Meet Jinsun Park & Myoungsin Lee, aka Low Classic
Meet Jinsun Park and Myoungsin Lee, the faces behind the not-to-be-missed Korean brand, Low Classic, which hosted the Novembre Lounge this September and just presented their SS24 collection in Paris for the first time.
Interview Jeanne-Salomé Rochat Photography Louis Canada
Walk me through the realization of needing to create your own brand.
It basically started from a simple thought: We just wanted to design something we want to wear. There was no middle-ground pricing in fashion back then, and everything was priced too high or too low.
Myoungsin Lee
Designer brands put out beautiful items that were too expensive. Many internet shopping malls sold affordable products, but the quality was not satisfactory at all. When we talked about making our own brand, we wanted to make one that offers clothes that we liked at a reasonable price. We wanted it to be sort of a new standard for contemporary clothing.
Jinsun Park
That’s part of the reason why we decided the “classic” aesthetic should be our brand principle.
Spell out what “Low Classic” stands for. The "Low" and the "Classic", what does that spark for you?
J When I think of the definition of ‘classic’, it reminds me of unwavering basics. The world is constantly reshaped by new trends and individualities, but classic things do not change. However, we didn’t want our definition of classic to feel intimidating or boring, so we combined it with the word “low” to add a bit of wit, if you will. We hope everyone can enjoy our designs comfortably.
M I think the answer can vary if we discuss “What is classic?” Classic can be defined differently depending on who’s defining it and when.
Some people might say a dress is something classic. And these days, many would say something casual and simple is classic. What’s important is our effort to constantly redefine the classic in our own way and keep up with the times.
How did you develop the particular tone of your brand over time? Has it been linear evolution, or rather not?
M Despite our desire to make realistic fashion that speaks to our generation. The burden of business and commerce was higher than we'd imagined in the beginning, and this affected the clothes we made quite a bit. The collection became more fancy but somewhat restrained, to appeal to a wider audience and also to make the brand look more established. Recently, we’ve realized that we'd kind of forgotten what we wanted to do in the first place: make clothes that make us feel good, that we want to wear every day, not to just 'dress well’. The SS24 collection we've just presented reflects all these thoughts.
J The most essential thing for us was communicating with contemporary people through our clothes. When we noticed that our coworkers were dressing less and less in Low Classic, it had a sobering effect on us. It was a really worrying sign. If the clothes you make don't even convince the people you work with, you have to ask ourselves: who are you speaking to? Who are you doing all this for? In developing the latest collections, especially the SS24, we discussed a lot with our team, as if we were at a new starting point, asking them what kind of clothes they wanted to wear now and here. Their contribution and support were vital to moving forward on a new chapter.
M If there's one thing, say it value, that we've managed to maintain, it's that we've always put our own interests before money. We did events when we had something to say, not doing it by automatism. And we were always keen to collaborate with people we like, without really thinking about what's in it for us. Staying true to what we do was very important. We didn't try to follow trends or systems at all costs. Consequently, the brand’s evolution is rather 'slow'.
We often make jokes that we are ‘Slow Classic’.
How much, if at all, did you know beforehand that there would be an audience for what you wanted to do in fashion?
M: I didn’t really know beforehand but I think there was an important moment when the Korean public started to pay more attention to fashion brands, thanks to the media. When we started out, there wasn’t much awareness of designer brands. People would buy clothes but didn’t remember the brand’s name, or even if they knew the name, they couldn’t connect it with the clothes. Not many people cared about who was making the clothes. Many designers were frustrated by that. Luckily, young people showed a particular affection for our brand, adhered to our values, as if they'd been waiting for us to exist, this from the very beginning.
J I'd say it's rather easy to find your audience when you're starting a brand, because you get very attached to what you, as a creator, want to tell, and spend a lot of time asking almost ‘existential’ questions. But the real challenge comes when the business expands, and you need to convince other audiences and attract more followers. It's not easy to maintain an identity and values from the beginning, while at the same time pruning your audience. That's what we're working on the most.
What does your work teach you about yourselves as people?
M: I’ve learned the different ways of making a decision and it's been very beneficial in my everyday life. Knowing how to prioritize things, learning to see the big picture, foresee possible consequences, and also how to accompany and support other people's decisions. All this I've learned with Low Classic.
J I'm a pretty self-centered person, thinking a lot about what I want to do with my life and not giving a damn what other people think about it. But making a brand implies a lot of collaborations and exchanges, where different goals and desires converge. I've learned to negotiate with all that, to know how to communicate with other people and to understand their desire to make a result in which everyone can find themselves and meaning. And most importantly, I’ve learn to be responsible with my choices.
Do you feel like you look at the past or the future more?
M I am a very much future-focused person. And for doing so, you need constantly to analyze the past. As a CEO, I need to be very vigilant, and think about the consequences, which isn't always a good thing as a fashion designer. Miscalculating the future directly impacts the company’s life, whereas failure is part of learning process. That’s why I’m particularly happy to have opened our new Seoul HQ. One of the most important reasons we did this was that we needed a place to gather our intentions and thoughts, but also try new things and dare. Did you know that the name of our head office 'Mirae Building' means 'Future Building'?
J I only think and live present. I envy Myoungsin's ability to always encompass the past and the future in her reflections.
M I love this side of Jinsun because I tend to overthink. Her very intuitive, present-centered attitude does a lot of good for me. She’s like ‘stop thinking and tell me what you really want to do now!’.
Is there a line you draw between business and creativity? Or do they bleed into one another?
M It's quite natural for me to link the two. But it's obviously not easy to balance creativity, audacity and efficiency. When I design a collection, I always think about having 70% 'stable' pieces and 30% pieces from a new trial, which challenges us, in terms of design or production. I don't compromise or half-measure on the latter, doing a lot of testing in our R&D office, no matter how much money and time it costs us, because I think it's these creative pieces that allow us to renew the brand and to find a new way to develop it.
Do you think you brand would be very different if you were not based in Seoul, South Korea?
J Most certainly. Because all cities are different: the cityscape, the sky and the light, the morphology of the people, the lifestyle and the market. The design has to be adapted to these parameters. For example, Paris is a very mineral city, with its beige, creamy walls and yellow light. The streets of Seoul are cold, grey, glassy, and the light is quite white. The same clothes give a different impression in Paris as in Seoul.
M As a person born and raised in Seoul, it made me wonder if we could represent the unique vitality and dynamism of Seoul, too. If you look at Seoulites, they don’t seem to have clear boundaries in a sense. They know how to quickly accept different experiences and ideas, and that adaptability makes the whole city move at a fast pace. Each city dweller has a distinctive personality and is passionate about work. But most of all, they know how to enjoy life and this makes a difference that we are based in Seoul.
How does it feel to present your work in Paris, France, this season?
M It was so much fun. I have no other words. As I was saying earlier, the last 2 years have been the time to redefine the brand, and this project, which involved creatives from different fields - art director, stylist, photographer, Motion director, scenographer, sound designer, casting director, movement director - is very formative in the sense that it allowed us to bring together the different perspectives around Low Classic, and to see how other people perceive and understand our brand. And the experience of working with both our Seoul team, our designers and visual team, and external talents from various cities in Europe was so special. There was an atmosphere of great trust between them, whereas everything was new to everyone. I feel really proud of my team.
J What I liked most was that all the collaborators really took this project to heart and gave it all they could. In this presentation project, the passion of our team and that of our collaborators was equal, and I'm sure the public felt that mutual energy too. Our team cried at the end of the show, feeling a sense of accomplishment and gratitude. I feel very fortunate to having done this.
You two have a particularly beautiful working relationship. How did you build it, and how do you manage it day to day?
M In the beginning, we did everything ourselves, from design, packing, finding suppliers, selling and the CS of our first e-commerce shop. By working that way, we could see each other's strengths and weaknesses, what each of us liked to do and didn't like to do. Fortunately, we were strong in other areas and didn't necessarily like the same tasks. Our complementarity has partly developed over time, but, basically, we're two very different people in terms of taste and aesthetic affinity, which greatly helps. Jinsun likes a cool, calm aesthetic, perhaps because of her time in Berlin. A bit rough and decadent. I prefer warm, cozy, clear vibes. By balancing the two, our brand seems to have achieved an early winter vibe.
We're constantly trying to find the happy middle between cool and warm.
J According to Saju, the Asian astrological tradition, we have a good chemistry. Myoungsin gives me a lot of good energy. I simply love working, talking and being together with her. I trust her business acumen, insight and design sensibility.
M I personally believe that tension blocks creativity. People should be able to be free from that stress, so each individual’s positive energy can pour out. That positive energy, I believe, is what helps us discover fun things and start something new. I also believe that people have the power to manifest the things they envision. The more active your imagination is, the further you can go. Jinsun is full of that positive energy. I often tell her about things I imagine, which may seem absurd, and she always agrees with me and helps me bring those ideas to real life.
Get a sneak peak at their SS24 presentation, through the eyes of Jean Marques.
