zing blog 1
zing blog 2 zing blog 3 zing blog 4 zing blog 5 The 27 year old designer for Korean streetwear cult brand @morethandope_official, Hanseul Ha, aka @zing_a, looks a decade younger than his real age both in person, as well as on his grams; those who create do age better I suppose, thanks to the constant yearning to keep up and break through. When it comes to designing, Ha’s creative process is pretty direct – it begins with a single image, the image can be from the internet or a fashion movement in the zeitgeist, then he’d go beyond that image to explore the cultural origin and history of that certain aesthetic and transcend it into a look for his next collection, which would then be produced in a factory in Seoul, a city where he feels like he belongs, together with his squad of like minded peeps. This well-travelled young man was just in Hong Kong, taking selfies with local orange trash cans looking rad without any effort, or so it seems. He reveals that each gram actually comes from 4 to 5 “options” and coming up with a fresh #ootd daily looks does take a lot of work. Also, his eyebrows need to be bleached every 10 days. And speaking of cities, Berlin is his favourite; the architecture, the opposite of over population, and the clubs made him fall in love with the place. While Paris is too picture perfect for him and London is like the in-between of Paris and Berlin so no. Apart from designing and city dwelling, he writes poetry and is very much into tattoo (more than 50 tatts he has on him). Why so many one might wonder. Ha’s explanation is all of those tatts serves as memo and important notes to his life, something he cherishes and holds on to dearly. In a time where a strong social media presence means more than solid integrity in life and getting likes appears to pave way for success, following a certain formula or look to be popular seems safer and easier. So not everyone is brave enough to be different but Ha chooses authenticity over other peoples’s approval, staying free to be him, hassling to create and cultivate his own style that inspires instead of just wearing the cookie cuter total looks to fit into the fashion system, now thats the definition of more than dope. ep·i·logue : As soon as we finished the interview, Ha was off to hit the street market in Dongmyeo, where grandmas & grandpas congregate, to shop for some vintage clothing…