A designer`s unique success story

How does one begin to describe Hyden Yoo? Dressed in a shawl cardigan from his own Spring 2009 line, the Korean-born fashion designer channels a preppy wholesomeness. But when he starts to talk, peppering his dialogue with "like" and "you know," one realizes that under the initial preppy exterior is a very laid-back guy.

"I`m a pretty ghetto designer," said the 30-year old Houston native in an interview with The Korea Herald.

By ghetto, Yoo seems to be referring to the fact that he would rather sell all his clothes than wear them himself and that he just wears "all the, like, old stuff that`s lying around."

Ghetto, however, is hardly the word that would be used to describe his designs, which ride the line between polished and casual, a look that would, it seems, appeal to a hipster crowd that has to dress for the office but wants to forgo the standard suit.



Ghetto does not even begin to explain the anomaly that is Hyden Yoo. Yoo, however, managed to neatly summarize what it is about him that led to his capricious journey through a series of unlikely career decisions that culminated in the launch of his own eponymous clothing line.

"When I say I`m gonna do something I`ll do it," he said.

So, when the Biology major decided to go for the NBC reality show "Fear Factor," partly because of a dare and partly because he was between jobs, he followed through. Little did he know that he would end up winning $50,000.

Not one to step down from a commitment, he did not just up and quit afterwards, he went back to his job at a Chicago-based consulting firm and put in two years. He also doled out part of his post-tax prize money to his parents and put some into a down payment for a condo, leaving him with around $15,000. Thinking that would cover the costs of his own business, he flew out to New York to start his own clothing line.

"It was way, way, way, like, not enough," said Yoo.

Undeterred, he stuck it out in New York, freelancing and interning for fashion brands, learning the ropes of the business from all angles.

"When I learned the system or learned something then I would quit, you know, and then go somewhere else," he said.

"I was poor and starving," Yoo revealed that his prize money only lasted two months. "It`s a pretty hard road, especially if you start with no backer or investor or anything like that."

The road, for Yoo, in particular, must have been more than just "pretty hard." With no formal training in fashion, Yoo had to learn on his own.

"I had a few friends of mine that already were designers just working for corporate environments," Yoo charted his learning process. "I kind of asked them questions ... I went to the factories to visit them ... I just tried patternmaking and tried all of those things ... and then kind of put everything together, learned how to sketch on the computer."

"I mean I`m still learning to this day," he said.

Humble words from someone who launched his first collection for Fall 2008 -- a collection "that did really, really well, like, just right off the bat" -- and whose line has 22 stockists in the United States, 8 in Canada, 4 in Japan, one in Turkey and three online. Not to mention, Yoo, who started out doing menswear, expanded into womenswear with a trial test for Fall 2009 and a collection for Spring/Summer 2010. The collection is slated to hit stores around March, says Yoo.

So what is the inspiration for his Spring 2010 collection?

For menswear, Yoo referenced "a London boy going to his family in the countryside," using a color palette that includes grays, blacks, dark olive, khaki, orange rust and "Italian straw."

"It`s like stuff that the London boy took out of his suitcase," said Yoo. "It was a little washed and worn and wrinkled and, you know, something a little more comfortable for the countryside."

For the women`s collection Yoo drew inspiration from Italian-born British photographer Felice Beato`s hand-colored shots of Japanese geishas and samurais in the mid-1800s.

"It was these amazing colors, amazing photos, just like geishas in rompers, like swimming trunks and rompers and stuff, and then samurais with these oversized kimono jackets and samurai jackets," he said.

"So we kind of used those proportions and modernized it a little bit, like cropped kimono jackets and then these samurai details on the shoulders and stuff like that."

Drawing from the colors of the photographs, Yoo used deep marigolds, pale greys, and pale blues.

When describing his collection, Yoo`s voice takes on a serious tone, one that displays a true affection for design, for color and art. It is hard to believe that this is the guy who just wolfed down 30,000 won worth of convenience store snacks on his car ride over to the Korea Herald, who likes to watch "Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern" on the Travel Channel and who professes a love for Korean bread that runs so deep that "it`s, like, kind of out-of-control."

But then again this is someone who jumped into the fashion industry without a safety net, a move he does not regret.

"If I just didn`t go and do it, I probably never would have ended up doing what I`m doing now."

For more information on Hyden Yoo`s clothing line visit www.hydenyoo.com

(oh_jean@heraldm.com)







By Jean Oh