Korean menswear designer Juun J showed his Spring/Summer 2013 collection in the scholastic environment of the Galerie de Minéralogie, in rue Buffon (Paris 5e), during the official calendar of Paris Men’s Fashion Week. The collection, titled DU_AL, had at its core the investigation of dual characteristics that can coexist within the same object. In order to illustrate this principle, Juun J took a range of basic menswear looks with little variation in terms of colour and worked them in playful manners to create a large range of intriguingly elegant forms that suggested antithetical and almost caricature-like effects.
Inspired by the 1948 film ‘Drunken Angel’ by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, the collection explored and accentuated the dramatic male silhouette normally used in the film noir genre during the 1940s: wide pleated trousers, oversized suits with puffed shoulders, and shirts with elongated sleeves contrasted with slim fitting elements like tapering below the knee, narrow belted waists, and highly tailored jackets through inspiring layering processes. The duality of style options within the collection was further accentuated by mixing youthful items such as tailored shorts and baseball caps with pinstripe suits. In addition, trench coats reinterpreted as jumpsuits blurred the line between outerwear and innerwear, and questioned preconceived images of functionality and fashion.
The notion of duality could also be observed in the predominantly traditional and masculine colour palette of whites, blacks, and caramel khakis, which became enlivened by the introduction of dashes of navy and orange. Likewise, the garments were made from a variety of fabrics mixed together in the same look (such as cotton, leather, and neoprene) that were occasionally embellished with large zips and three-dimensional extrusions of letters, abstract geometric shapes, and classical designs that resembled coats of arms.
Juun J graduated from ESMOD Seoul in 1992 and subsequently worked for a number of brands (including Club Monaco) before founding his eponymous label in 2007. Since then he has been a regular presence during Paris Men’s Fashion Week, having also shown in fashion weeks in Greece, Spain, and Korea. Over the years, he has developed designing collaborations with labels such as Chris & Tibor, Linda Farrow, Mykita, Reebok, Speedo, and Topman. His collections can be found in retailers in Belgium, China, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UK, and USA.
