2NE1 STYLIST INTERVIEW at NYLON MAGAZINE.
Yang Seung Ho(Y) and Lee Hyun Jong(Danny) is like this. Rather than going wild over Galliano and eye-goggling shoes, they are more motivated by funny jokes. Also a mania of Coke-in-a-can, they are the stylists of 2NE1.
I heard that the two of you are studying fine art. In actuality, when you look at it this way, even among the categories of fashion, styling is a more down-to-earth category and very far from the realms of fine art. How did you get to start it?
(Y)Actually, it was a coincidental opportunity that got us started. I was studying in London and came back to Korea for a bit when I met YG producer Teddy through the introduction of my friend, Big Bang’s Kwon Ji Yong. As it turns out, YG was looking for a stylist for their newly made 4-member female group, and we both participated in the test for choosing a stylist.
(Danny)We did not intend to be 2NE1’s stylist and prepare for it to start with. It was really coincidence that let us get through the test and come this far. There were also two teams other than us that had tried out, and it was amazing that we had gotten picked.
Still there must be a reason why the two of you were chosen above those two teams.
(Danny)Each team had been given a week to take care of 2NE1’s styling and had a photoshoot, and we looked at the results in the end, and I thought our style was really sort of different.
(Y)Other candidates only focused on making them look pretty. Contrary to that, we put our focus on making a style that would match their song ‘Fire.’
The outfits for 2NE1’s ‘Fire’ or ‘I Don’t Care’ is very bold compared to other girl group outfits. I’m curious on the reason you chose to fit 2NE1 into clothes that are focused in dimensions, patterns, and prints.
(Danny)In some ways, it’s just our personal preferences. It’s the things we’ve liked and grown up with in the 23 years of our lives. We never really had much of an interest in girl clothes. It wasn’t a clothing item I could wear. So rather than a more feminine styling, we ended up with a more manly unisex clothing style to fit them into. When you look at 2NE1’s clothes, there are quite a lot of clothes that guys can also wear.
(Y)The clothes that 2NE1 wears, most of them were things that we had been keeping. Before their debut, we couldn’t get commissioned clothes so we had to fit them into our clothes. It was the best thing I was able to do with the clothes I’ve been wearing.
Some of the things that stand out among 2NE1’s styles in particular are those Lego accessories and leggings with unusual patterns and other eccentric items one can’t find easily in Korea. Where did you get them?
(Y)For ‘Fire,’ we did use a lot of items that we already had, but some were bought out of the country or produced ourselves. The company allows us to go out of the country often to buy clothes. When we buy from foreign countries, we usually go to the UK’s Top Shop or in Japan and etc. but we lean more towards buying from our country’s bargain sale shops in KwangJang or DongDaeMun.
(Danny)The Legos also were a coincidental happening, when we randomly came across it at a mart and thought, ‘It would be fun to make something with these,’ and one day we really did and ended up with those.
As stylists, did you ever have clashing opinions with one another or drove each other on?
(Danny&Y)Our styles are way too similar.
(Y)I think it was around when I was 18, when we first met, not only in terms of fashion, but also in music or movies and more, our tastes were similar and we communicated well.
(Danny)Even now our tastes are almost the same. So we go for the same styles and we look at the same things and simultaneously decide it’s good. There are two people who are so alike, but could they ever get driven by another to do something? Of course, we do clash a bit in the small petty things, like when we go to fabric stores and buy a cream white fabric, and debate between a milk white and an ice cream white. Rather than driving each other to do something, I think it’s more accurate to say that we look to each other for support for our decisions.
Source: Nylon Korea
