In December of 2023, I crossed paths with Jae Jung, the head of DOOR—a brand that transcends physical clothing, into a world full of vibrant colors, unique textures, and east Asian culture etc. Here is a peak into my conversation with Jung about life, fashion, and DOOR.

Tell me about yourself, how you grew up. What got you into fashion?

Jae: I grew up in Seoul, Korea and my family immigrated to LA when I was about 12 years old, we moved to LA for the pursuit of better education, better livelihood, really the same story you hear from other immigrant families.

I remember as a kid being super stoked I would live in America, even as a kid there was this idea of the American dream, a sort of dream that everyone was after. Of course, moving here came with a lot of culture shock, I only knew the way that I lived in Korea, the values, the culture, the food.

I was a bit of a loner when I moved here, and English was my second language. my middle school/high school years were pretty like: figuring my way out, figuring out who I am, where I belong. and there was kind of this idea that I never really felt like I belonged to any group, I was still chasing my identity. Funny enough, because I wanted to acclimate, I didn't make any Asian friends, I avoided the Asians. It wasn't until my 20’s I figured I needed to get back in touch with my roots.

My family had been in the fashion business when I was younger, my parents ran a textile factory back in Korea, supplying fabrics to brands locally and some internationally, so I've always been around fashion.

I've always cared about myself expression through clothing. I've always been into hip pop, more so the clothes than the music, and growing up in Korea kpop was huge, they had a huge influence in the way i dress, like baggy pants, I was wearing baggy ass pants as young as 11 and 12.

Who or What inspired your fashion sense?

Jae: Seo Taiji and boys, The hip hop movement [In the United States], they brought it over to Korea. They were the first to do it and there was a huge backlash from the government, saying like “this isn't music, this is like bad gangster culture whatever” and i was just into that stuff.

I've always had long hair. Going back hundreds of years, men always had long hair. Cutting your hair was like a disgrace… not so much any more, but I embrace those values. I think that's what differentiates me, my identity from everyone else, that’s what I wanna see in my clothing, bringing a lot of those influences as a kid.

Anime is another thing. The anime, evangelion, I grew up with that, I was obsessed with that stuff, I was building figurines and those robots as a kid, and recently all those things have made it back into my life, and those things have influenced this collection that I put together for door.

When did you transition from just enjoying fashion to making it

Jae: I would say my 20s. It was a late realization, I didn't think this could be a career. I think a lot of immigrant families will tell you, the parents want their kids to be typical doctors, lawyers, and have this white-collar job in an office, and I was always conflicted, in fact I went to university for communications before going back to school for fashion because I wanted to please my parents, and i thought that was the way to live. And I realized like no! that's not my passion. my passion is clothes, fashion. I've always been around this, I grew up with this, so let me see if I can find a way to make this work, and so I went to FIT in my mid 20s. I studied fashion design, and I did about a year of education and I figured “you know what, I don't need to do any more studies, I wanna jump right in, get my hands dirty, get my feet wet and see what I can create.” And I was very naive, but I did have huge ambition and drive, and right after school I put a collection together -looking back I'm like what the hell was I doing.

I started pitching, I took my clothes to opening ceremony, this really cool concept store that was around maybe up until 2016. I got my foot in the door and shared my collection with the owners through connections that I had, I unfortunately didn't get in, but they were interested.

I took that collection and went to CHCM, which is another store on Bond st, that still exists. So that's where I started; at that store. The founder gave me the opportunity, he saw what I was wearing, and he was really into it, so he bought my first collection, and that started DOOR.

DOOR was created with whatever money I could gather… paychecks here and there, I'd put it together and produce a collection. I've never been very consistent, even now, it’s because I have a full-time job, but I consider it more like a passion project. until I can fully dedicate my time to door it’ll always be this project where I experiment, where I'm expressing myself in a way that I can’t at places like The North Face or Ralph Lauren.

What exactly is DOOR?

Jae: DOOR is an acronym. I read a book at FIT: some British traveler from the 1800s traveled to Korea… We Koreans used to wear this traditional clothing called hanbok -it's like kimono. We wore this type of clothing for hundreds of thousands of years, and hanbok literally translates to “our clothes.”

So, in the book she translated it as “dress of our race” and I was like “that's really interesting, this could be a cool acronym, DOOR.” and door also has its meanings, like door that opens to opportunities.

When I first heard DOOR, I thought “oh you're stepping through a new door, you're introducing a new sort of fashion.”

Jae: That too, like a portal.

What would you say is DOOR’s design philosophy and/or aesthetic is?

Jae: Firstly, DOOR is for everyone, all genders, all ethnicities, all ages. I would say DOOR is useful, it’s anime, it's also touching on popular culture and technical garments. Those are some of the key words that come to mind.

What makes DOOR, DOOR? What is the essence of the brand?

Jae: It's me essentially, I think DOOR is very much me. It's everything that I love, that's been translated into clothes.

Season 2. What's new? What's improved? What have you refined since season 1?

jae: It's less serious, I'm literally just doing me this season, and moving forward I'm just gonna do me. I feel like in the past, I've looked at what other people were doing, and I'd do my take on the things that I saw. Rather than looking externally I'm looking inward, what speaks to me and what do I wanna express.

Do you have any stories about where any of the pieces came from?

Jae: Yeah, I think the Genesis Moto Pant are exciting. it's made of 100% rubber, and I was inspired by Evangelion, the suits that they wear. I wanted to create a pant that kinda resembled that, so the motor pants that are made with rubber kinda gives that vibe.

I also love the Anime Mesh Tank Top, just taking an old Japanese anime magazine cover and putting that on the shirt, and that's something I wanna introduce just as a series.

I also love the Girl Pixel tee that I made, that's an easy piece that anyone could enjoy. I just saw this image that was a girl with long hair, headphones, and I was like “this is DOOR girl, this is the girl that I want” and she represents DOOR. Because of the copyright issue I knew I couldn't just use the image, so I had to do something to it. So, I just thought it'd be really interesting to pixelate the whole graphic to the point where it's not recognizable, but what's fun is from a distance you can clearly see what it is.

What are some emotions you hope to evoke in people that come across DOOR and this season of clothes?

Jae: I want people to feel elated, this feeling of ecstasy, I want people to feel like they're part of something beyond just clothes.

I think that's my hope, that this isn't just another cool brand that does interesting silhouettes. It's more than just clothes, there's people out there I'm sure that are into the same sort of things that I'm into and I want to carve out my own space for those people to be a part of that community that I'm trying to create.

Whether you're a weeb, or you're into hip hop, or just a casual anime fan, I want to create a place for them.

If you're into Rick Owens you're into Rick, and other high fashion labels that are on that level, but for me there aren't levels, this is for everyone who understands the things I’m into or [is] into the things I’m into, that’s what’s important to me.

What can we expect from you and DOOR in the future?

Jae: Things are moving really slowly but it's coming. I'm working on my website, I'm working on refining my ideas and putting out a small capsule next season.