Johan Ku (古又文) sits across from me at a coffee shop dressed in a plain black T-shirt and jeans — a remarkable contrast from the wildly inventive rough wool designs that are a hallmark of his fashion aesthetic.
Ku has earned plaudits and awards over the past five years for creating a series of knitwear collections that bridge the gap between fashion design and sculpture.
But Ku’s fashion tastes don’t end with haute couture; he has worked with local companies to design ready-to-wear swimsuits and was costume producer for the Taiwanese television drama Hot Shot (籃球火), also known as Basketball Fire. He says, however, that his first love is designing runway fashion.
Next month, Ku will travel to New York as a finalist in Gen Art Styles International Design Competition, an annual fashion design competition judged by a who’s who list of magazine editors (Vogue, GQ, Details and Marie Claire) and buyers (Saks Fifth Avenue and La Garconne) from the fashion industry. Ku is a finalist in the competition’s avant-garde category. Winners will be announced on July 15.
A month after returning from New York, Ku will be off to London where he has been accepted into the master’s degree program at the prestigious Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design.
A few weeks ago, Ku sat down with me to discuss his creations, Taiwan’s nascent fashion industry and his aspirations to make a mark on the Taiwanese fashion scene.
Taipei Times: The last time we spoke, you mentioned that Taiwan’s fashion and textile industry has changed considerably over the past few decades.
Johan Ku: That’s true. Local companies have closed their factories in Taiwan and moved them to China and Vietnam because our labor costs are too high. This has caused serious changes in our [textile] industry. And until now [we] don’t know how to deal with it appropriately because [our] knowledge base is all about manufacturing.
TT: Could you please elaborate a little?
JK: Twenty or 30 years ago, Taiwan was the factory of the world. Today it is China. You can see some older Hollywood movies talking about Taiwan’s products: “Oh, this umbrella is broken. It must be from Taiwan.” As a designer, I am a little embarrassed by this because I don’t want to do that kind of design. But our industry [model] forces us to do that kind of thing.
Also, 20 years ago, Taiwanese couldn’t afford to buy high-end clothing. But teenagers nowadays don’t have a tough time like their parents — they don’t have to work in the factories. So as they are growing up their parents might buy a Chanel bag and this changes their attitude to clothing. They might even have a dream to be a designer and not just run a factory, like their parents.
TT: What do you mean by the industry “forces us to do that kind of thing?”
JK: Because the [textile] industry in Taiwan is still pretty much focused on manufacturing and production. They just ask you to come up with a design that can produce 100,000 items. This results in low quality and not a real design. If you want to be an independent designer it is really tough because our fashion industry is not really well developed.
Japan, for example, already has a well developed fashion week and their buyers appreciate their designers and they will buy their designs a half year before the season begins. So they can have great planning to produce their products without stock.
TT: So Taiwan doesn’t currently have a fashion week?
JK: We do, but our fashion week takes place once a year, not every season. So people don’t know that we have a fashion week. Also, the buyers are not doing the same thing as the Japanese. They won’t buy your products six months in advance.
TT: So in Taiwan, fashion week is actually an annual thing.
JK: Yes, we have a festival called Taipei IN Style (www.taipeiinstyle.com). You can call it a fashion week, but there are only a few designers there.
(In its fourth year, Taipei IN Style is an annual event that promotes Taiwan’s fashion and textile industry. This year’s fashion week begins on Aug. 28 at Taipei World Trade Center, Hall 1 (台北世貿中心展覽大樓一館). Last year, 149 designers from 17 countries attended the exhibition. For further details visit www.taipeiinstyle.com, available in English, Chinese and Japanese.)
TT: Have you ever participated in Taipei IN Style?
JK: Yes, I participated in the first year.
TT: Does it work to promote Taiwan’s fashion industry?
JK: Let me put it this way. If our industry can’t be developed well like Japan, if we can’t have a system where buyers order our products six months in advance, I don’t think the fashion week can work.
For example, Japan’s press is very interested in their fashion designers — not just foreign designers, but their own designers. So Tokyo fashion week becomes a place that can feed many designers and when they have a large enough budget they can fly to Paris or London or New York. And that’s the real design world.
TT: Let’s talk about your design Emotional Sculpture for Gen Arts Style International Design Competition. What was the inspiration for it?
JK: Sculpture. It’s one kind of sculpture and I wanted to apply this concept in fashion because I think my needlework can be a kind of sculpture.
TT: How did you arrive at wool as a material to use rather than, say, cotton?
JK: Actually I’ve used a lot of different materials. I’ve used a knife to cut fabric and I have even used some materials that were never used in needle wear before, such as rubber. I think those materials are interesting, but in the end, if I need to be delicate, they are not the best choice.
I use knitwear because it is a material used for high-end fashion. On the other hand, this kind of material is raw, so I can form it however I want: huge knits or smaller knits — I can separate them to the right size that I want.
TT: Your creations are not really the functional, ready-to-wear designs that can be worn to a basketball game or to a night out at the theater.
JK: High fashion and runway fashion — the stuff that I do — is focused on being the leader of the fashion trend. So they promote their concept in front of an audience and try to influence them. And manufacturers — the general clothing makers — follow those trends. So that’s why you see so much un-wearable clothing during fashion week.
But these designs lead the fashion world forward. I think that that’s the difference. Even for mass production, they need to consider the high fashion because they can get inspiration from that and apply that to their product.
TT: I notice that the structure of the collar and knitted patterns are a prominent feature in this series of designs.
JK: I like high neck design. I say it’s needle wear, but it’s also crochet with knitting. And, because it is a three-dimensional creation, I can use a more dramatic contrast in the front and back. This makes it sculptural in appearance.
TT: Is fashion a good investment to make? Will these knitted sculptures appreciate in value?
JK: The history of fashion design is only 100 years old so compared to other art forms like painting, which has been around for much longer, its difficult to say what the investment value is. But I believe that this kind of clothing cannot be produced a second time — like a painting by Picasso.
TT: The progress of your career is interesting. You started out as a graphic designer and then switched over to fashion design. Why?
JK: Actually, it was fate. My grades weren’t good enough to study graphic design so I went into fashion design instead.
TT: You’ve mentioned that graphic design is a good stepping-stone for fashion design.
JK: Sure, especially sketching. This is a basic skill that fashion designers need to use to communicate with others and explain their designs. Also, as I understand fashion history, many fashion designers were not originally from this field. They come from fields such as architectural design, interior design and of course graphic design. And then they transferred over to fashion design.
TT: What attributes do these people bring to fashion design?
JK: They use a different point of view to look at this industry and they can figure out much more interesting ideas than those who are only in this field.
TT: When did you establish your studio?
JK: In 2005 I established my own studio. As a human I have to earn money [laughs]. I did many commercial projects — not so creative or interesting, but as my bread and butter, for example, the television drama Basketball Fire (籃球火)
TT: How did you feel about that?
JK: It was a big project for me and I earned money. But the design was not really creative. I still need to prove that I’m not only capable of doing creative things, but also commercial things as well. I also think that’s why [Central] Saint Martins accepted my application because they still focus on ready-to-wear clothing that is creative. So I showed two collections of my creative ability and two that show my commercial ability.
(Ku was one of eight students accepted into the needle wear program at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, one of the top institutions of its kind in the world. His 25kg portfolio consisted of works from five of his collections, including “not only knitwear but also swimsuits or something to show my flexibility as a designer,” two light garments, and hundreds of sketches of his work.)
TT: Speaking of Central Saint Martins, this is the first time the British Council has given a scholarship to a student in Taiwan for fashion design.
JK: That’s right.
TT: Why do you think they were willing to provide this kind of scholarship and what do you hope to accomplish?
JK: When the judges interviewed me, I wasn’t only talking about myself. I talked about the entire Taiwanese fashion industry and how I can benefit this industry as a designer.
TT: In what ways could you benefit the industry?
JK: I told them that the background of our fashion industry is that nobody knows how to run a fashion house. Central Saint Martins can provide this kind of background. Their best students are given the opportunity to become interns at luxury fashion companies such as Dior. I can learn those things and bring them back and I can become a bridge between the Taiwanese fashion world and the international fashion world.
TT: So eventually you plan to return to Taiwan? It’s difficult for me to imagine that if Dior, for example, offers you a job that you would return to Taiwan.
JK: I am Taiwanese. I cannot change that.
And Taiwan is the nation where I grew up and even though there are many drawbacks, I think that after a few years experience abroad I will return to Taiwan. Then I will create my own line while maintaining a connection to the global fashion industry.
I didn’t apply for any scholarships from Taiwan Textile Federation (紡拓會) because they tell all the applicants that they have to return to Taiwan immediately upon graduation. I don’t think this works. I mean, how can you really learn about the European fashion industry in school? You need to do that in the real fashion industry.
TT: So working in the industry is as important as going to school before setting out on your own.
JK: Right. When you have to run a fashion brand it’s not just producing an item. You have to put a lot of budget into marketing and communication. So maybe you have to spend five years and when everyone knows you, you can sell a T-shirt for a very high price.
And this is what I told the judges of the British scholarship committee. I told them that I can bring that knowledge back to Taiwan because the model of the international fashion industry is totally different than what we have in Taiwan.
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