Jarret is a label established by Lee Ji
Yeon in 2009 in South Korea, which now has opened a store in New York. The
designer creates garments based on the relationship between women and men,
that`s why she gets inspired by menswear and always has both genders in every
collection that she creates. This label is focused on creating garments for
on-duty and off-duty wear at the same time. It can be said that Lee Ji Yeon is
creating garments that, even if are inspired from menswear, are mostly for
women who want to express their femininity wherever they go.
The
collection that was presented at Seoul Fashion Week, spring/summer 2016, was
inspired by the Snow White story. The
make-up evoked the description of Snow White: lips red as blood, hair black as
ebony, and the white skin that the model had, exactly as the character from the
story. The colors that dominated were pure white, black, intense red and a
little dark blue for evoking
masculinity. There are no accessories and the shoes are flat, a common thing
used in the fashion from that side of the world. The patterns and the prints
that were used were actually abstract drawings of apples and letters of the apple word, English and Korean version
(sagwa). And if the apples or the prints aren`t there, it will be the color red
to remind you that it is about apples.
The predominant material that was used was veil, but
there were cotton and silk as well. The see-trough material was in a clear
contrast with the others materials, especially with the silk which is shinny, and always used in the collection made by Asian designers. The veil
is considered by the majority of people to be a material which evokes
femininity, but for Ji Yeon it is not like that. She uses this material for
menswear as well, a thing that, in my opinion, is refreshing. Why shouldn`t a man wear
veil? Because it is not manly? But what does make a man manly? This collection gives
us the answer: the attitude and the physique, nothing else.
Even if Ji Yeon gets inspired by the Snow White story for this collection, how
she tells the story is a bit odd. I saw the collection before I knew the inspiration source of it,
and for me it was about Adam and Eve story. But if you compare the two stories
they are quite similar. The woman who eats an apple, which she shouldn`t, and
gets “poisoned” and almost “died”. And there was the man by her side when she made a mistake. And like in the stories, even if the collection is about men
too, the women's presence dominates the scene. She is the one that
you, as a viewer, see more. And the fact
that there is a clear contrast between black and white, colors that in Asian
belief are the colors for the Yin and Yang concept, colors that reflect the
good and the bad of the world, is a sign that this collection is not just about
a story that originally wasn`t written for kids, it is about something more. And
the presence of the color red can be a reminder of the blood as a penitence for
what the woman did, not just a reminder for the red apples from Snow White, apples that can be green and
yellow as well.
But after all, who actually knows what is inside of an
artist mind?
No comments:
Post a Comment
We value your thoughts!