with the outcome of each piece, his mum would DHL them to London for him. He jokes, “We were collaborating.”

Relying on the natural environment to alter the appearance of his garments allowed Kim to eliminate the use of chemicals and acids in the production process, therefore avoiding unnecessary environmental pollutants and waste products. Almost all of the material that Kim used in the creation of his collection was either leftover, antique or vintage and naturally dyed. This was imperative to his process not only from an environmental perspective, but also from the point of view that naturally dyed textiles respond to the sun at a faster rate than their synthetic counterparts.

“I think my greatest strength is preparedness. I think this project, which had many limitations, would not have been able to be successfully completed without preparation.”

Naturally, Kim’s concept significantly altered the trajectory around the development of the collection, as the fabric needed plenty of time to fade. In order for the designer’s project to succeed, he had to work decisively and with conviction, as the constraints of his making process meant that he was not afforded the luxury of making last minute decisions. “It took a lot of time and there were a lot of limits. For example, if I chose an orange colour for the jacket, then I couldn’t change it later. I had to consider things such as styling and colour balance in advance of the collection actually being made.” He reflects, “I think my greatest strength is preparedness. I think this project, which had many limitations, would not have been able to be successfully completed without preparation.”

With a place on the MA Fashion at CSM due to commence in November, the pandemic experience has got Kim thinking even more seriously about timeless clothing and the role of sustainable practice in the industry. Motivated to start his own menswear label when he graduates, the designer will no doubt carry his unique abilities for innovation forward into his career in new and exciting ways.