Nana: Fashion has infinite possibilities, and new power is born from it. As a carrier of culture and times, fashion encompasses everything. From trendy to traditional culture, from celebrities, idols to everyone’s daily life, and from West to East, it is our discourse, our power, our time. Through Asian Voice, we hope to spread the local Asian fashion culture to the world by moving cross languages and borders.
In this issue, We feature on LEJE, a Korea brand with many distinct and attractive hollow and hacked-off designs. The brand attempts to reflect our egos at specific moments which we encounter and consider. We can tell that either form the name “LEJE” or the one-of-a-kind designs the brand has.
Nana: Could you please introduce LEJE to us?
LEJE: LEJE in French stands for ‘The I’, was founded by designers Je Yangmo and Kang Juhyeong, each a graduate of Studio Berçot and Esmod Paris, cultivated their designing expertise at Balmain and Lanvin.
Nana: Why did you initially create the brand and name it “LEJE”?
LEJE: As mentioned earlier, LEJE stands for ‘The I’ in French. At every moment, we face a new ‘ego’. Hence, the brand attempted to reflect the very ‘I’ that one encounters and thinks about at specific moments.
Nana: What has influenced the creation of the brand and the pieces designed for your brand? -Has culture (art, music, film, etc.) or other styles influenced you in the making of your brand?
LEJE: We are largely inspired by observing the charms that originate from what’s different as well as the process of harmonizing a carefree subculture with sophisticated luxury culture, structural masculinity and graceful femininity, and the histories and cultures of the East and West.
Nana: We see a lot of hollow and hacked-off designs in your collections in a very attractive way. How do you come up and decide on the themes?
LEJE: With various cuttings, we hoped to create a new silhouette while flattening the sense of space that existing clothes have. In addition, it was attempted to express the human body and the external space shown in the cut-out design as one area of clothing. These designs were inspired by constructivist artists.
Nana: How do you come up and decide on the themes for your collections?
LEJE: The theme of the collection comes naturally from the things that we saw, heard, and thought about in our daily lives.
Nana: Is it possible to know a little about your next collection?
LEJE: Lately, we are mostly inspired by the Eastern spiritual aspects.
Nana: What were some of the challenged have you faced running the brand?
LEJE: Running a brand involves lots of business matters on top of simply making designs. As a young brand, it wasn’t easy to manage different aspects all at once.
Nana: Can you give our readers who want to make a brand of their own some advice?
LEJE: We hope that you have a dream that you so strongly wish to accomplish. And believe in yourself unconditionally in the process of moving towards it.
Believe in yourself unconditionally in the process of moving towards it.
