STORY BEHIND THE STYLE: JUUN.J
"I BELIEVE IT IS A MUST TO DREAM AND CHALLENGE YOURSELF, INSTEAD OF WONDERING WHETHER IT IS POSSIBLE OR NOT TO ACHIEVE IT."
- JUUN.J
ORIGINS
Korean designer Jung Wook Jun set his sights on disrupting the fashion industry as an adolescent. Surrounded by textiles and influenced by his parents, who both worked in fashion, Jung attended the prestigious design school École Supérieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode (ESMOD) in Seoul. Shortly after graduating, he worked as a designer at the luxury menswear label Chiffons and eventually launched his own label in Korea, Lone Costume. Lone Costume garnered media attention after its 1999 debut at Seoul Fashion Week. Less than a decade later, Jung introduced his eponymous label, Juun.J, at Paris Fashion Week in 2007. The label blends classic tailoring with deconstruction to “disrupt the classics” and create garments that dress a new generation.
ARTIST COLLABORATIONS
Juun.J’s early collections featured reinterpretations of classic silhouettes such as the trench coat and the suit. Jung created these garments with an interdisciplinary approach, often drawing from fields such as technology and art. Artist collaborations became a foundational pillar of the global brand. Creatives such as Oleg Dou and Hajime Sorayama have worked alongside Jung to present genderless, experimental garments featuring surreal graphic art. Through these collections, Juun.J prioritizes exploring the unknown.
PITTI UOMO
In 2016, as Juun.J was expanding globally, Jung Wook Jun was selected as the first Korean guest designer at Pitti Uomo. The biannual menswear show takes place in Florence, Italy, and is considered an international stage for avant-garde design. Oversized silhouettes, strategic layering, and textural play came together to create an unforgettable moment on the runway.
A GENDERLESS DESIGN
Alongside artist collaborations, an essential strand of Juun.J’s brand DNA is the genderless identity built around its garments. The words “GENDERLESS” and “BOUNDARYLESS” were notably placed across pieces in the collection presented at Pitti Uomo. The concept of “Less” invites both men and women to take refuge in Jung’s work. This fluid approach to his runway shows and lookbooks has earned support from creatives such as model Soo Joo Park and BIGBANG’s G-Dragon and Taeyang. In the Less campaign, the featured models blurred the lines of gender and age. The community behind the clothing has given Juun.J the longevity to withstand the fashion industry’s ever-changing trends.
JUUN.J TODAY
Today, Juun.J stands as one of Korea’s most established designer labels on the global stage. It has shown in Paris twice a year since 2007 under the creative direction of Jung Wook Jun and the umbrella of Samsung C&T’s Fashion Group. The brand’s DNA of reinterpreted classics, genderless tailoring, and cross-disciplinary collaboration still anchors each season, most recently in the Fall/Winter 2026 “Newstalgia” collection, which reworked the tuxedo, the trench, and the peaked-lapel jacket with exaggerated power shoulders and closed with biker looks. As the label approaches its 20th anniversary in 2027, Juun.J proves that “disrupting the classics” is not a moment but a lasting point of view.
