Based in South Korea, Minju Kim is an up and coming fashion designer. (Spoiler alert ahead) After winning Netflix’s Next in Fashion contest, Minju took off. Using a signature technique, Minju focuses her clothing lines on a single self-designed theme. Take Kim’s line, “Bear Rain,” for example. With the gallery photos of her line, Minju includes a graphic design of flying bears and sleeping girls, displayed in pastel, geometric figures. Each of the pieces have either the color scheme and/or the figures themselves printed onto the garments.
Minju Kim is always aiming for bold prints, largely inspired by Walter van Beirendonck’s work. Beirendonck’s prints are large, funky, and bright- and they’ve served Minju well, as demonstrated in the embroidered, angular, abstract sketches that coat the pieces of her “Black Illusion” line.
Unlike most designers, Kim is a triple threat. The designer, sewer, and sometimes model of her designs, Minju Kim breaks records. Kim flaunted her multiplicity on the show, Next in Fashion, too, shocking her fellow contestants with her multi-tasking and quick-wit. For this reason, Minju won the contest. In addition to her extravagant and unique ideas, Minju’s wide range of skills caught the judges’ attention and, more importantly, accelerated her in each level of the competition. With tensions running high and at times, a slacking partner, Minju needed her hundred arms to guide her to the finish line, sewing needle, pins, high spirit, and iPad software in hand(s).
My favorite part of Minju Kim’s designs is the weirdness. Her line, “Hero’s Eyes” is a great example of her unabashed oddity. Like the name of the line, the models are clad in superhero costumes. One thing catches the eye, though- the models are wearing the childhood, superhero-dream version of superhero garments. Underwear over stockings, unitard- the whole deal. Some of the models wear masks, while others are in full flight.
Above all, the line is… weird. And that’s why I like it, that’s why I classify it as “high fashion.” No, one wouldn’t wear these garments to the grocery store to get milk and eggs, but they’d gawk at them on a window display and dream of them that same night.
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