NARA : The Queer icon of the south korean fashion creative scene

If you have an interest in the South korea fashion industry or you are a lover of fashion week, you probably know her !

KIM nara knew as Nara is a south korean influencer, model, stylist, media artist and artist director. This multi talented artist is also a big figure of the south korean “Queer culture” community. Along with artists like Holland, she is actively working on starting conversation about the issue which is still a taboo in South Korea.

We recognize her for her unique style and her strong pieces. Bright colors, details and layering are definitely the main characteristics of her style. She is unmatching on that. She succeeds every time to put all the pieces together and work with different materials which give us at the end really charismatic and strong looks. (Blue is her favorite color)

Since her young days, Nara has expressed herself through her fashion style. She mainly used fashion to hide her insecurities and it has finally become her biggest strength. As she’s said during an interview with HYPEBAE : “Just like poisonous mushrooms can seem pretty on the outside, that allowed me to find different ways to style my pieces”. Through experimenting, fashion will become her favorite medium ( she also used other mediums such as painting etc.). She’s starting to enter the fashion industry with a “fashion blog” and slowly moved into instagram to become the influencer that we know today. She attends many fashion weeks around the world. In 2020, she is considered as one of the biggest fashion influencers in Korea.

Nara is also an activist. She is part of a queer feminist creative group called “Overline” ( people who cross the line) . They mainly communicate through online networks. This group is formed by her and five other south korean queer activists : Jihye KIM, Nandal SEO, Seungyeon YOU, Hayoung and Juyeon LIM. They published their first book called <overline; o.verline>.

“Overline” stands for solidarity and has a lot of different events. Through this project, she hopes to continue to have conversation about the “open queer culture” in South Korea which is growing bigger.

What about her fashion/artistic works?

Last year, she worked with the video artist Hyojae KIM as a collaboration artist on a project called “default” that shares “the ideas of others against the actual identity of “me” and the imagery identity that is uploaded through social media”.

Also, with the fashion influencer Cheri, they created a creative styling studio called “styledbyCheriNara”. This charismatic duo managed to merge their different styles to create unique and beautiful works. They work with music artists, and talented photographers such as MoonDog KIM, KeongCheol PARK ... They also create works for brands and fashion magazines. For example, recently they styled the famous k-pop group called “ATEEZ” for the cover issue of e.L.e village. The fierce and decontracted outfits created by the duo amazed the fandom “atinies” who congratulated them for their works. The fans were particularly interested in the unique style of Nara.

ATEEZ for e.L.e Village

"default" by Hyojae KIM and Nara KIM

Shot by KyongCheol PARK and styling work by StyledbyCheriNara

In her interview with “women’s news korea”, she said that she has a lot of confidence in her art and wants to share her identity, her story and the story of those who live a similar life as her through it. For her, art is a way to watch the world with independent vision and always express it. She is a true icon and we are sure that she will continue to blow our minds with her talent. So check her out !

FOLLOW HER

Wrote and edited by:

TIPHAINE

Copywriter

AMANDA

Founder, head of public relations,

leader's team & copywriter.