The Harmony of Disharmony
Korean designers Je Yangmo and Kang Juhyeong on the exploration of all forms of opposites to create and innovate
Amor Díaz: Your Spring / Summer 2023 Collection is clearly inspired by Space. Tell us about the narrative that you are communicating through the garments created.
Je & Kan: LEJE’s SS23 collection themes ‘SPACE LEJE’. This season, LEJE touches upon the ‘SPACE AGE’ in the 1960s and the ‘SPACE’ as a space that we commonly know of.
With the combination of the 1960s dubbed with homage such as Edie Sedgwick, Peggy Moffitt, miniskirts, and op arts, LEJE’s signature cutout products, and spatial aesthetics seen in an art piece named ‘Untitled’, we attempted to create a new silhouette by flattening the three-dimensional sense of space that clothes contain. Through this, we intended to express the body and the external space as a single area (space) of clothing.
AD: What were some of the visual references you drew inspiration from?
JK: We are greatly inspired by contemporary constructivist artists and traditional Asian cultures.
AD: As a Mexican, I understand the importance of preserving traditional handcraft and artisanal techniques. Tell us about “Paragraph” your artisanal collections - and signature pieces.
JK: Around the globe, the works of artisans that descended over generations have faced many difficulties, and this includes Korea as well. Their valuable works of art are often considered as boring and losing their trace. We try to announce and record their work from where we can. Moreover, this is a pursuit of ethical sustainability as well as practical sustainability that these traditional works have.
Paragraph is a line of collection that we created to carelessly contain our stories through a single theme or a product. In addition to the concept of sustainability, we showcase our own interesting ways of doing things and ideas that are interpreted in our own way. This is done either once or twice or a year, and our plan is to do this more often.
AD: You’ve spoken about the importance of approaching fashion in a sustainable way. You’ve used PET as a material in previous collections and as mentioned before, you work with artisans. How else do you approach sustainability when creating and manufacturing a new line?
JK: Sustainability is evidently the most critical part of our design work. At the same time, however, we also try not to push sustainability too far or get caught up in the concept. We simply wish that the concept of sustainability would naturally blend into our own design.
All designs are crafted within our own principles of 3-zeroes (Zero-waste, Zero-chemical process and Zero-Stereotype).
AD: You mentioned before that you had a completely different vision and taste when you met. Tell me a bit more about your individual aesthetic and how you work to combine them in Leje.
JK: The two of us are very different from one another. For instance, we feel different even when we observe the same thing. As a result, reconciling such differences into one became the most important creative process. It’s almost like a long, arduous process of negotiation, but it’s also the most interesting factor.
AD: Throughout your different collections, you have featured a number of “deconstructed - tailored” pieces. Would you say merging these two techniques is your way of referencing both Paris and Seoul in your collections?
JK: We are Koreans, but we started our fashion journey in Paris. That’s why we still get inspired the most from the city. We find it especially enticing to create a natural harmony between the two disparate spaces and cultures of the East and the West. Furthermore, as the ‘harmony of disharmony’, we currently work on savoring and harmonizing the charms of all heterogenous aspects such as carefree subculture with sophisticated luxury culture, the past and present, and structural masculinity and graceful femininity.
AD: Fashion houses and brands are usually identified by the silhouette they create. How would you describe Leje’s signature silhouette?
JK: LEJE’s silhouette relates to space. The spaces that are shown from various cuts (which may include the part of a body) create a silhouette that represents LEJE.
AD: Tell me about your motto: “Unexaggerated yet bountiful beauty, regard it as a poem”.
JK: Poetry is lyrical at times, but can also be passionate. Poetry can only contain so much meaning within short phrases, so it cannot be overdone. Within the limited space of clothing, our motto is to express the bountiful beauty of our thoughts to the extent that is just right.
AD: Leje initially started as a menswear brand, you eventually introduced womenswear, and recently launched bags and accessories. Talk to us about the brand’s evolution since launching 3 years ago.
JK: We officially launched the brand in 2020. We had a trying time with the spread of COVID coupled with global affairs, but that has gotten us to focus on creating the brand’s identity. We also broadly observed and prepared the idea of sustainability that we had drawn from the first season. We also launched the Paragraph collection that focused on artistic aspects rather than commerciality.
AD: What do you envision for Leje in the next 5 years? What do you think the future of fashion looks like?
JK: Acceleration of growth is what we envision. But then, who knows what will happen tomorrow? We intend to do our best at this moment with no regrets.
The future of the fashion industry will be a compromise between beauty and reality. With the importance of environmental protection on the rise, brands that ignore such aspects will be shunned one day. For those who prioritize the environment too much to overlook the public’s aesthetic desire and fail to satisfy the needs for consumption, that too will be turned away. That’s what we would keep thinking about – striking a perfect balance.