J KOO / Tailored + Torn

Designers: Jinwoo Choi and Yeonjoo Koo, both of whom trained in menswear at Central Saint Martins in London. “Tailoring is fundamental to garment structure; it is the basis of our design process.”

Spring inspiration: The ’20s and the ’80s. “We tried to randomly collage and mix them—a more poetic sense from ’20s with a street punk mood from the ’80s.”

What it means to be from Seoul: “The city has so many different styles mixed together. There are many foreign travelers and Korean young people, so you cannot define a particular look. Our design studio is on Garosu-gil in Gangnam, a famous street for shopping and eating, so we are inspired by people there, but we do not see ourselves only as Korean fashion designers—just fashion designers in Korea. In the future, we could be anywhere in the world.”

On Seoul Fashion Week: “We get a lot of interest from Asia, and more and more from Europe and the United States. A lot of press and buyers attend from outside the country; it is very difficult to put everyone in the front row spot. We presented our spring collection at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, the official place for SFW, and the biggest. We met about 200 models and did a fitting with 60 of them, then selected 22 for the show. We do not have standard rules in terms of body size; we just look for a natural attitude.”

via Nordstrom Fashion Blog http://ift.tt/2mDZW9k