The Milan-based Korean designer is all about creating pieces that celebrate the individuality of the wearer.

Jimin Lee carries herself with a distinct type of lightness and joy that transcends through her clothes. Though based in Milan, Jimin has close ties with the Philippines, having grown up here and spending much of her youth in Manila. So it was only fitting that the designer brought her brand J.Cricket to the confines of Homme et Femme in 8 Rockwell last March 15 to 17 for an intimate trunk show. The by-appointment-only experience featured the J.Cricket Wardrobe 24 selection that allowed shoppers a one-on-one session with the designer as she talked about the inspiration behind each piece and the unique fabrics used to create them.
Founded in 2017, J.Cricket is a brand born out of Jimin&rsquo;s design philosophy of creating unique and individualistic pieces that boast of the character and personality of the wearer above anything else. The collections are made with deadstock fabric, a conscious decision to try to close the loop when it comes to fashion&rsquo;s growing wastage. In an interview with L&rsquo;Officiel, Jimin talks about the inner workings of her creative process, why sustainability is at the core of her brand, and why the Philippines will remain a constant source of inspiration.

Hi Jimin. To start, how does it feel like to be back in the Philippines?
Oh, it feels like I never left. It feels like coming home, because especially the first people I saw were these friends that I've been friends with since I was seven, eight years old. So, it feels like a much more modern and advanced version of the place I grew up in, but the spirit of the Filipino people is still so warm and hospitable; it just feels like I never really left.
Since you grew up here, do you get design inspiration from here? From your childhood?
Yeah, absolutely. I think that I said before that I'm really inspired by nature and the colors in nature, and primarily those are the colors that we use a lot in the collection. And that first encounter with so much green and tropical foliage was in the Philippines when I moved here as a child.
I think my memory of Seoul and Korea at that time, this was the '70s, was very black and white. It was like a developmental stage in Korea at that time, whereas the Philippines, we came in and of course, between the sunlight and the lush nature; you'd see greens and blues, and these were always the colors that were around us.
If I may ask, what are your thoughts on Philippine fashion?
I've seen it only in snippets through, as a young child, of course, looking at the important designers back then who are still important designers today, and I think that this whole attention to detail and the craftsmanship and the handwork is something that I've always noticed with the Filipino designers. I think that I don't know enough of them to have an opinion on what they seem as a collective group, but I think that the appreciation for color, detail, handwork, and embroideries [is there.] Compared to a lot of other Asian countries, very early on, I think [in the Philippines], there were a lot of occasions for people to get dressed up. So, I think that I also see that extravagant, very beautiful, very luxurious, very feminine side of the fashion designers here today.

Circling back to J.Cricket, what is your design philosophy behind the brand and its conception?
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">J.Cricket has been conceived as a wardrobe, and I use the word wardrobe because I think "collection" tends to feel like there's a seasonal collection of Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. The reason I wanted to do J.Cricket was twofold. Number one, it was like a creative expression that became very important for me as an entrepreneur, that I wouldn't limit myself to just the business of fashion. And number two, I kind of had an idea. The idea being that it's very difficult to create another brand and collection with so many things that are around today. And so, for me, there had to be a purpose and a philosophy that I could incorporate into this for it to become a very mind-expanding, and not a difficult, draining experience trying to launch a brand.
So, I decided first to go buy a lot of leftover textiles you see in all the mills that are producing high-quality fabrics for a lot of the luxury brands. I first buy limited textiles that are leftover fabrics by a lot of the big brands. From there, the fabrics themselves actually inform and dictate the pieces that they're going to become. So, in a group of 80 pieces, I might have 50 different textiles and colors, which is quite unusual for a collection. A collection tends to be thematic or based on one idea or a very limited palette. Here, it's about using the textiles well and creating a prototype, and that's my design process.
When we do events like this, and the general business model of J.Cricket is to only allow customers buy through events and order in their size, and I produce it in their size within 12 weeks because I already have the fabrics. The customer is fulfilled by getting what she wants, and I don't have to deal with leftover inventory and not being able to satisfy the client, which is the top priority here.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your design process?
So, my design process allows me to create different pieces of an imaginary wardrobe that are inspired by the fabrics themselves, and I look at every woman everywhere. I don't have this one woman in mind, but it's all about comfort, ease, and freedom, and also being able to move around a lot in our clothes, which today is about a visual effect that our clothing might have. But what we'd like to really have is the ability to do a mix and match in every which way possible, which comes out completely differently every time. And I think it is thus the person, the woman, who is able to really transform the piece and make it into her own. So, it's a little bit about what clothing can be for a person. A very personal vessel and something that should give her confidence because she feels very well in it. And not something to be validated by a logo or a brand, necessarily.

Since you mentioned that deadstock fabric is quintessential in creating your pieces, can you say that sustainability is at the heart of J.Cricket as well?&nbsp;
I don't want it to be a greenwashing thing, but absolutely. I felt terrible about creating more in the sea of stuff that is so much stuff. Two years ago, I think it became illegal for brands to burn their leftover stockpile of fabrics. So, they naturally have to resell them or put them out in the market somewhere, right? And some people just hoard them and keep them in their warehouses. But, knowing that all of this is available, why not use them, right? And also, how much variety there could be. As a young brand, there's no way that you can get your hands on 55, 70 types of fabrics. And I use 95% only natural fibers, because I also feel that cotton, linen, silk, wool, cashmere, those things have a breathability. It's like second skin. And there's also a very feel-good factor about these fabrics. So, I get to address all of my desires as a designer by having access to leftover fabrics, which then become prototypes. And once ordered, they become a limited series.
For me, that is also a very important part of what we do. The idea of exclusivity or luxury is not really that you're the only one wearing it, right? So, I think we also give that possibility for a person to create her own look. I think that in and of itself is a very important aspect for many customers today. [We want to be] slow, sustainable, and energetically sustainable because as a designer, I don't think it's very normal to be able to design 2,000 pieces every season and make it look new for years and years and years. I think that's a very draining, very automated process. For me, I'd like all of these pieces to live beyond this year and this season. A lot of styles have been developed three years ago but some were developed two months ago&mdash;they all coexist and they indeed create the whole J.Cricket wardrobe.
How important is it to have an intimate connection with your clients when it comes to fittings? Since you mentioned that your designs are very personal.
It's very important. I'm there almost every day overseeing client appointments. I may not meet everybody, but I see the women. I see the reactions. I see what they order. For me, it's my number one priority to make sure that the customer is happy. So even after we deliver, we do follow-ups and we take this matter seriously because I think creating a community is a very big part of what's going to enrich the J.Cricket circle and the overall experience moving forward.

J.Cricket’s Jimin Lee Talks Sustainable Fashion and Creating a Hyper Personalized Wardrobe

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