Minju Kim facts for kids

Minju Kim (Korean: 김민주; born on March 30, 1986) is a talented South Korean fashion designer. She is famous for making clothes for women. Her designs often use bright colors and fun patterns. In 2020, she won the first season of the Netflix show Next In Fashion.

Minju Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea. When she was a teenager, she studied in New Zealand. She first wanted to go to art school. She dreamed of becoming a cartoonist. However, her parents encouraged her to study fashion design in Seoul.

She studied fashion design at the Samsung Art & Design Institute. Later, she earned a master's degree at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Minju Kim says that designers and teachers there helped her love fashion even more.

Minju Kim's Fashion Career

Minju Kim started her own fashion company in 2015. It is called MINJUKIM and is based in Seoul. She is known for how she starts her fashion shows. She often begins with a special print she designed herself. This print then appears throughout the rest of her collection.

For example, her 2018 Fall collection had prints based on a Japanese cartoon called Galaxy Express 999. Besides creating new collections every year, Minju Kim has also designed clothes for famous K-pop groups. She has worked with BTS and Red Velvet. She also teaches design classes at Kookmin University.

Winning Next In Fashion

In 2020, Minju Kim became the winner of Next In Fashion. This was a Netflix reality show and fashion design competition. She won against British designer Daniel Fletcher. During the show, she teamed up with Chinese designer Angel Chen. They called themselves 'Dragon Princess'.

As the winner, Minju Kim received US$250,000. This money helped her create a new collection. Her designs were then sold on the fashion website Net-a-Porter. Before this, Minju Kim had already won the 2013 H&M Design Award. She was also chosen as a top designer for the LVMH Prize in 2014.

Collaborations and New Collections

In 2021, Minju Kim worked with the brand & Other Stories. This brand is part of the H&M Group. Her special collection, called the Minjukim collection, was very popular. It sold out quickly around the world. In Korea, it sold out online in just one hour.

The & Other Stories collection was inspired by Minju Kim's Spring-Summer collection from 2016. That was her brand's second collection ever. The clothes mostly featured soft pastel colors and fun prints. There were also accessories like sunglasses and hair clips. These items also fit the spring theme.

In 2022, Minju Kim launched a new fall clothing line. She showed her designs on her Instagram and official website. Many famous people started following her on social media. This included Riverdale star Lili Reinhart.