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subscribe to style file blog via RSSBensoni: First The Prize, Now The Presentation
December 16, 2008 10:48 am
Samsung may be one of the blue-chip brands in telecom, but the company’s Design Fund is helping emerging talents in the fashion sector communicate face to face, too. Take Bensoni: Last week, the two-year-old line designed by Sonia Yoon and Benjamin Channing Clyburn nabbed one of the 2008 Samsung Design Fund prizes. Consequently, Bensoni will be staging its first ever presentation at New York fashion week in February. “There’s no way we’d have been able to plan a presentation without that money,” notes Yoon. Her Korean roots—Yoon was born in Seoul and raised in London—qualified Bensoni to apply for the prize, which is reserved for designers of Korean descent. But as she points out, the Bensoni je ne sais quoi owes as much to Clyburn’s all-American aesthetics as it does to her self-decribed “Asian” ones. “Benjamin and I like to think of Bensoni as harmony and contrast,” says Yoon. “He’s quite masculine and preppy and tailored, while I’m more interested in the sculptural—draping, origami effects.” The difference of perspective accounts for Clyburn’s initial hesitation about collaborating with Yoon. She approached her then-classmate at Parsons about working together on their senior thesis project, and he took his sweet time about agreeing. “I needed to watch how Sonia works and pay attention to what she was making in order to see how well we could complement each other,” he recalls. “Our Parsons class was super-competitive,” Yoon adds. “We were friends, but we were also rivals.” Now, of course, they win together. And they say fashion is cutthroat.
tags: Benjamin Channing Clyburn, Bensoni, Samsung, Sonia Yoon
Bensoni is one of my favorite designers!!!
By alongdecember on 12/18/08 at 8:25 pmI just bought a fabulous long sleeved silk dress from Bensoni at Bleu Clothing on La Brea! Their designs are always modern and so flattering on a woman.