JUUN.J: An Undeniable Force In Fashion

Juun.J

«And surely you have seen, in the darkness of the innermost rooms of these huge buildings, to which sunlight never penetrates, how the gold leaf of a sliding door or screen will pick up distant glimmer from the garden, then suddenly send forth an ethereal glow, a faint golden light cast into the enveloping darkness, like the glow upon the horizon at sunset. In no other setting is gold quite so exquisitely beautiful. You walk past, turning to look again, and yet again, and as you move away the golden surface of the paper glows even more deeply, changing not in a flash, but growing slowly, steadily brighter, like colour rising in the face of a giant. Or again you may find that the gold dust of the background, which until that moment had only a dull sleepy lustre, will as you move past, suddenly gleam forth as if it had burst into flame.» Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows (1933)

Over the last two decades Jung Wook Jun, or better known as JUUN.J, has blossomed into an undeniable force in fashion. With its idiosyncratic vision JUUN.J has slowly grown into one of the most celebrated fashion house tackling urging themes of our contemporary age: gender fluidity and individualism amongst the others.

Jung Wook Jun’s tailoring precision and deconstructed silhouettes have explored the boundaries of masculinity since his first menswear label, Lone Costume, created in 1999 after graduating from the prestigious ESMOD Seoul branch in 1992. Re-christened as JUUN.J in 2007, the year it conquered Paris Fashion Week stage during the Menswear calendar.

JUUN.J infused his love for classic staples – the trench coat, the duffle jacket, the suit – with new proportions, a new scale and codes draw from military gear, sportswear, architecture, art.

Beyond fashion, JUUN.J’s fascination to the art world emerged from several collaborations with artists like Soroyama Hajime, Paolo Pedroni, Oleg Dou, all artists that in their respective fields and visions have represented a new wave in the realm of visual art, including a strong approach to the digital milieu.

On June 2016 in the wake of Pitti Uomo show as guest designer (as the first Korean designer invited at the men’s fashion Mecca in Florence) JUUN.J presented in Paris a collection disrupting further his proportions and forms: layers of oversized garments, strings of adjustable coulisses all over, MA-1 jackets blown up in proportion doubled with sweatshirts at their inner side. JUUN.J has always played with doubles, with fragments put together, with the thin line between youth and adulthood.

But it’s upon the 10-year anniversary of the label that we saw a move towards a broader vocabulary: the female gaze. JUUN.J’s newly founded Womenswear capsule collection for Fall/Winter 2017 quickly produced a magnitude largely credited with cementing the brand’s aesthetic. We were all blown away by the virtuosity in assembling signature’s menswear garments while refreshingly featuring a strong sense of sensuality. Juxtaposed to the historical premises of the École de Médecine situated on the left bank of the River Seine, JUUN.J named the collection “Archive”, a celebration of the brand and the decade that witnessed its evolution. A manifesto.

Season after season we have seen different declinations of crisp white shirts. Layered and gently floating. At times emblematic sentences would resurface. Almost as an ode to the work of all the young designers who have been building an identity painstakingly: “Life opportunities contracts or expands according to one’s courage” or “Fantasy and reality are lapped over each other”. Pin stripes, black leather, military green, windbreaker, reversible, extendable, but also lemon yellow and the new signature metallic (Spring/Summer 2019, Fall/Winter 2019), the Korean designer continues to engage with the reality of classic garments and cutting-edge avant-garde.

A suspended three over a courtyard enclosed by wall and glass. A black-rendered cluster of pure sculptural forms, as recalling the sacred nature of Le Corbusier’s Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp. The newly opened JUUN.J’s flagship store in Seoul is a mirror to the Korean designer ‘s uncompromising spirit and aesthetic. Fluidity and breeziness. Transparency and volumes. The architecture of shadow.

Styling & Words / Manuela Martorelli
All clothes: Juun.J, , undergarments & swimwear baserange: Nen Xavie, black sandals & white cowboy boots: Stylist's Own
Photography / Kin Yuen
Make up & Hair / Yukie Tsang
Model / Niekee @Paparazzi Model Management