Exploring the digital boundaries of the real world Interview with Amber Park
Amber Park is a Korean-American artist whose world is a whirlwind of creativity. Since childhood, she has used every surface as a canvas, even if it meant ruining the white walls of her house or decorating her body with markers. i used to scare my mother,' she jokes. But today she is a well-known artist and director who has worked with music greats like Lil Nas X, Camila Cabello and Katy Perry. Her boundless imagination has never waned.
Last June, you presented your debut collection 'The Kidz Love To Play' at Paris Fashion Week from her label 'PLAY! POP! GO!". Where did your passion for fashion and the need to design your own collection come from?
With PLAY! POP! GO!’s first collection, I wanted to capture the sense of play time and frenetic but innocent energy of youth. When it came to designing the capsule, we wanted to bring something new to the fashion landscape which we call PLAYWEAR. The name PLAYWEAR is in part inspired by the casual “play” clothes people will see in our collections, but refers to garments that activate experiences and unlock digital activations and digital items. You are wearing your own experience and can customize it however you want. I have always gravitated towards storytelling of fashion campaigns, and how clothing can be an extension of how you express yourself, or signal your belonging to a community. I love the synergy between fashion and music and how there is this perfect connection between sight and sound that shape an image and a persona. I was such a huge sneaker and Bape kid growing up. I was obsessed with Dunk Lows. As a kid, my immigrant Korean parents only let me have one pair (the cheapest one they could) that I would wear to school and would only buy new shoes after they had been completely worn out. On rare occasions for something special, I would save up and buy a new pair of Dunk Lows. I went a little bit crazy with my collection of Dunks as an adult hahaha and it’s definitely my favorite Nike silhouette. The collector’s mentality and its connection to fashion has always been fascinating to me. I love how fashion can make you feel. I love how you can express yourself and play and have fun and this concept of mixing and matching and remixing.
The entire capsule collection consists of 23 lifestyle garments. Tell us what inspired you to create this collection and how you decided on the pieces that make it up?
The capsule is casual, cool and comfortable – it is meant to be everyday wear that you can dress up and dress down. It was designed to exude the emotional and spiritual state of being free to play. Elements of the graphics feature the characters and our brand’s IP – more to be revealed in the kawaii mascot hero storylines. Denim to me is the most versatile. There are so many ways to wear the denim pieces in the collection whether for leisure, work, or play and always in your own way.
What are your personal goals, dreams and visions?
In my lifetime, I want to create the next Hello Kitty. I want to create a character that possesses the same spiritual impact of magic, kindness, love and belonging that Sanrio brought to me as a kid and create that for the next generation. My goals and dreams for the future are all rooted in life purpose. Whether that be so big or something so small within your own life and community, we all have something that drives us and is our call to be who we are. I have realized my purpose is to help others smile and to help others feel a sense of love whether that’s through personal relationships and conversations I have with my friends and family or on a larger scale with my creativity, work and storytelling. I want to brighten up the lives of others and help others find joy and experience that same magic and wonder for life that I have discovered. There is so much love and so much color in the world for us to experience. The world is truly our playground.
My next dream is to build my own amusement park or to have my own land / rides at an amusement park. My dream and goal is to truly help others have more fun and to shine their own light and to make others around me illuminate and smile. To show to others that we all should love and that starts from within our own hearts and share that with the world. The future has so much unknown, but we should all be daring and in that the unknown becomes so beautiful. There is so much wonder when you open up your heart and your eyes.
