Seonoc Im is the CEO and designer of PartspARTs IMSEONOC, which won a Grand Stevie® Award in the 2014 Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards for their account of costume directing for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Korean culture and art performance team. She was also a presenter at the Stevie® Awards Seminar on Corporate Storytelling in Korea on January 22. (The late entry deadline for the 2015 Asia Pacific Stevie® Awards is March 11. Find out more here.)
We asked Seonoc Im for her thoughts about the Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards, what winning a Grand Stevie® Award has meant to her company, and what direction her company will be taking in 2015.
“It is an honor for us to have won a Grand Award in the first Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, and we are very pleased,” Seonoc told us. “It is proof that PartspARTs’ innovative concept, Create 0% Waste, has grown to become a publicly recognized brand. For me, the most meaningful point of a business is to become a successful branding model.”
Creative Team
According to Seonoc, winning the Grand Stevie® Award has had additional benefits for her company. “PartspARTs is not only a brand name but also a shared creative space and showroom for designers. We are preparing for the future of fashion through a kind of fashion swarm intelligence that communicates to customers, like gathering people together who study design and channeling new looks and designs. None of this would be possible without the contribution of our wonderful creative team, who are constantly experimenting with fashion. Winning the Stevie Award has made them confident of success and given them even more energy for progress and development in the fashion industry.”
Overseas Expansion
For Seonoc, the Asia-Pacific region is very important for PartspARTs's overseas business. “Recognition by the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards has brought us extensive recognition throughout this region,” she told us. “This has contributed directly to business performance. We maintain partnerships with a number of corporations in the Asia-Pacific region and we are now enlarging that part of our business. Our business plan for 2015 is to expand our business sector in the East Asia region and to augment our existing overseas business in North America, Europe, China, and Japan.”
Core Capability
Looking to the future, Seonoc is confident. “We are going to extend our collaboration efforts by communicating with artists from diverse genres. This is a core capability of PartspARTs brand. The first collaboration effort in 2015 is an exhibition we are already running at MMCA(Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art).”
With so much going on for her company, we asked Seonoc what most inspired her about her work. “The source of my inspiration is collaborating with diverse areas of the arts. Through this collaboration, consumers who are the patrons of the arts will be able to experience the designs of PartspARTs directly. And their feedback in turn provides more ideas for designs. I find this kind of productive communication, exchange, and interaction both stimulating and gratifying.”
About Seonoc Im:
Creative Director Seonoc Im opened her fashion design studio in 1996 and led collections in Seoul, Korea and in other countries. In 2011, she renamed her company PartspARTs to focus on the innovative brand concept: Create 0% Waste. Having made modern, comfort clothes, she now aims to provide a spotlight on the best in creative arts through the PartspARTs brand.
Seonoc Im was the costume director of 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Korean culture and art performance team. In 2013, she also designed the art project 'Dream Society' Culture Station 284, sponsored by Hyundai Motors and collaborated with LEEUM, the Samsung Museum of Art. Reflecting the word ART in her brand name PartspARTs, she has lead a variety of art collaborations including exhibitions, movies, dance, and contemporary art.
About PartspARTs IMSEONOC:
PartspARTs IMSEONOC is a newly established concept in fashion. It has developed a unique design style using only one material in order to minimize waste—in keeping with the company’s design philosophy of creating 0% waste. The name PartspARTs is a combination of “part,” the concept of partition and division; an ”s" that has been added to “part," meaning the sum of a part; and the pursuit of meaningful fashion with 'ART' through communications with different art genres. PartspARTs is a sustainable brand model which makes the best creative from ordinary basics.