Again a woman designer, but this time she’s from Korea. She’s Xin Jung Ah, mastermind behind Hexynghexyng. As the other guest, she chose the place where we met: Lay Bricks Cafe (this is how I found the place!). I suggested her to write it in Korean, if she wanted to and felt more comfortable, but Jung Ah-ssi completed in a very good English. From Ulsan she came to Seoul to study and then started her own brand.

At this moment she’s working for the next collection, fighting!

Name: Xin Jung Ah | Date: 14/07/14 | Site: hexynghexyng.com 

What do you do? I’m a fashion designer

What do you aim for? Umm, [that] every people have my clothes in their closets

Disadvantages and dificulties in your profession: A lot of headaches because 창작/creation!

Who or what inspires you: All the people & books

The moment you decided to live in Seoul: Love people & many interesting things in here

Favorite book, film and music:

– 1Q84 [Haruki Murakami]

– Her [Spike Jonze]

Favorite place in Seoul: 북촌! [Bukchon]

What do you think you will be doing in one year? Maybe similar [to] now, but [a] little bit grown up

A person who deserves recognition for his/her work: 살보, he is my friend. He is a graffiti artist. He has his own world…maybe…특이해 [unique]

---

Illustration: Meritxell Jubert

I wish I could have a coffee (green tea latte is even better) in all the coffee shops in Sinsa. Seoul is full of interesting, cute, decor inspiring cafes, but I’ve just been walking around Sinsa, mostly Garosu-gil, too much lately and discovered lots of new places (thanks to the Q&A project).

The Lay Bricks is the place chosen by the next interviewed person for Q&A in Seoul (interview will be up soon!). You can find roasted coffee, nice staff and really good music! I wasn’t expecting the last one. They serve food as well, homemade and fresh sandwiches.

Sigue leyendo «Seoul : Lay Bricks Cafe»

Q. What is Start the Riot and how did it start?

Start the Riot is a project of the House of Riot aiming to empower young people to speak up and use their voice, by using mediums that they connect with, focussing on fashion now, but not limited to it. We want to foster empathy over apathy.

Start the Riot began at this past Australian Fashion Fashion Week. I painted 100 t-shirts with positive political slogans on them; slogans included «Reject Racism» «Sexism Sucks» «Clean Energy, Clean Country» etc.. The goal was to have a sea of people at Fashion Week being street styled and blogged wearing the tees and sparking conversation. I also made a zine to be handed out a fashion week if people wanted more information on the issues discussed on the tees.

Q. The quotes in your t-shirt are about different issues, what are they and why did you choose them?

The original batch that I made for Fashion Week included about 60 different slogans covering issues on Human Rights, Environmental Issues, Feminism, Climate Change, Racism and more. I was encouraging people who wore the shirts to come up with their own slogans or at least suggest an issue and we could work on the slogan together. It was important for me that this project was about people sharing their own voice and not just attaching themselves to a preexisting idea.

---

“I honestly had no idea

how far this would go”

---

Q. Have you achieved what you expected with this project?

Yes, and much more. I honestly had no idea how far this would go. Start the Riot was designed to only run for Fashion Week but due it’s success I have decided to keep it running. The biggest surprise for me was the global reach. It has been written up all over the world, America, Japan, Canada, Korea, UK, Denmark and many more. I also started receiving emails from individual telling me how the project had inspired them to take political action in their own way, which was the whole point. The whole experience has been extremely rewarding.

Q. What’s the next step?

Sigue leyendo «Australian model Ollie Henderson starts the riot!»

Han pasado dos días desde que finalizase la Competición Internacional de B-Boy R16, y la mayoría de los participantes se encuentran en sus respectivos países, quizá preparándose para nuevos eventos donde demostrar sus habilidades. Sea como fuera, seguro que quedan rastros de la excitación del pasado fin de semana, días 4 y 5 de julio, sobre todo en los ganadores de esta nueva edición. Al menos, los espectadores que tuvimos la suerte de ver sus coreografías y movimientos seguimos sintiéndonos así.

Otro año más, esta competición ha reunido a bboys de todas partes del mundo: China, Japón, EE.UU, Marruecos, Vietnam, Australia, Taiwán, Singapur, además de la presencia europea con los representantes de Italia, Inglaterra, Rusia y Francia. Esta variedad de naciones solo puede dar lugar a una gran diversidad de cualidades y actuaciones. Resultado: un gran espectáculo.

Sigue leyendo «R16 2014: B-boy, locking y popping mundial de nuevo en Corea»