Interview YOON & VERBAL Co-founders of AMBUSH®

——It's been about 10 years since AMBUSH® was established. Was it easy to experience? How was it when you looked back?

YOON: I think it was very fast. I've been in a really natural flow. Originally, I was studying graphic design, and as I experienced various things from there, I grasped the whole picture of manufacturing and brand and shaped it. I think it was 10 years that my experience was a great source of food, and when I looked back, everything was connected. Not only just watching fashion, but I felt it through experience, imagined it, made it, and repeated it all over again - I played a lot in such a good way, so I made it clear what I wanted to do and what I liked."

VERBAL "I didn't want to start a brand from the beginning, but it all started to create a design team to take advantage of YOON's talents. There have been a lot of encounters since then, and it has come to pass.”

YOON: I've always loved fashion since I was a kid, but I didn't want to work or want to be a stylist. It’s going to happen again and again, and I started thinking that it’s better to do it ourselves.”

——Have you always talked about what you want to do and what you like?

VERBAL: Basically, YOON decided the direction, and it is still going on. YOON is shaping our own ideal form/direction” that is not bound by established concepts. In the first place, she was very unique in a good sense since she was a student I met. In the United States, the Asian population is 5% of the total population, but many Asians living in the United States have a casual look. In such a situation, YOON was wearing a vintage dashingly, and the music I was listening to was a grunge, and it was a prominent presence with an overall impression of tonne. I’ve seen this, and I’ve always had a lot of trust in her sense and talent.”

YOON: Also, both of you are serious about studying, and it may be a common understanding that studying is very important. I'm always reading and researching something, and I'm pursuing it because it's a type that I want to know everything when I get hooked. We know that there is such a diligence, so it is easy to understand each other.”

Verbal, yes. YOON is a studyer, so I was researching the trends of other brands, learning fashion business, and seeing a lot of trial and error on-the-job training.”

——If you look only at SNS, you may get the impression that you have been successful from the beginning, but there was such accumulation.

YOON "Every genre takes a long time until it becomes a business. It costs money to make things, so it's completely different to start a brand and start a business, and the celebrity wears it and temporarily increase the number of SNS followers. It may be good for the press to wear a celebrity, but there is no brand that just eats. That's not the basis of the brand.
As VERBAL said, AMBUSH® stood up naturally, so in the process of continuing to make what I wanted to make, there were times when the two said, “Isn’t this a hobby?” and there were times when I was worried whether I ended up with a hobby or a business.”

VERBAL "To tell the real story, AMBUSH® business started on its own, and there were times when it was quite difficult for the first few years. For example, thankfully, if a large amount of orders come, the cost of production will be staggered, so there are thrills that cash will be lost until the next deposit (laughs). Because of that, I sometimes had to skip the collection once. Nevertheless, YOON has always been serious about creativity, so I was able to cultivate my current style, but of course it wasn't full of good things to look back on the history of the brand."

YOON: Take that kind of business discussion seriously, and as a result, “Okay, life is once, let’s try it! “It was about 2012 that we started the collection in earnest.”

——Since 2015, the exhibition has been moved to Paris, and what was the background to this decision? What is the change created by this?

Verbal "Yon suddenly said, 'Let's go to Paris' (laughs). At that time, it wasn't selling but it wasn't the scale of doing it in Paris, so I don't know where to start, so I groping through our network and set up a venue."

YOON: You've been here for a few years, and you've been looking for the next challenge. If you want to step up in many ways, isn't it Paris? The movie is Hollywood, the fashion is Paris. Even if I had no know-how, I thought that if I brought my work to that place, I would study it for myself."

——It was not planned, but it was intention and action to go first. And when I actually went there, there was a big reaction.

YOON: Yes. I think it was good that we were making what we wanted to make and didn't match the trend. In Paris, there was no jewelry like AMBUSH® does, and on the contrary, it was interesting to see from a fashion point of view that it did not match the trend at all. It's simple, but when I made it and sent it out, there was a lot more reaction overseas, so I sometimes tried it out."

VERBAL "I think there are some things that YOON's style itself was universal in the first place. That's why various artists from overseas, such as Kanye West, liked to wear it. Also, when I actually tried an exhibition abroad, there were a lot of encounters. Emanuel Alt, editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, suddenly came into the venue and talked to YOON, and started saying, “This brand is interesting, so I’ll post it in the next issue” (laughs), and it often happened that I can’t believe this really happened. There is no preconception overseas, so if you think it's interesting to see it, it's natural to order and post it."

——As VERBAL said, it was a work that had the potential to make you think good. Now you are also working on making clothes as a brand, but YOON says that there is jewelry first, and that there is clothes as canvas. Is it STANCE that you can play with freedom because it is a canvas?

YOON: Now that clothes are growing as a business, I want to play as a feeling, but sometimes I want to be a little more firm. I've been doing Unisex so far, so I've been thinking that way, but since the number of stores overseas has increased considerably, I'm thinking of continuing Unisex and increasing the number of things that have been divided into Men's Ladies as a plus alpha."

——You have collaborated with various brands such as NIKE, UNDERCOVER, SACAI, etc. Do you like collaboration?

YOON: Yes. Thankfully, we have received a lot of offers, but first of all, we can't do it together unless we respect ourselves. Also, by collaborating with places where we can make things that we can not make, there is also an idea that we want to do if there is something we can do. If I work with you, I want to absorb something.”

——YOON is working on Dior Men's jewelry design. What do you think about how to balance it with AMBUSH®?

YOON: “Dior Men has a creative director, and we already have a brand code, so we’re trying to come up with new ideas in it. On the other hand, AMBUSH® is completely my brand and has no history, so STANCE is trying to build up the archives and DNA that can be linked to as a brand in the future.”

——Have you ever been fed back to AMBUSH® for learning about Dior Men's history and archives?

YOON: Yes, but I don't think that what Dior Men made in the 1960s was made with the idea that it will remain in this way 60 years from now. At that time, I just took care of what I had accumulated one by one. I think that French brands have such pride, but I learned how to make things with such pride. We want to make every one of them so well.”

——As is Kim Jones of Dior Men, can you tell us how the fashion industry is doing so, such as Virgil Abloh of LOUIS VUITTON's designer?

YOON "Fashion is established with customer feedback. The times are changing and the customers are changing, so if the old house does not change the STANCE, it will not be established. So I think it’s natural that many things are changing in response to the customer’s reaction now.”

——Especially now you can see the reaction directly on SNS.

YOON: Not only SNS, but also the change in values itself is huge. In the past, when talking about fashion, there was a strong impression that rich people were particular about it, but now it is something that a wide variety of people enjoy, so values naturally change. Do you feel the house too? However, I think the speed has changed with SNS. Until now, the brand has sent messages unilaterally, but SNS has appeared, and it has become an interactive more quickly. But at that time, I personally think that it is necessary for the brand to become even stronger. If the brand's axis fluctuates due to information and reactions, the core / DNA that should be cherished will be lost. In fact, even with AMBUSH®, the trend and brand direction are different, so we try not to keep pace with that.”

——So, what is the core of the brand as AMBUSH®?

YOON "When it comes to everyday creativity, it's the feeling of shaping what I feel and what I like at that time, but the core thing is jewelry. I play a lot, but I want to keep my DNA as jewelry.”

VERBAL "The taste of AMBUSH® jewellery, such as tribal and futuristic, of course, but above all, she says, "If you make it, you can't make it halfway", so I think that STANCE is the root of the fun and radical creation thatSTANCE becomes the DNA of AMBUSH®."

——AMBUSH® is also rooted in culture such as movies, music, photography, etc., but I'm personally interested that designers who have gained popularity in recent years, such as Virgil, Kim, and Rough Simmons, tend to be closely related to culture.

YOON "I feel that there are increasing opportunities for people who see not only culture but also various things to work on fashion. As I said earlier, there is a need for something that is strong and thick that is not shaken by information and reactions, is exactly the fashion that these people make."

——Oh, I understand it very well. In the collaboration with NIKE the other day, the design was quite Japanese-conscious, but are you actively incorporating MADE IN JAPAN and the uniqueness of Japan only into brands with many fans even globally?

YOON: “It’s hard to make it completely Made in Japan, but I want to do it as much as possible. In collaboration with NIKE, I wanted to create a collection for the FIFA Women's World Cup and excite it, so I was more conscious of the uniqueness of Japan. Also, since the game is held in the summer, we incorporated the taste of happi coat in the image of a summer festival.
The reason why we feature Tokyo and Japan is that AMBUSH® is a brand that started in Tokyo, so I think it's better not to forget our roots. As a brand, overseas expansion is growing, but I want to show you the aspects of Tokyo properly and value it. In that sense, I started in Shibuya, so I want to end it in Shibuya someday (laughs).

——No, don't end it (laughs). As you mentioned, VERBAL's studio is also in Shibuya, and it is located at AMBUSH® WORKSHOP, a directly managed store. Why was it Shibuya?

YOON ""Isn't Minato-ku to increase the brand? "I was honest with you, but I wanted to do it in the place where we can move most naturally. As a brand, I thought Shibuya was the best match. At the beginning, there was nothing around the atelier, but now I can do a lot of things.……That's the charm of Shibuya, isn't it? I feel that new energy is always coming and going, and things that are old and not doing well are naturally disappearing. That's why I think Fusui in Shibuya is good (laughs)."

——Why did VERBAL set up his studio in Shibuya first?

Verbal: Somehow it is [laughs]. Musician friends lived in this area and often came to play, but I felt it would be convenient if I had a base in Shibuya, so I felt comfortable when I set up a studio. So, when I opened the shop, I saw a lot of properties, and as a result, Shibuya was the best thing that came the best way."

YOON "Yes, it was great to find a building where we could set up a shop on our own. You can send out what you have made in your space. I'm doing it with DIY, so it's difficult to communicate in Minato-ku."

——Does Shibuya itself affect the creation?

Yon, of course. I always look at people walking, and when I see the replacement of buildings, I can see the times, so I can study a lot. I love seeing people in the center town.”

——I think PARCO is one of the representative of Shibuya. Do you have any memories of PARCO?

YOON: Well, I went well. PARCO in Shibuya was first established in 1971, and I liked the atmosphere of that time remains. I'm looking forward to seeing what is going on with the 2020 version of PARCO while retaining that atmosphere. And we are very happy to have a second AMBUSH® shop in PARCO, which represents Shibuya, our home, so we are planning a special line to try new challenges unique to PARCO. It is a different worldview from the story of the collection, and we have a shop-only line that is not available at wholesale stores. Also, this time, I was particular about the interior and made it because I wanted to play with a limited space, so I can't wait to see the reaction of those coming. It is an environment where there are many shops in the open space, so I think it will be a valuable learning place for us to see various things from a different perspective than before."

ARTISANAL, a new BLACK line that focuses on AMBUSH® made in Japan, will be launched simultaneously with the opening of Shibuya PARCO.

Shibuya PARCO Limited Products
FOOTBALL JERSEY MIX TOP ¥36,000 (excluding tax)