FLORENCE, ITALY — JiyongKim made the leap onto the official Pitti calendar this season, presenting his work outside Asia for the first time through a presentation-cum-exhibition format that placed the clothes in a state of stillness. The designer’s stock-in-trade is a technical fusion of practicality and sophistication.
Having trained at design ateliers including Lemaire and Louis Vuitton during Virgil Abloh’s tenure, he draws equal inspiration from deconstructivism and function-led minimalism. JiyongKim’s outerwear offerings are imbued with fuss-free rigour and easy-flowing volumes.
JiyongKim
This season, the designer looked to sun-bleaching techniques for inspiration. Though the process may seem complex, he explained, it translates naturally into fabric and print, resulting in an almost darkly geological quality. “We make a garment and then we just put it under the sun,” he tells GLASS at his exhibition space.
After graduating from Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, JiyongKim moved to London, where he completed both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Central Saint Martins. Yet the sun-bleaching process itself dates back to his very first graduate collection. “Sometimes we use fences to drape garments, while on other occasions we place lace fabrics on them and then leave them for a few months,” he explains.
JiyongKim
The most consistent thread throughout the collection, however, was a philosophy JiyongKim has been refining since his student days. It centres on the idea that garments should be responsive and adaptable: a notion that borrows, much like his aesthetic, from both luxury garment-making, where each piece is tailored to a client, and functional clothing, where garments can be pulled, buckled and adjusted to alter fit and volume.
“This brand was my dream when I was really, really young, and I’ve always wanted to bring my exhibition to a global audience. Pitti is my first opportunity to do that,” he reflects, his face lighting up with excitement.
JiyongKim
Ultimately, the designer’s reductive and disciplined vision, which comes across as almost anti-fashion, sets him apart from the droves of trend-driven contemporaries. His work feels less concerned with chasing novelty than with refining an idea: a quality that makes it all the more compelling.
by Chidozie Obasi