We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Chun a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
During the pandemic when the world was in lockdown I was able to reconnect with my Korean heritage. I came across an article about Korea’s natural dyeing and artisans. I had no idea Korea had its own natural dyeing traditions and techniques that predated the formal unification of Korea. In the article they interviewed a natural dyer outside of Seoul, and I decided to just email her. My mother was in lockdown living in LA and like many senior citizens the isolation was incredibly difficult. So I asked her to collaborate with me, by helping me communicate with the natural dyer.
We all eventually became pen pals. Once travel restrictions were lifted my husband and I visited my father who was living in lockdown in Korea. We made arrangements to meet with the natural dyer and visited her indigo farm and studio. She taught me how to cut the indigo and showed me basic process of her craft. She suggested we collaborate.
The line developed from there, eventually leading to a capsule collection, incorporating fabrics developed in Korea – including hand dyed materials and fabrics purchased in traditional markets around the country. And constructed into limited edition pieces to ensure sustainability, and designed with a uniform aesthetic, in New York City’s garment district.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
While I was studying abroad in Seoul during college, where I was originally studying pre-law, it was there I realized my life would go down a different path. The fashion in Korea at the time was eye opening, and inspired me to rethink what I wanted to do in life. After returning to the States I dropped all my pre law classes and began the first difficult steps in a new journey. This included taking classes in a completely different discipline- fine art, graphic design, even sewing and illustration – at a school near my university in DC. After months of hard work, I was admitted to Pratt University’s Fashion Design School.
This helped launch my career as a designer in NYC. I had the privilege of working with both young designers and corporate design companies, allowing me to combine my training across very different environments and perspectives. I’ve incorporated these diverse lessons, spanning technical and artistic, when launching my own line, initially under my name sake brand that I built over 10 years, and eventually with Uniformed.
With Uniformed, I am really proud that I have been able to bring my Korean American heritage into my designs. Now that I have been trained and have learned the production and design part of fashion I can now focus on truly designing with a thoughtful process – integrating my heritage more prominently into my designs, while being as sustainable as possible. None of this is easy or formulaic, but it is a new, interesting, and inspired challenge!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My goal and mission for this brand is evolve it from a Korean American capsule brand to a brand that is collaborative with Koreans around the world. I would look for opportunities to collaborate with designers and artisans beyond just the United States and Korea. There are Koreans living in all regions, across other parts of Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. Their unique experiences are something I’d like to understand more. I’m hoping to bring to more light all of these different forms of Korean fusion, and translate them into pieces that are inspired by something every culture is familiar with. A uniform.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I owned and was creative director of a women’s ready to wear (RTW) line for 10 years — my namesake label, Jennifer Chun. I was able to grow the brand from scratch, eventually selling to some department stores (Saks) and boutiques— including in Seoul, a personal goal for me. It was an incredibly hard decision but we closed the line. But I genuinely have no regrets and wholeheartedly think it was the right decision. With Uniformed, I’ve had to unlearn so much of what I had to learn to run a fashion line during a different era. The world has changed. I no longer feel like I need to conform to the routines of the fashion market like creating full RTW collections 2-3 times per year. Consumers shop differently now. I also had to unlearn traditional methods of sales and marketing. There is no right or wrong formula anymore. A strategy that works for Uniformed today may not be a strategy that worked for my old label and may not be appropriate for everyone. We all need to find what works for each of us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.uniformedworld.com/
- Instagram: uniformed_world
- Facebook: Uniformed
- Twitter: UniformedW
Image Credits
My Bio Photo Credit=Wayn Ohara Reid
Look Book Photo Credits: Hyeonwoo Lee
The BTS fabric dyeing photos credit=no need to credit