Daewoong Um

BIO

Daewoong (Dae) Um is a fashion designer whose work explores the tension between reality and expectation, probing the biological and mechanical limits of human existence. His practice interrogates what is possible, impossible, and how perceived boundaries are tested for human advancement or destruction. Rooted in a sense of alienation and outsider observation, Dae seeks to materialize the intangible—transforming abstract concepts into plausible realities by challenging and redefining limits. Centering the human body as both an idealized and malleable form, he deconstructs conventional beauty standards through distortion, exaggeration, and transformation, embracing the grotesque, uncanny, and abnormal as alternative aesthetics. Drawing from human anatomy, mechanical structures, and imagined otherworldly beings, his research examines how deformation redefines beauty and function, reshaping perception and challenging norms. Through analytical and experimental methods—merging self-examination, anatomical study, and speculative inquiry—his work culminates in a wearable collection that envisions the evolution of the human form and its possibilities beyond conventional reality.

Daewoong (Dae) Um