PROFILE
Creative Director of Ambush (®︎), he started his jewelry brand Ambush (®︎) in 2008. He was appointed jewelry director of Dior Men in April 2018, while expanding the brand to include apparel as well. In January of this year, he announced that Ambush ®︎ would become a member of the Newgers Group.
As a Tokyo-based brand, we wanted to incorporate our Japanese roots.
The theme of the Autumn/Winter 2020 collection is "Countryside", which I also felt when I saw the Spring/Summer 2019 collection "WAVES", but I was a bit surprised to see such a natural world view from the image of you that I usually see through the media and events. I had the same impression when I saw "WAVES" from the Spring/Summer 2019 collection, but I was a little surprised at the natural world view of YOON, given the image I usually see of him in the media and at events. Are these influences from the time you spend in your private life?
YOON:Really? (Laughs) . I usually wake up at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. and use the time for input by watching or reading various things, and then I stay in the studio for the rest of the day, so I don't get much time off, but when I am off, I like to travel. . I try to find some reason to travel, such as a place I have always wanted to visit. In this case, I wanted to research fabrics and meet artisans, so after the Paris Men's Fashion Week in the summer of 2019, I went around the regions of Japan with several staff members for about a week. What I felt at that time is reflected in the collection.
What were your influences?
YOON:Although it claims to be country, it was not directly influenced by the clothes, but by the mentality. Compared to our everyday lives, I was pleasantly surprised by how time seemed to flow more slowly. The fashion world is all about the future, about the future, isn't it? We start preparing for the next collection or project a year and a half in advance, and by this time we are working on this, and the next, and the next. I was always thinking about the next thing, the next thing, the next thing, and the next thing, and sometimes I forgot about the "now. Of course, that is business, but it occurred to me that it is important to enjoy the process as well as the result. When all sorts of things got messy in my head, I felt comfortable with the slow pace of the countryside, where time seemed to stand still.
Ambush®'s Fall/Winter 2020 collection is based on the theme of "Countryside."
YOON: Recently, many brands have been presenting their collections without a specific theme, but with "Ambush®," it was based on your own experiences, wasn't it?
YOON:Yes, I have adopted it as an element. But recently, my way of thinking has changed a little. Until recently, I used to run toward the climax of a film as if it were a Hollywood movie, but one day I had a chance to watch again the films of Wong Kar-wai and David Lynch, directors I had liked for a long time. Their films don't seem to have a story, do they? . Sometimes the characters don't seem to fit together. But on the other hand, they cherish every moment. I felt the beauty in the fact that they all fit together to form a single film. I wanted to try the same thing, so I did not get caught up in the theme, and some parts of my work were deliberately done in a flirtatious way (laughs). . I was actually there, but I had fun imagining what I would bring if I were to come back next time, and I arranged it in a fun way.
A: Did you adopt this approach for this collection?
YOON:Yes . . In previous collections, I was more conscious of the worldview of a single collection. For example, for the "WAVES" collection, I used to live in Hawaii, and I often went there, so I wanted to complete the collection as a story. For the Spring/Summer 2020 collection, there was talk of the Olympics, so I wanted to give shape to Tokyo and its culture, such as anime, but for this season, I thought it would be okay to do it in a way that was, to put it mildly, like a French movie (laughs).
When I heard "countryside," I imagined that Seattle, YOON's hometown, was also involved.
YOON:To be honest, I wasn't thinking about Seattle at all at the time, but I may have subconsciously made the link. . My parents live in the countryside, surrounded by nothing but nature. It is really quiet, and even during the daytime, the only sounds you can hear are birdsong. When I was a child, I hated it so much that I used to read fashion magazines and wonder why I was here (laughs). But now that I am an adult, I understand the beauty of being surrounded by nature, and perhaps it was because I was so busy with work that I was looking for such an environment.
While retaining the MA-1-like qualities of the material and color scheme, the front portion of the coat features the front-mating detail of a kimono. The kimono coat is a symbol of this season, inspired by kimono. Coat ¥110,000+TAX
A hybrid of easy pants and denim pants, this item features a nostalgic cloud-like pattern woven in jacquard by a domestic denim factory that YOON recognizes as the "best in the world. Pants ¥65,000+TAX
This women's coat was inspired by a blue sheet that was seen by chance in a rural area. The blue color, as well as the AQUA DIMA, a soft yet windproof and waterproof material with excellent abrasion resistance, also evokes this image. Coat ¥100,000+TAX
. Many designers have chosen the Japanese culture of the late 1990s as their inspiration, but why did you focus on an earlier era?
YOON:Because that is my base. When I became involved with "Dior Men," I realized firsthand that such a big heritage brand values its roots very much. Asians don't have that much. I have Korean roots, but as a Tokyo-based brand, I felt that we should value our Japanese roots. . I want to make that a part of our worldview that we are now shaping.
. Not limiting it to the period in which we live, but the roots of Japan in a broader sense.
YOON:The quality of Japanese denim is among the best in the world, and the stitching techniques I saw in Kyoto were truly amazing. . While I have been thinking only about the new and the future, I feel that I have not been looking for the answers that lie in Japan's roots. We wanted to make something unique to Japan our own, not something that was "old and therefore tacky.
