Haute couture designer, K-pop costume creator: Aespa’s debut stage outfits and Kay Kim, the woman behind them
- To create the girl group’s stage outfits, Kim met with the band members to hear their expectations, and listened to their debut song many times
- Kim, educated in Seoul, Paris and London, has created outfits for A-list stars such as Lee Young-ae, Lee Hyo-ri, Kim Hee-sun and Lee Ha-nee
Last year, haute couture designer Kay Kim received an unexpected phone call from Lee Soo-man, the founder and chief director of SM Entertainment.
SM, one of the big four entertainment agencies in South Korea, along with JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment and Big Hit Entertainment, was about to unveil girl band Aespa. It was the first time in six years that SM was launching a new girl band.
The “international K-pop act” – made up of a Japanese, a Chinese and two Korean girls – drew keen attention from the media even before its official November debut, partly because each member had a digital avatar counterpart.
On the call, Lee asked if Kim would be willing to join the Aespa project as a designer.
“I said, ‘Why not?’,” Kim recalled during a recent interview at her shop in Seoul. She didn’t think twice about accepting Lee’s offer because she knew it would be challenging and rewarding.
“I was asked to come up with artistic and haute couture-like costumes [to] create the image of Aespa who is new, artistic and unique. I accepted the offer on the spot as I found the concept of the girl group interesting, especially the avatar thing, as it reflects the current era where people in the real world interact with a virtual world. I was intrigued by the fact that it was a project about the future of people,” Kim said.
Lee wanted each of the members to be portrayed as chic, stylish and gorgeous – next-generation warriors dedicated to saving the world from a fictional villain called Black Mamba. For Kim, the problems that came with designing outfits for a digital-era girl band were greater than she initially thought. It was like trying to create something out of nothing, and the designer had to work under a time constraint as the clock was ticking down to their debut.
Kim squeezed in several meetings with the band members to listen to their expectations and to get an idea of their stage costumes. She also listened to their debut song many times. Working with the girls for their much anticipated stage debut was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Kim said, even though the SM girl band project was very different from what she had done in the past, she had a lot of fun during the entire process.
Kim’s career has involved discovering clients’ demands through consultations and coming up with elegant dresses quickly, while also keeping an eye on the latest trends and cultural differences. A large portion of her work style has been cultivated through her education and professional career in major cities like Seoul, Paris and London. This experience has helped her create a unique brand appealing to Koreans and non-Koreans alike.
“It takes more time for a haute couture designer to become successful compared to designers who make ready-to-wear dresses,” Kim said. “But I fell in love with the beauty of haute couture fashion, which is the top of the fashion pyramid.”
Growing up, Kim said she was a bookworm and a hard-working student who never knew how to enjoy life. This dedication even ended up making her sick.
“When I was in Paris, I was obsessed with winning first place in school. I thought I needed to study hard and be the best, because my parents paid a lot to educate me in France. So I didn’t get much rest and simply spent my time only in school, museums and art galleries even on weekends. After one-and-a-half years there, I started to faint every day even though I had no clear health problems. I was seriously thinking of quitting fashion because of [this].”
Her doctor and instructor told her that she was working too hard, and encouraged her to have fun. Although she initially didn’t believe it, she came to the realisation that she may have fallen sick because she wasn’t enjoying the process and had forgotten why she loved fashion and clothes.
