Chanel is known for its revolutionary take on materials for women’s clothes. It was Chanel that made couture with jersey in the early 1900s. Tweed is another trademark. Chanel head designer Karl Lagerfeld always comes up with the most glamorous and practical design with a choice of unconventional but innovative fabrics.

A Korean, Kim Young-sung, is in charge of purchasing fabric at Chanel, from giving advice on the texture and colors to making the final decision. She comes up with all fabrics used for Chanel’s new collection. “Even if you use the same design sketch to make clothes, once you change the fabric, the final product is completely different. My job is to be creative when looking at fabric, and turn that creative imagination into design,” she says.

Kim Young-sung (right) with Chanel head designer Karl Lagerfeld /Courtesy of Kim Young-sung

Kim joined Chanel in 1998. After graduating from Pusan National University with a degree in French literature, she moved to Paris and worked initially as an interpreter. She entered the fashion industry after belatedly studying arts at Paris American Academy. One fashion styling firm was impressed by her work at the academy’s graduation exhibition and took her on as an intern, and after gaining experience in a number of other companies, she joined Chanel. It was her congeniality and artistic taste that pulled her up from the bottom to the position of fabric director.

“I often sent Karl postcards that I made myself. I’d cut and paste papers, and made concept books using different fabrics I had collected. Out of all the holiday greeting cards he gets, Karl liked mine and used to frame them and hang them on the wall,” she says.

The most important part of her job is coming up with the preliminary picture of products by studying fabrics from all over the world. “I believe that you can’t make great clothes if you don’t choose the fabric with inspiration,” she says. “There are countless black dresses in the world, but there aren’t that many dresses that have a reason for being black. I propose design by explaining why this has to be black. I believe that design for luxury brands should be different from the very start of the design process.”