Ordinary Menswear Made Extraordinary

FASHION : Snapshot

When we think of menswear, it’s usually typical: button-down shirt, pants and a jacket. The colors and fabrics may change from season to season but the classic look is always standard. A recent Parsons graduate, however, breaks the rules with her menswear collection. 

Growing up as a tomboy has influenced Jennifer Chun and made her realize how important it is to be comfortable in dressing, which was one of her main concerns in her collection.

“My favorite wardrobe pieces included a really beautiful pair of worn and baggy Levi’s, a Polo shirt, a 49ers jacket and a Dallas Cowboys hat ... I always felt that I could do a lot more when I was comfortable, wearing no fuss, good fit clothing. Perhaps that is why I went into menswear,” Chun said in an e-mail interview.

Chun’s collection, Flight, is constructed to make a man’s dressing experience easier. The creative designer took the simple button-down shirt that men wear on a daily basis and played with very few details, like the sleeve placket that is normally placed in the back and resigned it to be in the front.

“It is so difficult to unbutton and button with it being in the back,“ Chun said.

The imaginative designer’s collection inspiration came to her from a New York Times article about people fleeing or wanting to flee the city and go on vacations.

“I get my inspiration from anywhere and everywhere,“ the stunning designer said.

One of the pieces from the highly innovative collection was a herringbone tunic shirt with a side opening made to help the wearer reach comfortably into their pocket.

And, since the collection is made for a man to feel comfortable and ready to go, Chun has made a multitask trench coat for the multitasking urban guy.

“The trench can be worn two ways. It has the traditional storm flaps, but the storm flaps have a short sleeve and collar like a cropped jacket that can be taken off the coat to be worn collarless on dryer days,“ Chun explains.

The dazzling talent has worked and interned for a number of well-known and highly appreciated names in the fashion industry, such as Stan Herman, Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, and Betsy Johnson. She has won a scholarship of $7,500 by the Gap Inc. and an internship in her junior year in college in a competition she entered. Chun currently is working in concepts at Gap Inc. She is also trying to get her brand, Original Standard, going.

Her first clothing construction lesson was by her high school teacher who had graduated from fashion school. She then entered a fashion competition for FGI in her senior year in high school and won a scholarship and a fashion show for her garments.

The fresh designer owes a lot of what she has achieved to her parents, who have supported her from the start to do what she loves, as other Korean parents would usually push for their kids to go into law or medicine, Chun said proudly of her parents.

“My father taught me that as long as I knew what I wanted to do and was passionate about it, it would make me successful,“ Chun added.

If the promising talent keeps up the good work, she may transform the mundane menswear into clothing that adjusts with a man’s lifestyle, not the other way around.

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