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 edition of ASIAN VOICE, we feature PAP magazine founded by Domenico Kang from Korea. After studying business management at a Korean university, Kang discovered her interest in the art of fashion and began her studies in Milan to become a stylist. After going through a lot of difficulties Kang started organizing her favorite fashion editorials on Instagram in order to learn more about fashion and gained an initial following. Gradually as her followers grew she decided to start a digital fashion magazine and this is how PAP began.
As a dynamic and innovative global fashion platform, PAP Magazine is inspiring artists all over the world for visuals in its “Dreamy, Futurism, Surrealism, Modern, Diversity, Artistic, and Creative.” The name of PAP comes from PAP, which stands for Per l’Arte Postmoderna, meaning “For postmodern art” in English. The magazine is defining postmodern art in its original way. As the new era of fashion and art’s concrete combination, PAP magazine wants to show the value of fashion, which can be shown not only commercially but also as an art concept.
Last year, PAP set up a Korean version. Although PAP MAGAZINE and PAP KOREA are the same PAP, one focuses more on the combination of art and fashion, and the other focuses more on the value of a news media, offering a variety of news that provides fashion, art, culture, and life in Korea and around the world. As the world transitions into the digital age, PAP is emerging as a trailblazer among digital magazines, cultivating a dynamic realm of fashion culture.
What made you decide to found PAP MAGAZINE in the first place, and how the career before influenced it?
Domenico Kang: I studied business management at Yonsei University in Korea in my 20s. Then some point, I realized that this is not what I want to do. I was researching and studying fashion every day, not business studies, so I decided to go to milan to study fashion.
In Milan, I studied fashion styling at Marangoni. After graduating from Marangoni, I hoped to become a fashion stylist and started working as an assistant. And at the same time I was attempting to build my own personal stylist portfolio. In order to create a portfolio, I needed clothes that fit the project theme to create fashion editorial. However, renting clothes from a PR agency in Milan was not easy for
beginners who had just graduated from school, especially for Asians at that time.
At first, I blindly visited a PR agency and asked to borrow clothes, but was denied every time. In order to borrow clothes, I needed a pull letter issued by a magazine, and it was not easy to obtain a pull letter as I did not have a lot of portfolio. The whole situation made me unsure whether staying in Milan was really a wise choice. But I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t give up all the more because I came to Milan to
study in my late 20s with the thought of risking everything in my life.
At that time, I was curating my favorite editorials on Instagram for the purpose of studying fashion, and at some point, my followers were gradually increasing, as if my taste was good. One day, I was thinking like this ‘What if this Instagram page develops into a magazine?’ Coincidentally, some people occasionally asked me to upload their work on my page, so I thought that if I made it well, there would be a possibility to develop it into a magazine.
As soon as I had that idea, I created a website myself, a logo, and the basics to shape a digital magazine. I also issued a pull letter from the magazine I created and asked the PR agency to borrow clothes. Since it was an obscure and upstart digital magazine, most PR agencies didn’t reply to my emails, but I was able to borrow clothes from smaller PR agencies. As I built my portfolio, PAP started as a curated Instagram page and developed into a magazine that publishes exclusive editorials daily.
As a dynamic and innovative global fashion platform, what kind of reading experience and inspiration do you aspire to provide creative individuals through PAP MAGAZINE?
Domenico Kang: I know that the aesthetics of PAP Magazine are inspiring artists all over the world. PAP magazine has keywords for visuals such as Dreamy, Futurism, Surrealism, Modern, Diversity, Artistic and Creative. And based on these keywords, I encourage artists to create editorials by selecting
topics that can reveal their colors. Through this series of processes, they research, learn, develop themes, and experience creating their own editorials.
As a visual-focused digital magazine, PAP MAGAZINE occupies a prominent position within the expansive media landscape. Could you elaborate on the essential message or lifestyle you aim to express through PAP MAGAZINE?
Domenico Kang: PAP stands for Per l’Arte Postmoderna, which means For postmodern art in English. It’s been a while since the concept of postmodernism was coined in the 1960s, but people are still talking about what postmodernism is or what’s next after postmodernism. In that sense, I wanted to define postmodernity by using fashion and art in our own way. And I wanted to express that a fashion editorial can be shown not only commercially but also as an art concept.
Do you have a distinct approach or strategy for Asian countries, like PAP KOREA launched in 2022, considering its recent establishment, as compared to Milan, catering to diverse readerships?
Domenico Kang: I studied fashion in Milan and established my aesthetic concept. However, since I
am Korean and Asian, I wanted to exert a good influence in Asia as well. Through BTS, Black Pink, and the squid game, Korea’s soft power began to attract attention, and I thought it would be good to develop PAP not only in Europe but also in Korea.
It is clear that PAP MAGAZINE and PAP KOREA are the same PAP, but there is a clear difference in the way they are developed. PAP MAGAZINE is a magazine focused more on fashion and art, mainly showing visual-oriented editorials. On the other hand, PAP KOREA is more focused on media. PAP KOREA delivers various news such as fashion, art, culture, and life in Korea and around the world.
Through this, what I want to do is to easily share issues as well as aesthetic senses with artists and people from Asia, Europe, and furthermore, all over the world. As the world goes digital, the magazine market has entered a new phase. Even now, some magazines continue to stop issuing paper magazines, and the power of digital media will grow more and more in the future. Looking at this trend of change, PAP wants to become a global leading magazine from a new perspective as a digital magazine.
Can you share the most remarkable article or project with PAP MAGAZINE?
Domenico Kang: I take great pride in the aesthetics of PAP MAGAZINE. In particular, ‘Act of Performance’ with Zarapina Anastasia as art director and photographer, ‘Surgentomology’ with Martin Iazlo Rouillé as art director, photographer and videographer, and ‘Human Connection’ with Maud Rallière as art director and photographer. All of these were developed well based on the keywords of our magazine, and the story development and visual aesthetics were also very good.
As an expert of visual arts, would you be able to recommend any noteworthy contemporary artists, designers, movies, or books that our readers might find inspiring?
Domenico Kang: Like many artists, I am a huge Wes Anderson fan. His colors, angles, wild imagination and all visual elements are always a big inspiration to me. In particular, I watched Asteroid City, which was released a while ago, on the day it was released, and it was so perfect beyond my expectations.
I also get a lot of inspiration from the photographer Tim Walker. The surrealistic yet dreamy elements of his photography can actually be felt in some of the PAP pictorials. Besides that, I am interested in space and science, and I like Bernard Werber, a writer who writes novels based on scientific themes. Other than that, I enjoy documentaries and YouTube related to science and space. Through these things, I establish my thinking and aesthetic standards and apply them to creative activities.
What advice would you give to aspiring fashion journalists about how they can differentiate themselves in this competitive space?
Domenico Kang: I think the role of a fashion journalist now is different from that of a journalist in a conventional magazine. The magazine market has already been digitized, and I think the ability to express visually as well as writing has become more important. I recommend that people who work in the media in the future have various experiences at least in their 20s in order to do what they love.
For example, senior editor of PAP KOREA is from an advertising agency. She also worked as a photographer, videographer and journalist. The moment these various experiences merged with the identity of PAP, I could see her potential bloom. Have the experience, passion, and challenging spirit to show your strengths as a journalist, and pioneer your life in your own way, not the way others do the same.
What are your future plans for PAP MAGAZINE that you can share with us?
Domenico Kang: My future plans are very specific. However, for business security reasons, I cannot tell you everything in this interview. What is certain is that we will further expand the spectrum in addition to the existing pages such as PAP MAGAZINE, PAP KOREA, PAP BEAUTY, PAP STUDIO, and PAP FASHION, and put them into one platform. After that, I hope that you will continue to pay attention to PAP and watch over PAP. Thank you.
Pioneer your life in your own way, not the way others do the same.
Text by Yiyao Zhang
