BESFXXK: Skillfully Fusing Historical Fashion with Today’s Trends

April 16, 2020

[x_section style=”margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px; padding: 45px 0px 45px 0px; “][x_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” bg_color=”” style=”margin: 0px auto 0px auto; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_column bg_color=”” type=”1/4″ style=”padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px; “][x_text class=”center-text “]by Danny de la Cruz

Photo credit: Courtesy of BESFXXK[/x_text][/x_column][x_column bg_color=”” type=”3/4″ style=”padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_text]Emerging new brands often push the boundaries and bring a fresh perspective to the world of fashion. One such brand we’re excited to share with you is BESFXXK.

The brand, a play on the words “bespoke + fucked up” and pronounced “bi’s fak,” was launched in 2017 by designers Jae Hyuk Lim and Bona Kim, both from Seoul, South Korea.

While studying film and media at high school in the UK, Jae had an urge to study fashion during his studies on historical costumes which appeared in old films. He went on to study at London College of Fashion and the Royal College of Art in London. Bona majored in fashion at the London College of Fashion for her MA study.

Behind the Brand

BESFXXK, described as an experimental fashion house, is grounded in historical, familiar tailoring and infuses its personality and unique twists to make the world take notice. The duo is inspired by historical British garments, such as trench coats, smoking jackets, quilted jackets and chesterfield coats. “Our artistic direction is to cross-breed historical elements with current trends.” stated Jae. “It is more like performing surgical operations on garments. It is a highly interesting process and our main focus is to make it wearable and desirable. It is difficult and time consuming, but a necessary step to maintain the BESFXXK aesthetic.”

Many of their customers range from celebrities, stylists, fashion addicts and attention seekers who realize the brand’s unique perspective. “We do not follow or make trendy clothes.” said Bona. “Our priority is to make a single garment beautiful, rather than focusing on whole looks. By doing so, the whole collection looks interesting and playfully eye-catching because each look is so different from one another.”

When asked what it’s like working as a design duo, Jae and Bona described their biggest challenge as a 24/7 fight when discussing designs and a very exhausting one at that, yet also motivating. They compared the process to a necessary evil. Acccording to Jae, “We motivate each other in a harsh way by disrespecting each other’s creations during the collection build-up. But, we have never lost our aesthetic direction and this is the most important thing. It is always good to have an enemy near you, so you keep pushing yourself for developing ideas which will lead to a better outcome.”

Since launching the brand in 2017, with zero employees and literally carrying only 18 garments to Paris to showcase their first collection, a lot changed as the brand has grown, but their roles and vision have remained laser focused. Jae begins every collection with sketches and raw ideas and then Bona jumps into the process to turn the sketches and ideas into more realistic and wearable pieces. In their roles, Jae is the dreamer and Bona is the realist.

What started out as selling their first collection to Leclaireur Paris and 15 other stores worldwide, has grown to their collections being stocked at more than 40 stores in over 15 countries. Since then, they have also had their first runway show in Italy at Milan Fashion Week, which was fully supported by Italian Vogue and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.

For their latest Autumn/Winter 2020 collection, inspiration came from historical military garments (B3 aviator, trench coats), hunting jackets and smoking jackets. Puffers add a unique design element to the collection by bringing sharp contrast between the historical and sporty elements. See the full collection below.

Looking Ahead

Like other brands around the globe, the current pandemic has heavily influenced the designers. “This will change our consumption patterns and lifestyle globally.” said Bona. “But, we do not intend to change our brand direction by the pandemic. We will produce the next collection as usual, but in a more realistic way.”

For now, Jae and Bona look forward to being able to gather in public again with chilled beers in hand. Until then, they continue to plan out their next collection for showcasing at Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks. They are also preparing for a presentation show in Paris in the near future.

We look forward to seeing more from this talented design duo.