About
Garments usually come to us in predetermined forms. The moment they are named as a shirt, trousers, or a dress, assumptions about how they will be worn and what kind of body they are intended for are already established. We tend to imagine the body wearing the garment before encountering the garment itself. Such imagination is not accidental, but becomes familiar through the repetition of social signs and cultural codes.
Because we accept the relationship between the body and clothing as something natural, we rarely question when and how this relationship is formed. What kind of state can a garment exist in before its relationship with the body has been determined? When and how is the relationship between body and clothing created?
Open Garment is a concept that emerges from these questions. It refers to a state before the relationship between body and clothing becomes fixed in a single way, as well as the possibilities of movement, function, and meaning that emerge from this state. Here, “open” does not refer to formal openness, but to the openness of relationships. Through Open Garment, SEHIKYO explores the conditions through which relationships between the body and clothing are formed.
The work is centred around knitting. Here, knitting functions not only as a material or decorative element, but also as a method for connecting and separating the structures of existing garments. Elements that normally exist independently, such as sleeves and bodices, collars and hem ribs, or front and back panels, are newly connected or separated through knitting, allowing garments to become structures in which relationships can be continually reorganised.
Through the process of making garments, SEHIKYO explores the images and interpretations surrounding the relationship between body and clothing. The same work produces different images and meanings when placed flat, worn on the body, documented through photography, or described through text. These movements and transformations of images form an important part of the work, allowing a single piece to generate new images and interpretations across different media and situations.
SEHIKYO
SEHIKYO is a research-based fashion project founded in Seoul in 2019 and currently based in Tokyo.
SEOHEE KIM
Seohee Kim is a fashion researcher and practitioner who received her BA in Fashion Design Technology from London College of Fashion in 2016 and her MA in Fashion Design from Royal College of Art, London, in 2018. She is currently a doctoral researcher in the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts. As a co-founder of Textum Club, a platform dedicated to critical fashion research, she continues to investigate the intersection of theory and practice in fashion, working between Tokyo and Seoul.
