10 questions to greedy designer Younhee Park – WWD

Younhee Park always sees all the fun in fashion.

Despite her endless hours, her addictive nature and her contribution to stress which she stifles with laughter, the designer behind South Korean brand Greedilous would choose fashion again and again.

Especially now that the worlds of costume and gaming are merging thanks to the metaverse.

During New York Fashion Week in February, Park premiered an AI-designed collection in a runway show that brought the Metaverse to the catwalk. As part of a collaboration with South Korean tech company LG Electronics, Greedilous enlisted their AI artist Tilda (who is kind of like an avatar in a game world) to create the collection for the season.

“I wanted to show the metaverse world through my fashion,” Park told WWD from his studio in Seoul, with the help of a translator. “AI technology is always evolving, it’s still growing, and I think it’s also an important part of art, just like fashion. And brands like Gucci and Burberry, all of these high-end brands are collaborating with metaverses and none of them have done a fashion show before so I wanted my show to be kind of the first AI fashion show.

By interacting with Tilda (who is from Venus and specializes in illustration and pattern design), and using the keywords “flower” and “Venus”, to assess what flowers on Venus might look like depending on the Tilda’s imagination, Park produced a series of new prints and patterns for the high-end style multi-colored coats, maxis and even socks and bucket hats that took to the runway. Each model from the aptly named “Flowers on Venus” show appeared in green wigs reminiscent of Tilda’s computer-generated hair and red smoke filled the stage. So, as Park noted, “everyone at the show would feel like they were on Venus to interact with Tildas that actually pop out of the screen.

“Because the metaverse is not currently a place where we can physically be, I wanted to kind of step that up and create a place where humans could actually interact with Tilda in her world through the show,” Park said.

And it was a success. Since the show, celebrities including Miley Cyrus have reached out to Park, influencers are slipping into her DMs — and Western brands and retailers are watching.

“It was by far the most fun show I’ve put on and it won’t be the last,” she said, noting that K-beauty and K-pop aren’t the only ones. things emerging from South Korea. “I think Koreans, because of the internet and globalization, I think it’s happening because we’re willing to say and show, and do things that are very personal to us, but we’ve found a way to do it in an engaging way, if I may say so.

“It would be safe to say that more of the deep Korean culture is going to be shown in our fashion industry from now on and I think that will be really good for both. [the U.S. and South Korea] because I think we can inspire each other. There’s a lot to show,” Park said. “A lot of things happen.”

In WWD’s latest ’10 Questions With’, learn more about the colorful designer behind the colorful brand, how her pup ties into what she wants to manifest, and which luxury brands she wants to align with over the years. next five years.

1. Describe your design style in one word.

Younhee Park: Gourmand.

[It comes from] delicious and fabulous. My life is the same story, gourmet and fabulous, Greedilous. The reason I came out and started my own brand is because I wanted to know more about myself and I love this personality that I have which is very greedy – I want more of everything. But I also want to be fabulous because what’s life without fabulous?

2. What did you want to be when you were younger?

PC: The same, fashion designer. My mum was into fashion design, my dad is an English teacher and when I was younger I cut curtains at home, made my own clothes and clothes. And I also got in trouble because of it. And my mother, one day, she fired me!

3. If you could use any technology (existing or not yet invented) to create a fashion product or experience, what would it be and why?

PC: If I could I would use a time machine and go back in time and talk to Coco (I love Chanel) and talk to Yves Saint Laurent and talk to Balenciaga, all these amazing teachers because I see them as teachers. I would like to ask them how they created such a powerful idea. I also want to ask them myself “10 questions” in order to enrich my knowledge, my wisdom and my creativity. And I also want to ask them questions about my collection, what they think about it.

I think the foundation is the key to everything and because of them, because of the foundation they built even though I’m Korean and I don’t share the same culture as them, but fashion speaks for everybody. So that’s what I want to use if I can use any technology I can.

4. What is one thing you couldn’t spend a day without?

PC: My dog ​​Rich. My dream is to be rich. In Korean culture, when we say the word of what we want to be or what we want, if we repeat it out loud several times, it happens. So I named my dog ​​Rich. So I can’t go a day without my dog. Rich is a man’s name but I don’t care, my dream is to be rich!

5. What is your favorite color, and if that color had a taste, what would it taste like?

PC: My favorite is the red one and it would taste very sweet. When you are stressed you have chocolate, you relax and I want to give sweetness to people.

Red [is] passion, passion is very sweet. Dreaming and planning for the future and thinking about good things is sweet and red is a symbol of passion for me, so when I see red it tastes sweet.

6. Is there anything you would like to see come back into fashion?

PJ: The fashion of Vivien Leigh [British actress who played Scarlett O’Hara in] “Gone with the wind”, hence the fashion of the time [which spans Antebellum hoop skirts and ruffles to ornate Gilded Age gowns], very extra, the accentuation of the hip and the dresses, very dramatic. And the corset, this very small size. It’s very uncomfortable but I want it! I want to try on these clothes, I want to be in this era, I want to ride in a horse-drawn carriage. I’m curious about this whole era of fashion, umbrellas and gloves. And I want to meet someone like Napoleon.

7. How would your friends describe you?

PC: My friends often tell me that I am very funny, very energetic and also very dedicated to my craft and work incredibly hard. And my friends tell me that I am also very charismatic. I believe that today, whatever you do, you have to make yourself known, you have to mark yourself and I’m really happy to have that in me, the celebrity side, the fabulous side in me.

I also made friends with the agents at the immigration border because I have so much luggage every time I go back and forth from New York and my English is not good but at Because of my good humor and personality, I made very good friends with all these border officers.

8. What makes you laugh more than anything else?

PC: Myself! Just like I laugh now, every day I’m like hee hee hee.

9. What is the craziest thing you have ever done and would you do it again?

PC: Be a fashion designer. It’s not for everyone. I can’t sleep, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink because I can only do what my body lets me so that’s all I do I have to be able to stay awake as much as I can so I need to be healthy. Everyday [it’s] vitamins, omega 3. And I would do it again and again. I don’t do drugs but if drugs were to exist in another form, I think fashion design would be.

I always say it’s my last collection, my last season and I’ve been around for 25 years.

10. Where do you see Greedilous in five years?

PC: LVMH and Kering contacting me, and large companies investing.

Five years from now, I see myself choosing which companies I’m going to sign with because they’re all going to approach me, hopefully, as the first Korean designer. It’s my goal.