In her debut collection Female Gaze at New York Fashion Week Spring Summer 2020, the Parsons MFA graduate, Ji Min Lee explored male beauty through the female gaze as each look in her collection reveals a different part of the male body under the designer’s cut-outs. Originally from South Korea, Ji Min Lee recollects how one of the moments that influenced her to break free from the cultural conforms of her eastern background was a life drawing class «moving to New York, I realized that I had an interest in subjects of sex and desire».
The garments are embellished with cast-off recycled crystal «When I developed the ‘Female Gaze’ collection, I used dead stock materials from Swarovski such as pearls and crystals for hand beading textile development. During the sample developing process, I preferred working with vintage jackets and pants to develop the silhouette, by doing this I could create something new with a vision inspired by deadstock».
During the research for her thesis collection, nude male bodies were illustrated to express and visualize a woman’s desire that were then implemented onto the textile. Large unexpected cut-outs on men’s oversized suits reveal parts of the male body in eight suits and eight body suits to make up eight looks. Each look represents specific parts of the male form – one look will emphasize the shape of a shoulder while another exposes the pelvis. Bodysuits are revealed where the suits are cut away. There is a masculine and feminine tension in the opposing fabrics used for different layers. Feminine lies beneath the masculine.
Ji Min Lee is a menswear designer from South Korea. She’s interested in eroticism, sexuality and the naked human form. In 2019 she graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York.
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