Seoul designers advised to focus on quality, not quantity
As Seoul Fashion Week executive director Jung Ku-ho’s tenure ends this season, he looks back on the good and bad and the future of Seoul’s fashion industry on an international platform
By Kim Jae-heun
Seoul Fashion Week executive director Jung Ku-ho has been emphasising for the past two years that promoting Korean fashion designers and the country’s biggest fashion event abroad is his top priority.
Now his tenure has come to an end and he has yet to decide whether he will renew for another term, but Jung continues to highlight that his successor has to also prioritise promoting Korean fashion abroad.
From the beginning of his term, Jung mobilised his personal connections to invite global fashion gurus, such as International Vogue Editor Suzy Menkes and fashion critic Diane Pernet. In his possibly final festival next week, Jung will bring ex-dean of fashion design school Parsons Simon Collins, Vogue Italy Senior Editor Sara Maino and i-D Fashion feature director Anders Madsen to Seoul.
“First of all, I think I was successful in introducing Seoul Fashion Week to the world,” said Jung during an interview with The Korea Times last Thursday at Seoul Design Foundation headquarters in Dongdaemun, eastern Seoul.
“People began to recognise the characteristics of Seoul Fashion Week and our fashion designers here. Now, we need to make business out of it and that’s what we lack,” Jung said. “It is important that our designers get more feedback from global experts rather than locals. We cannot send all Korean designers abroad, so at least we can try to give them an experience as if they were opening a show in Europe.”