Minji

This collection is dedicated to my recent adult life.
“Oh, she is such a F.O.B.” was what I was told the very first day I moved to Austin in Texas from Seoul, South Korea. F.O.B. is an acronym for Fresh-Off-the-Boat and it obviously refers to immigrants. This term has remained in my life as one unforgettable and embarrassing definition.
For the past 6 years, I have been living in 4 different countries: South Korea, U.S.A, Canada, and now Italy. This F.O.B definition is persistent and it surely makes me unstable, awkward, odd, uncomfortable, but it is also fresh and I have eventually learned to absorb it. By now, being a F.O.B. is one of the most significant aspects of my life, and I am more than proud to be one.
I believe that my F.O.B condition has also unveiled some special perspectives on the different countries I have experienced.
Thus, the collection reflects both the feeling of disconnection and the slight, progressive adjustments to each place.
Every garment represents significant items from my everyday experience in each of the four countries I have lived in, even if the material used can belong to another one. All outfits are intentionally and oddly contrasting different pieces and references.
Seoul is my hometown I left after my diploma; most of my memories correspond to my middle and high school experiences. Both of them were art schools that required a rigorous entrance exam and demanded very intense education. Some of the pieces unambiguously interpret my school uniforms.
Texas is the very first place where I moved from Seoul. I lived in a college town in Austin where all students tend to wear the same exact outfits such as oversized t-shirts, sports shorts, floral printed clothes or accessories, Chacos sandals, and Texas’ own specific cowboy hats, boots, chaps and Wrangler’s washed denims for special occasions. In Texas I went through the hardest time of my life as I had to adjust to a completely new environment: language, people and culture. It’s where I was first called a F.O.B., and this made me realize I was a foreigner and I was different.
When I moved to Montreal, I fell in love with the city and I became more self-confident and familiar with my F.O.B status. Canada Goose jackets and winter gloves are emblems of the never ending season in Montreal, which deeply affects the local culture and my own appreciation of the country.
Milan, lastly, is the city where I currently live and where I was shocked by the massive presence of police officers. In Korea, Texas or Canada it’s very unusual to spot some many police officers in full uniform holding actual firearms.
Instability, awkwardness, oddness, discomfort, freshness, expectation, progression, absorbency, and pride are all coexisting in F.O.B.