Designers, Seoul (South Korea)
Woo Rim Lee and Do Gun Park are ATTIC from S.T.A.d. Rising stars in the recent rash of small and smart fashion brands, the strictly professional couple give us the low down about their special take on fashion and soccer.
I noticed that you guys have relatively strange avenues from which you get your inspirations. Your 2010 S/S collection ‘Passion Resort’ is inspired by the archetype of an overly trendy beach persona, while your last collection ‘Back Number’ is inspired by a person that is far behind fashion trends. Where do you get these inspirations from?
WR: For ‘Passion Resort’ we honestly just fit in the concept after the process. We were incredibly lazy and spent most of our time having fun instead of working, so we ended up with that.
DG: The concept for our last season, ‘Back Number,’ was something we’ve been wanting to do for a while. We looked to people that were especially unsuccessful in a material sort of way. People who live in tiny rented study rooms, homeless dudes, people who look like they live in a bottle of soju. People that bring the word ‘loser’ to mind, but not in any hip or ironic way. Real losers in life. Of course, if we simply went with that, it would have been a disaster, so we added some elements borrowed from military looks, and that became the feel of ‘Back Number.’
What sort of concept do you have in store for next season? Anything crazier in the works?
DG: Next season’s concept is ‘Ephemeral.’ We’ll be tackling fashion as something without any true value or meaning.
Sounds like my life. Have you ever seen someone on the street wearing your clothes?
WR: I saw a man wearing one of our cardigans at my neighborhood bar.
DG: I hung around one of the stores that carries our stuff and saw some dude buy a shirt.
What did you think of the person buying your clothes?
DG: I was thinking ‘you better fucking buy that shit, motherfucker.’ But, honestly, he wasn’t exactly the ideal customer I’d always pictured in my head.
WR: Personally, I was just thankful that someone bought something of ours.
Woo Rim mentioned that you guys were too busy horsing around for at least one of your seasons. Wondering what you guys do when you’re not designing clothes.
DG : Winning Eleven. Watching soccer.
WR: Winning Eleven! And going to soccer matches.
Fucking video games and soccer, of course. Pick the best and worst soccer uniforms. Any team.
DG: The best uniform would have to be Arsenal while Dennis Bergkamp was playing. When they were sponsored by O2. Worst uniform has to be the team that I cheer for, Sung Nam FC. They’re sponsored by MacCole (fake Korean Coca-Cola made from barley). The fucking worst.
WR: Best uniform goes to Manchester United’s current colors. Not because of the design, but because I heard that they write ‘Believe’ on the inside of the shirt, just over the heart. If I were a soccer player I think I’d be perpetually inspired by that. The worst uniform goes to the American National team. That white diagonal slash across the shirt makes them look like beauty pageant contestants.
Good thing no one in America will be offended by that. If you could re-design the current uniforms in any way, what would you change?
DG: Though completely counter-intuitive and probably really fucking hot (temperature-wise), we’d make the uniforms 100% cotton and have the fitting back to the tight old school cuts. Those pants were so short back then, you could almost see their dicks peeking out.
Sweaty and dick revealing. I think this is a great place to end. Thanks guys. 
Words by IAN GALLAGHER
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