[Eye Interview] Classic womenswear master rethinks skills gap, creativity

It was in 1979 when womenswear designer Gee Chun-hee opened her first Miss Gee Collection in Myeong-dong, a thriving shopping district in northern Seoul frequented by trendsetters back in the day.

The 70-year-old designer has since become a Korean icon. Her storied legacy is a testament to a brand that has survived with a dedicated following -- clients whose affection for Miss Gee Collection runs in the family from mothers to their daughters.

That tradition now faces an existential crisis: a local fashion industry forced to deal with an ever-shrinking pool of talent tasked with “stitching and sewing,” according to Gee.

“The saddest part of it all is we no longer have people with a certain skill set. Garment making has long been outsourced overseas, to China and Vietnam,” Gee said in an interview with The Korea Herald last week at her main showroom in Cheongdam-dong.

“Pick any factory here. All the workers are between 60 and 70, and that’s the scariest part,” she said, adding that their retirement will be another blow to an industry already scrambling to fill the labor shortage as younger people shun what they see as a less rewarding, blue-collar job.

Contingency plans have to be underway now, Gee noted. The designer said the government should draft a blueprint to attract women who have seen their careers take a back seat over child care and schooling.

According to a March poll by the lobby group Federation of Korean Industries, 1.3 million women -- aged between 15 and 54 -- had to quit their jobs to manage their home in the first six months of last year. The departures wiped out their combined income worth 44.1 trillion won ($32.9 billion).

That’s two percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product in 2022.

“See, I don’t believe in setting up schools teaching youngsters how to stitch and sew,” Gee said. Rather, she puts her faith into enlisting those women needing a career reboot and anyone willing to put in time for “something productive.”

“What’s the worst that can happen? The skills you learn will be useful forever,” Gee added, explaining stitching and sewing is the first step to creative designing, which detractors liken to repetitive manual labor best done without thought.

How to go about inviting fresh blood to the industry is now all left to the government, according to Gee. She has already seen her proposals struck down, if not ignored.

Creativity that sells

Speaking on creativity, Gee touched on Seoul Fashion Week -- a biannual event whose latest spring-summer 2025 show ended earlier this month. In 2010, she marked the show’s 10th anniversary with a special collection alongside nine designers selected for the occasion.

“Creativity we try to weave into clothes on the runway has to click with the public. People should be sold on those creations. That’s how an industry grows bigger,” Gee said, describing creative pitches that connect with more people as still missing from the decades-long fashion event.

Gee credited her inspiration to living “life to the fullest by trying anew.”

“My experience tells me an idea pops up out of nowhere if we do that. For me, it was during an unexpected encounter with a movie director or while on a trip to someplace new. You have to stay awake to pick up on that though,” Gee said.

Inspirations aside, designers should have an eye for colors -- and be quick to make split-second decisions to screen which colors and fabrics make the best matches. “I think, to some extent, I was born quick and good in that regard,” Gee said.

She noted reading news almost every day for as long as she can remember has helped her fashion the fabrics in ways that appeal to a larger fan base, because understanding different news -- not “merely reading it” -- empowers her to find her target customers and ways to reach them.

“Fashion reflects what goes on in society. When there’s something missing in it, that’s the one you should factor in as you roll out a collection,” Gee explained.

Pitching globally

For Gee, 1998 was a year she learned to invest in where her heart was. That year, she took part in New York Fashion Week. But she did not seek to branch out internationally with her still-nascent brand, as many expected or encouraged her to do.

“I just wasn’t interested,” Gee recalled. “Setting a shop there required not only careful coordination but a careful assessment of returns on investments. You need more than being bold to do all that,” Gee added.

The designer explained protecting home turf from an influx of Western fashion brands in Korea at the time was just as demanding. “Looking back, I’m confident there are no regrets,” Gee said without hesitation, though acknowledging New York is the place to expand business.

To that end, up-and-coming designers who work there or elsewhere other than Korea should be ready to pitch to a global audience, according to Gee.

“Those designers should leverage what they have -- perhaps a global recognition and potential fan base -- and pitch to the world really,” Gee said.

Septuagenarian Gee still oversees daily operations at Miss Gee Collection, going back and forth between Cheongdam-dong and Seongsu-dong, a second showroom with factories across the Han River On the street beside the main Cheongdam showroom Thursday, Gee presented her spring-summer 2025 collection, the street runway kicking off the four-day Gangnam Festival, an annual cultural event.

“One thing that I hear often from those wearing my pieces,” Gee said, “is that they feel compelled to be at their best once clad.”

“That’s what class looks like.”