Dear My Friend ... Korean Designer Minju Kim Designs a Collection for H&M

October 22, 2013

Dear My Friend ... Korean Designer Minju Kim Designs a Collection for H&M

These days, the fast-moving fashion industry is witnessing the emergence of young, fashion-savvy designers who are all brimming with fresh and novel takes of style.

Nevertheless, fashion itself is a challenging industry with perilous marketing landscape and talent alone won’t guarantee you a safe passage. Instead, a strong platform is what you need in order to launch your career in fashion designing. Case in point: The H&M Design Awards.

Launched in 2012, H&M Design Awards was established to encourage and support young fashion graduates as they set out at the very beginning of their careers.

For the 2013 awards, graduates from 19 design schools in eight countries were considered competing first to be the local winner before showing their work to a grand jury, comprising of H&M’s Creative Head of Design Ann-Sofie Johansson, designer Jonathan Saunders, editor-at-large Tim Blanks, blogger and photographer Hanneli Mustaparta, fashion journalist Kristopher Arden-Houser, stylist Leith Clark, photographer Sølve Sundsbø and H&M’s creative advisor Margareta van den Bosch.

This year, Korean fashion designer Minju Kim has been chosen as the recipient of the H&M Design Awards 2013. Hailed from South Korea, Minju graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium and counts the likes of Haider Ackermann, Kris Van Assche, Peter Pilotto and Bruno Pieters as her alma mater.

Titled “Dear My Friend”, Minju’s collection was inspired by the works of Japanese manga cartoonist Junji Ito captured the attention of the grand jury.

“I’m so happy that pieces from Minju Kim’s winning collection from the H&M Design Award 2013 will soon be available. Minju has such a unique design signature, one that combines playfulness, fantasy and optimism with great creativity and technical skill.

"These pieces by Minju Kim show H&M’s commitment to the future of design and to helping move fashion forward,” says Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M’s Creative Head of Design.

Bringing the colourful manga world to life via her special collection with H&M, Minju juxtaposes unique cuts and clever fabrics to create exciting pieces such as collarless coat in vivid yellow, a short jacket in two contrasting jacquards and a cape made of black wool that creates a sweet rounded silhouette.

Furthermore, textured heavy knit links the sleeves to the body with cartoonish curves, while a neoprene-fronted sweatshirt is printed with manga-inspired images drawn by Minju herself.

A panelled mini dress mixes matt with shine, while jacquard trousers keep their structured shape. To complete the look are black and white wedge platform lace-up and a character-imbued turquoise leather collar.

“Creating this collection with H&M has been an amazing experience. My designs are about turning characters into outfits, and it’s exciting to think that these characters will soon be worn by people around the world. Winning the H&M Design Award has given me a unique insight into the global fashion industry,” says Minju Kim.

The Minju Kim for H&M collection will be retailed at at selected H&M stores in Sweden, Denmark, the US, UK, Japan, South Korea, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany as well as online, starting from 17 October 2013.

It will also be available at cult boutique Opening Ceremony in New York, Los Angeles and London – the first H&M collection to be sold at Opening Ceremony stores.