Image Courtesy of Songzio.
Growing up backstage of fashion shows and watching his parents built the largest fashion house in South Korea, it’s safe to say that fashion is in Jay Songzio’s DNA. This year the eponymous design label is celebrating its 30th birthday and is proudly operating several brands: Songzio, Songzio Homme, Zzero by Songzio and Zio Songzio.
As it often happens when your 20s are coming to end, the brand took a deep dive for introspection with their FW23 collection titled ‚REFLEXION’. The creative designer and CEO describes the beginning of this new decade as „mature youth“. In times of increasing AI enthusiasm in the fashion industry, he touches on something deeply human by capturing the coexisting dualities of the human condition. Who do we appear to be and who are we really? Songzio plays with this black and white tension to explore all the rich and complex nuances of grey in-between.
Jay Songzio leads the brand’s journey of self-discovery with astonishing elegance and calm. It seems like he has transformed living between dualities, Paris and Seoul, into the fuel for his creative endeavors. Through dedication, persistence and a genuine sense for balance, Songzio mastered the splits of binary concepts and creates with a sense of know-how yet wonder.
FW23. Image Courtesy of Songzio.
SLEEK: You grew up in the fashion industry as your parents are fashion designers themselves. What is your earliest fashion memory? When did you know you wanted to step into their footsteps?
Jay Songzio: I think my earliest fashion memory is that of running around in the backstage of one of our brand’s shows probably when I was 4-5. I don’t think I can say there was a specific moment, our brand has always meant everything to our family, and I always knew I would continue the brand when the time came.
S: You had a rather multicultural upbringing. For FW22 you brought Songzio to Paris Fashion Week and today you are working between Paris and Seoul. What does this transcontinental dialogue mean to you? How does it reflect in your work?
JS: I think living and working between these two very different cities – dissimilar in almost every possible way – always pushes me to find a sense of complete newness, while also allowing me to stay quite sensitive and objective about what we do as a brand.
Both my upbringing and this transcontinental dialogue are both very much reflected in my work. Our brand’s collections reflect and contain very contrasting philosophies, concepts, and aesthetics to create something of our own. In this process, western romanticism and oriental stoicism, western modern ready to wear and oriental classical garment making, western colors and oriental fabrics… and many of such binary concepts are naturally applied in our collections. In numerous ways, the East-West dialogue is a force of natural influence – sometimes even unintentional -, neither a conscious nor a forced choice.
S: In your opinion, where can the European fashion scene learn from the South Korean fashion scene and vice versa?
JS: It’s quite hard to generalize both fashion scenes, and I don’t think I am well placed to discuss what the two scenes can learn from each other. It’s difficult to yet compare the European fashion scene with its very long history, established industry behind and global recognition with the South Korean fashion scene, which is relatively young and is only recently on the rise. Fashion sometimes seems to be all about youth and hype but in the long term, it’s the longevity, persistence and timeless relevance of the brand that matter more. I hope the Korean fashion scene will enjoy this longevity.
SS23 Campaign. Image Courtesy of Songzio.
S: What does you creative process look like? What inspires you?
JS: Songzio’s creative process is defined as ‘paint on black’. Every collection begins on a black canvas where the season’s inspirational painting is drawn. In these paintings, the crossing vertical strokes represent the object while the horizontal strokes represent its emotions.
From this and countless sketches, I conceptualize the collection in calmness.
S: You have mentioned before that your work evolves a lot around dualities, East-West, soft-rough, male-female. Can you elaborate a bit on this philosophy? Why is it important to you?
JS: This concept of duality itself is not what matters much to me. I am simply trying to create a collection that is most like myself and Songzio-like. Our brand is always in search of complete newness, and our way of finding this is through introspection, visualizing our reflections and emotions. I am a dual person, hence the concept of duality.
S: Your collections are often described as avant-garde. The general AI enthusiasm, which is slowly emerging into so many areas of our lives, notably fashion, could be considered avant-garde too. Are you interested in transhumanism? Do you trust the fashion world to make good use of AI?
JS: I like to do things by hand, and perhaps because I grew up in a fashion house, I am more inclined to stay ‘human’ and appreciate a sense of pure creativity, imperfectness, and savoir-faire. With regards to AI applications, as of now, I think the technology is definitely more useful on the consumer-end than on the designer-end.
S: Who do you create for and how do you see the role of fashion designer? What sensations do you want to evoke with your work?
JS: I create for creative people, whatever their field may be. I think the role of a fashion designer is to create the brand’s own unique, creative, and immersive universe where the consumer can be inspired and be satisfied by.
FW23. Image Courtesy of Songzio.
S: The fashion house Songzio has been founded in 1993 by your father. You are looking back to a 30 year legacy. How would you describe this legacy and how do you deal with it?
JS: I think our 30 year legacy is meaningful not because of the number of years, but because we are one of the very few first generation fashion house in Korea, pioneering and building an industry, which did not exist before.
It is this “avant-garde” and pioneering spirit that I am proud of, and it is with this very same spirit I look forward to the next 50, 100 years. For a fashion house, 30 years is still very young and with a sense of mature youth, we will continue to preserve and innovate.
S: You are both the business and creative director of Songzio and its four sub-brands. How do you manage the splits between the worlds of selling and creating?
JS: Evidently, sometimes taking care of both the business and the creative side is overwhelming. But, when I look back, I think it is this split that keeps me sane and grounded.
S: Do you have any advice for young designers trying to make their own mark in the industry?
JS: I think the first challenge for young designers is to find a unique ‘look’ in a world where everything seems to already exist. Then once this is found, I think the most important thing is to be convincing and pure: for this, persistence, and patience and thinking of the brand’s place in the fashion world in the long term is more important than immediate hype.
S: Can you give us a little sneak peak into the SS24 collection you are currently working on?
JS: Titled ‘pure rebel’, Songzio’s 24 spring summer collection captures the pure yet subversive essence of the Songzio.
This collection converges the classical and the new, converging the brand’s unique and artistic designs with a new sense of youthful ready to wear and tailoring. Inspired by ancient Korean garments and armor, this collection features Songzio’s signature cocoon silhouette and volume, delicately deconstructed with multi-layered drapes and plated cuts.