The 2022 LVMH Prize: ASHLYN

Amid the ever-growing overproduction and overconsumption of the fashion industry, South Korea-born, New York-based designer Ashlynn Park is taking a rare and much-needed approach. Her womenswear line, named ASHLYN and launched during the pandemic in 2021, is zero-waste, with made-to-order, beautifully tailored garments constructed to result in as little extra fabric as possible. The deconstructed, minimalist æsthetic is executed with a dedication to craftsmanship. As a result, the clothes have a longevity that has sadly become uncommon as centuries-old artisanship techniques disappear and shareholder value dominates supply chain choices.

ASHLYN is based in a holistic vision of sustainability. Some garments are draped from a single full cut of fabric. Any leftover scraps are repurposed. Some become padding at the hips, celebrating and enhancing the female form. Others are introduced in future innovations. Materials are selected for quality and low social and environmental impact, with natural fibers like organic cotton, linen, and reiterative wool forming the basis. Patterns are cut to push the boundaries of shape, but also innovate ecologically, cutting down on waste in new, elemental ways. "The first question to myself was, why should I continue these things? Why should I continue the waste?" explains Park. "I wanted to do something different. How can I reduce waste? This is the philosophy of the brand."

Park's vision builds off the years she spent working under other designers, particularly at Yohji Yamamoto, where she trained as a pattern cutter after graduating from Tokyo's legendary Bunka Fashion College and winning Japan's SO-EN award in 2008. "When I had an interview with him, I thought I was going to be a designer," recalls Park of her first meeting with Yamamoto. "But actually, my role was a pattern maker."

This period was "another school," she adds. "I had to learn sewing skills the first year. Then, finally, I could touch the pattern and I could touch the tack pad and make my own design. The process was very long, and it is all training and more technical. They even taught me how to grab the pencil, how to use the ruler, how to draw a straight line, how to draw a circle."

In 2011, after three years with Yamamoto, Park moved to New York, where she got a job with the then-buzzing Alexander Wang. There, she worked on the womenswear collections and helped design custom looks for Madonna and Rihanna before going on to work for Raf Simons during his stint at Calvin Klein.

Park's own line combines these years of experience with the elements she identifies with within the Western and Eastern design communities. "There was an era in the nineties of deconstruction, anti-fashion in Japanese moods. My collection is after that period," she explains. "I'm taking that culture of deconstruction but finishing that in a modern and clean way with the tailoring skills I learned in the West."

Her garments are sculptural and structurally driven. A crimson dress, with a curving cut-out revealing and accentuating the feminine form, was designed with Tilda Swinton in mind. A velvet pinstriped jacket with exaggerated shoulders has an almost surreal feel. A ballgown with deconstructed sides features elements of the skirt's cage covering exposed tulle. These clothes inject new considerations of the female form, emphasizing and exaggerating parts of the body that are more often covered up or made to look smaller. Park works with a decidedly feminist lens. As with the materials and construction, everything is intentional, and everything is executed with great care.

Ultimately, Park's line is as much about process as it is about æsthetic conception. She is constantly trying to shed toxic industry standards: Her employees go home at five-thirty P.M. She has hired apprentices, whom she is training in the methods she learned working under Yamamoto, a level of care nearly unheard of today. She is teaching a new generation of designers the technical skills she received—skills that are rarer and rarer every day. With innovations in sustainable design and a dedication to sharing the training she received, Park hopes to create a growing change. "Since my background is as a technician, I think the craftsmanship is the most important thing in this industry and we are losing a lot of great, great artisans in the industry," she says. "There should be someone who passes down this great skill to the next generation, and I want to be the one."

For more information, please visit ASHLYNNewYork.com. See the full 2022 LVMH Prize portfolio here. Read this story and many more in print by ordering our fifth issue here.

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