Hyun Park’s Latest Collection for MMAM is Ageless, Genderless, Sizeless

Concept Korea is a global fashion initiative sponsored by Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), it is aimed at assisting Korean designers and promoting their work in hopes that they will break through in the global fashion scene. Since 2010, the program has been on the official New York Fashion Week calendar, presenting group runway shows that highlight the talent, ingenuity, and styling prowess of contemporary Korean fashion designers. 

For its Spring/Summer 2024 presentation, Concept Korea staged an engaging show with KIMMY.J, CHARM’S, and MMAM. The latter, which stands for Maison Modern Art Museum, is a brand spearheaded by the designer Hyun Park that explores the value of family through graffiti embroidered onto pieces. Often, classic silhouettes are emboldened with these visuals, which are inspired by doodle drawings—a child’s first visual language. Innately, these spark a yearning for play and remind the wearer of their own lineage. Filled with off-kilter garments featuring tags and buttons in unexpected places, as well as plenty of pleats and asymmetrical cuts, MMAM’s Spring/Summer 2024 line was genderless, ageless, and sizeless. Whitewall spoke with the designer about how it also focused on self-acceptance, and what artists she’s gaining inspiration from for MMAM’s next collection. 

Hyun Park on the MMAM Concept

WHITEWALL: MMAM stands for Maison Modern Art Museum. Why was this the name you chose for your brand?

HYUN PARK: A maison is a precious space where various human traces remain, from birth to adulthood. I felt that all unconscious behaviors and traces that occurred in that space are abstract art and modern art.

WW: The brand highlights the value of family through elements of graffiti embroidered into classic silhouettes. Why graffiti?

HP: MMAM is a brand that reinterprets the human instinct to long for childhood. When a child is born, they cry or babble to express their thoughts, and when they get the tools to express them, they begin to scribble.

The child draws something to express an opinion. A young child who cannot control the strength of their fingers expresses the innocence they want to communicate. The form of the picture is a doodle drawing, but it is also a representation of another opinion. At home, where doodle drawings are first seen, children begin to express their thoughts to parents for the first time. I was inspired by these unconscious scribbles and actions to develop the motif.

“I want to show that clothing is part of modern art,”

— Hyun Park

WW: How would you describe the aesthetic of a typical MMAM garment or look?

HP: I want to show that clothing is part of modern art that artistically expresses symmetry and asymmetry.

The Idea Behind MMAM’s SpringSummer 2024 Collection

WW: MMAM’s signature graffiti details are inspired by doodle drawings, evoking a child’s first visual language. Why is remaining playful important to the DNA of the brand?

HP: The brand started with doodle drawings. While presenting my master’s thesis in 2016, I developed wearable artwear using doodle drawings. Rather than maintaining a playful side, the brand is being developed by taking inspiration from unconscious behavior. The designs are inspired by unintentional patterns, unconscious behavior such as the shape of a folded blanket, or the colored paper children play with. By reinterpreting the human instinct to yearn for childlike play and expressing these behaviors, we hope that MMAM will become not just clothes with a wearable function, but clothes that people will want to own for a long time with new inspirational artistry.

“My goal is to make pieces that are passed down from generation to generation,”

— Hyun Park

WW: Your Spring/Summer 2024 collection focused on self-acceptance through a genderless, ageless, and sizeless line. How does this approach create a reflection of who you might think MMAM is made for? Or is this a reflection of who is wearing MMAM today?

HP: I create designs with the hope that everyone at home can share them. I don’t think any clothes are just for me. My goal is to make pieces that are passed down from generation to generation and build on the memories that the clothing already holds. I hope that when a child grows up and wears their parent’s clothes, they will not feel uncomfortable at all. We design them with the hope that the clothes themselves will shine when worn by someone regardless of size, age, or gender.

WW: How does being in the Concept Korea program impact your efforts to be seen?

HP: These days, the ways of expressing and showing things that never existed in the world have become truly diverse. I believe that it is difficult to promote Korean fashion on the world stage and grow into a global brand through individual efforts alone. Expertise requires a variety of capital. I believe this is only possible with the support from the government.

Hyun Park on Seoul’s Fashion Scene

WW: How would you describe the fashion scene in Seoul right now?

HP: It is no exaggeration to say that it seems like only yesterday Koreans wore hanbok, our traditional garment. The fashion has rapidly changed into modern styles in a very short period of time, so the clothing continues to show structure and detail through the tailoring and craftsmanship alongside modern trends.

WW: Have you started working on MMAM’s next collection? If so, what unique artistic elements will it feature?

HP: I really like abstract art. I look up to artists like Jackson Pollock and Cy Twombly and study their works and chronology.

I am trying to connect these works with my own to create MMAM’s new season. I will develop more new fabrics and patterns in the future and make MMAM’s clothing art pieces people want to wear. I want to make clothes that customers will want to hold on to for a long time like a work of art.

WW: What are you hopeful for in 2024?

HP: I always hope to become a global brand, not just a Korean brand.