Emergent designer: Ji Won Choi, the excessivism designer

Born Seoul, raised in Oklahoma, graduated at Parsons School of Design in 2017 with the collection “Excessivism”, winner of numerous competitions including Kering Empowering Imagination Award and Yooxygen Award by Yoox.

The designer we’re talking about is the high demanded Ji Won Choi, and it’s exactly the winner collection to describe her aesthetic, characterized by important silhouettes bold and funny.
The collection’s name comes from the namesake artistic movement, which consists in the reinterpretation and in the overuse of materials, used as vehicle for denounce the nowadays consumeristic society.
The collections is composed by jackets and tunics kimono-shaped with abstract and sculptural lines, in blue, red, white and black tones, combined by the unavoidable stripes repetition that enhance the design.

The first of her numerous collaborations is Ji Won Choi x Yoox, launched in April 2018, and conceived during the designer’s 6 months stage, in the Yoox ‘s headquarters in Milan: the result is a more commercial and sustainable version of her collection.
Create based on primary colors and versatile silhouettes, the stripes are used as a recurring element, recalling graphically the barcode, symbol of the modern consumerism.
The womenswear capsule collection includes a selection of tops, dresses, skirts and trousers color-block, entirely realized with natural fibers.

In February 2019, the designer has presented, during the London Fashion Week, the first collaboration with Adidas Originals, by reinventing the iconic three stripes with a “deconstructed” concept. Based on the movement, and declining the items in lavender, navy, red, green and pink shades, paid homage to the iconic Adicolor line. The objective of the project was to realize items that transmit confidence to who wear them, through a clean and linear silhouette.

Another collaboration with the 3-stripes the same year in july: this time, entirely realized in black and white. A choice that enhance the silhouette of the garments highlighting the characteristic stripes both of Adidas and Ji Won Choi. A new back and white tracksuit’s concept that recalls the korean design in a feminine and streetwear prêt-à-porter.

At the moment, Choi is one of the 12 fashion designers protagonist of the original series Amazon Prime “Making the Cut”, in which she continue to amaze us with her creations grabbing the attention both of the jury and of the public.

In the meanwhile, on social media, shows her new creations, realized rigorously #stayingathome. By using bright tones fabrics coming from her travels, she’s continuing to shape clothes that recall her korean origins, by declining the iconic striped motif in new versions, for example the western fringe style one.