By Ines Min
Staff Reporter
Renowned designer Choi Kyung-ja passed away Sunday at the age of 99.
Choi, a woman who helped build the fashion scene in Korea, graduated from Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, in 1936 and opened a Western-clothing specialty shop the following year in her hometown of Hamheung, now in North Korea.
Her moniker as the "godmother of Korean fashion" was earned after Choi established in 1938 the nation's first fashion education facility ― the Kookje Fashion Academy at the Hamheung Professional Dressmaking Institute. The passionate woman garnered the admiration and loyalties of such names as Andre Kim, An Yoon-jung and Park Youn-soo, and her disciples numbered in the 25,000s.
Choi later opened the first charm school for fashion models in 1964 and also published the first fashion monthly: Costume. Three years later, she was named the president of the Korean Women Entrepreneurs Association.
Though the inspiring designer was confined to a wheelchair for outings in her later life, as late as 2008, her passion for her life's work still drove her to attend the "70 Years of Korean Fashion, 70 Years of International Fashion Show," which was held in her honor.
Choi is survived by her sons, Shin Hyun-woo, chairman of the Kookje Fashion Academy, and Shin Hyun-chang, former chairman of the Kookje Institute for Fashion Industries, and her daughter, Shin Hei-soon, director of the Kookje Fashion Academy and the Korea Museum of Modern Costume. The funeral will be held at Yonsei University's Severance Hospital in Seoul, Wednesday at 11 a.m.