Designer Jiyong Kim is going places. The young South Korean graduated from Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo and London‘s Central Saint Martins, worked at LEMAIRE and under the late Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton, and last but not least, he was a semi-finalist for the prestigious LVMH Prize in 2024. Indeed, what’s next? Well, Kim founded his namesake menswear brand JiyongKim in 2020, and ever since, he’s garnered a growing list of leading stockists across the planet. And now, the designer has taken his operations to a new level, inaugurating a flagship store, his very first, at home base Seoul. Kim secured a space on the premises of a building in the city’s leafy Hannam neighbourhood which has been used as a home, office space and for other purposes. The structure has been redeveloped and designed by one-aftr, an architecture and design practice based in Seoul and New York City. Interestingly, the interior design focuses on JiyongKim‘s signature sun-bleaching technique, incorporating themes of time, transformation, and the raw qualities of materials
Perched on the first floor, the space functions not only as a store, but also as a spatial narrative that exhibits the state between completion and incompletion. Interestingly, physical traces from each phase have been retained and embedded in the design, adapting to the design codes of the JiyongKim collections which reflect accumulated effects of time. Additionally, the chosen aesthetic follows a concept baptised as ‘Finished, Finish’, meaning that existing surfaces, including uneven walls and ceilings, are left exposed or minimally covered, becoming an integral part of the settings. In the expansive open retail space, custom-made modular timber furniture pieces, matching fixtures, and vertical supports may first and foremost be functional, but also serve add structure and visual rhythm. Acknowledging JiyongKim‘s brand values, the space offers a fitting setting for its coveted collection of intentionally faded men’s apparel pieces, in addition to accessories, bags, and collab shoes with Clark. © superfuture
JiyongKim
30 Hannam-daero 28ga-gil (Hannam)
04418 Seoul
Telephone +82 2 22712021
Mon-Sat 2pm-8pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
